San Francisco Weighs PG&E Takeover Amid Soaring Utility Costs
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Re: San Francisco Weighs PG&E Takeover Amid Soaring Utility Costs
#2rising costs or inept management.
Re: San Francisco Weighs PG&E Takeover Amid Soaring Utility Costs
#3CPUC exists. CAISO exists. The consumer experience is still bad. What this means is that there is not enough generation. This is not a matter of whether PG&E is "privately" or "publicly" owned, because nearly all large utilities are already a weird mixture of both. Public ownership might have different incentives, but not sufficiently different to allow rates to be lowered substantially (unless it were a case of overt and massive subsidies, which would require state legislation and possibly rewriting the charters of CPUC and CAISO). The only way to lower rates is to add cheaper generation; and the way to make generation cheapest, and to bring it on line quickest, is to locate it near demand.
Re: San Francisco Weighs PG&E Takeover Amid Soaring Utility Costs
#4CPUC exists. CAISO exists. The consumer experience is still bad. What this means is that there is not enough generation . This is not a matter of whether PG&E is "privately" or "publicly" owned, because nearly all large utilities are already a weird mixture of both. Public ownership might have different incentives, but not sufficiently different to allow rates to be lowered substantially (unless it were a case of ove…
Also, too: the primary reason to worry about inadequate generation is not cost, but reliability.
Re: San Francisco Weighs PG&E Takeover Amid Soaring Utility Costs
#5CPUC exists. CAISO exists. The consumer experience is still bad. What this means is that there is not enough generation . This is not a matter of whether PG&E is "privately" or "publicly" owned, because nearly all large utilities are already a weird mixture of both. Public ownership might have different incentives, but not sufficiently different to allow rates to be lowered substantially (unless it were a case of ove…
PGE charged me more for the same electric usage than SVP.
There is definitely greed on PGEs part.
Re: San Francisco Weighs PG&E Takeover Amid Soaring Utility Costs
#6CPUC exists. CAISO exists. The consumer experience is still bad. What this means is that there is not enough generation . This is not a matter of whether PG&E is "privately" or "publicly" owned, because nearly all large utilities are already a weird mixture of both. Public ownership might have different incentives, but not sufficiently different to allow rates to be lowered substantially (unless it were a case of ove…
Also, too: the primary reason to worry about inadequate generation is not cost, but reliability.
The problem in California is not generation nor is it reliability. CAISO has the lowest wholesale electricity costs in the nation, by far; under half the cost of Texas. It also hasn't had a blackout since 2020.
The problem is retail side. AKA PG&E, its regulation, governance and forced liabilities.
https://cleantechnica.com/2026/05/30/california-lowest-whole...
Re: San Francisco Weighs PG&E Takeover Amid Soaring Utility Costs
#7The angle of this that people may not realize is that San Francisco already owns the power generation (ie, the Hetch Hetchy dam). [1]
PG&E simply owns the wires, and overcharges for their use.
[1]: https://www.sfpuc.gov/about-us/our-systems/hetch-hetchy-powe...
Re: San Francisco Weighs PG&E Takeover Amid Soaring Utility Costs
#8CPUC exists. CAISO exists. The consumer experience is still bad. What this means is that there is not enough generation . This is not a matter of whether PG&E is "privately" or "publicly" owned, because nearly all large utilities are already a weird mixture of both. Public ownership might have different incentives, but not sufficiently different to allow rates to be lowered substantially (unless it were a case of ove…
As others have mentioned, Silicon Valley Power charges about half of PGE, and SF actually already has a power provider for businesses via Hetch Hetchy. It’s probably true that overall they might be a generation shortage but it doesn’t have to be true on a local scale. Plus PGE also needs to pay a lot of money for all the fires they started…which of course just goes back to the rate payers.
Re: San Francisco Weighs PG&E Takeover Amid Soaring Utility Costs
#9In 1968, Garrett Hardin wrote The Tragedy of the Commons [1]. This was used as the justification for mass privatization of many government bodies (including utilities) in the 1980s and 1990s. PG&E was always private but it suffers from the same issues as many other privatized utilities.
Utilities are a perfect example of a wealth transfer from the government to the wealthy, justified by "efficiency". Losses are socialized, profits are privatized, just like in any public-private "partnership". Utilities are worse because their profits are usually guaranteed.
This paper was proven to be empirically incorrect by Elinor Ostrom for which she won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics.
[1]: https://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles_pdf/tragedy_of...
Re: San Francisco Weighs PG&E Takeover Amid Soaring Utility Costs
#10CPUC exists. CAISO exists. The consumer experience is still bad. What this means is that there is not enough generation . This is not a matter of whether PG&E is "privately" or "publicly" owned, because nearly all large utilities are already a weird mixture of both. Public ownership might have different incentives, but not sufficiently different to allow rates to be lowered substantially (unless it were a case of ove…
My electricity bill is roughly 1/3rd 'CleanPowerSF Electric Generation Charges' vs 2/3rds 'Current PG&E Electric Delivery Charges'. The big problem is that PG&E covers most of rural California so its urban customers have to cover the high costs of compensation and prevention from delivering to fire prone rural areas.