Some Democratic lawmakers in San Francisco say it’s time for the city to break up with PG&E.
Standing in front of San Francisco’s City Hall on Monday, Democratic Senator Scott Wiener and city supervisors unveiled a proposal to make it easier for cities to start a publicly owned utility. He argued San Franciscans need a better option, especially in light of steep rate hikes and blackouts customers experienced in December.
“Under PG&E’s monopoly, San Franciscans are paying more for worse service. We should get a choice to leave this broken relationship, and SB 875 is a critical step to get there,” said Wiener.
San Francisco leaders have long talked about parting ways with PG&E. But any municipality looking to create a separate, publicly-run utility provider needs to go through the California Public Utilities Commission. The CPUC regulates the use of eminent domain, the legal process in which the government can force the sale of private resources for public use.
San Francisco began working to leave PG&E in 2019 and the current valuation proceeding was filed with the California Public Utilities Commission in 2021. Despite current law establishing an 18-month timeline for the process, it’s extended to four and a half years.
Wiener’s legislation aims to chip away at the CPUC’s regulatory authority in brokering utility deals by establishing tighter timelines and making it easier for cities to justify the need for a public provider.
“This is about taking power into your own hands using the power of eminent domain,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. “PG&E has just unfortunately used its power to make the laws beneficial to PG&E and the public utility commission has run a lot of interference for them.”
Court added that a public utility provider would lead to lower rates and, at the same time, increase accountability for service disruptions.
“When we have PG&E’s rates being among the highest in the nation, there’s every reason for a municipality like San Francisco wanting to take over those assets and they should have a right to do that as long as they pay a fair price,” Court said.
Last year, the Legislative Analyst’s Office found PG&E’s rates were much higher than the national average. It had the second highest rates in California behind San Diego Gas and Electric.
PG&E argues San Francisco has undervalued the company’s electrical system.
“We understand the recent outages in San Francisco impacted our customers, and we remain committed and determined to deliver the safe, reliable, clean and affordable energy that San Franciscans want and deserve every day. Government takeovers of parts of our grid would not make customer energy bills less expensive,” PG&E said in a statement.
Other cities have tried breaking away from PG&E, including Rocklin, Manteca, and San Jose.
Sacramento is among the California cities with a public utility provider, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
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