{"id":105806,"date":"2025-12-23T03:42:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T03:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/105806\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T03:42:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T03:42:27","slug":"pge-and-sf-divorce-lawmakers-are-getting-papers-ready-after-blackout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/105806\/","title":{"rendered":"PG&E and SF divorce? Lawmakers are getting papers ready after blackout"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weekend power outage that paralyzed large parts of San Francisco<\/a> has reenergized a decades-long fight between the city and Pacific Gas & Electric, with lawmakers saying they are fed up with the investor-owned utility giant.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Scott Wiener said in a social media post (opens in new tab)<\/a> Monday that he will introduce legislation next year for San Francisco and other cities to break up with PG&E and form publicly owned utilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPG&E is too large, and it\u2019s not adequately maintaining its infrastructure,\u201d Wiener, who is running for Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi\u2019s congressional seat in 2026<\/a>, said in a video on Threads. \u201cIt\u2019s putting the interest of shareholders above the public interest. It\u2019s time for San Francisco to break away.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, a fire at a SoMa substation left 130,000 homes and businesses without power during one of the busiest shopping days before Christmas. On Monday, Mayor Daniel Lurie reported (opens in new tab)<\/a> that approximately 5,000 customers remained without power. A similar fire and outage happened at the very same substation in 2003, resulting in $6.5 million in fines (opens in new tab)<\/a> for PG&E.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The utility has provided few details on what went wrong.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Matt Dorsey said in an interview that he supports a public takeover of the grid, arguing that the city would be more accountable to residents than investor-owned PG&E. He proposed that the city use bonds to acquire the infrastructure, a move he\u2019s hopeful could be successful in a few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a utility that, frankly, we should have had more than a century ago,\u201d Dorsey said. \u201cI think in the next several years, this is going to move forward. And I think San Francisco will be better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials at City Hall and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission have led exploratory efforts to take over the city\u2019s share of the PG&E grid since the company filed for bankruptcy in 2019. Former Mayor London Breed and former City Attorney Dennis Herrera offered to buy (opens in new tab)<\/a> PG&E for $2.5 billion and made another proposal in 2020, post-bankruptcy. The utility declined both offers. The city reiterated its interest in a letter to PG&E (opens in new tab)<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cPG&E has a long track record of putting profits over the public good and has used every delay tactic in the book to stop San Francisco from expanding public power,\u201d said Jen Kwart, spokesperson for the city attorney\u2019s office. \u201cBut we were encouraged that the [California Public Utilities Commission] recently set ground rules that allow San Francisco to move forward with an independent assessment of the PG&E grid\u2019s fair-market value.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Determining that value would be a key step in pursuing eminent domain of utility infrastructure, if other legislative or buyout efforts fail.<\/p>\n

Wiener introduced legislation in 2020 (opens in new tab)<\/a> that would have seen the state acquire PG&E and turn it into a public, nonprofit utility. That bill did not receive a hearing, he said, blaming the company\u2019s powerful political ties to Sacramento. The 2026 legislation he previewed on social media would allow for cities to more easily break up with PG&E and create their own, smaller public utilities.<\/p>\n

A California Public Utilities Commission reliability report from 2024 (opens in new tab)<\/a> showed more outages and longer restoration times in San Francisco over the last decade. PG&E said it has invested $3 billion in the city\u2019s grid infrastructure over the last 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPG&E has had the privilege and honor of serving the residents of San Francisco for more than 100 years, and we remain committed to serving San Franciscans for years to come,\u201d a representative for the utility said in a statement, adding that any hold up in a public utility creation process is the responsibility of the city, not the utility. <\/p>\n

San Francisco\u2019s \u201congoing failure to specifically identify the PG&E assets it wants to take and explain its grid separation plan has delayed both the CPUC\u2019s valuation proceeding, and parallel proceedings under the California Environmental Quality Act,\u201d the representative said.<\/p>\n

SFPUC did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

While three-quarters of the city\u2019s power is generated by the Hetch Hetchy hydroelectric power system in the Sierra Nevada and purchased through the community choice aggregator CleanPowerSF, it\u2019s delivered by PG&E. The company owns and operates the distribution system that spans the city \u2014\u00a0the substations, poles, and power lines \u2014 parts of which have been in place since the late 1870s.<\/p>\n

The city has tried to assume control of PG&E\u2019s infrastructure for decades. Complaints about the utility are numerous, with lawmakers and residents arguing that its rates are too high and that its investors are prioritized over customers. Additional concerns have been raised about how the company has delayed development projects (opens in new tab)<\/a>. In recent years, PG&E has been consumed with expensive infrastructure investments meant to harden the grid in areas of high wildfire risk\u00a0well outside the city of San Francisco. But all ratepayers have been hit with high bills for those upgrades.<\/p>\n

Angela Alioto, a member of the Board of Supervisors from 1989 to 1997, championed a failed push to take over the grid from PG&E during her time in office. She\u2019s not hopeful that a present-day effort would be successful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should be the cherry on top of the hot-fudge sundae. This should be the tipping point. This should be \u2018enough is enough,\u2019\u201d Alioto said. \u201cBut PG&E is one of the most powerful corporations \u2026 in California. There\u2019s certain elected officials that will not go against them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Richard Hirsh, a professor of history at Virginia Tech and an expert on utility systems, said the battle between San Francisco and PG&E is similar to what\u2019s happening in other U.S. cities. Groups in San Diego; Portland, Maine; and Ann Arbor, Michigan, are on campaigns (opens in new tab)<\/a> to take over from their own private utility companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always been tension between private ownership and public ownership of power in this country,\u201d Hirsh said. Privately owned utilities, he added, often make the argument that cities don\u2019t have the skills to run a highly complex electrical grid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are more than 40 publicly owned utilities in California. In the Bay Area, Silicon Valley Power and Alameda Municipal Power provide public electricity at cheaper rates than PG&E. In 1946, Sacramento formed its Municipal Utility District after years of battles with PG&E. However, investor-owned utilities still dominate: Approximately 75% of electricity customers in California and 72% nationwide are served by private firms, according to the California Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office and the U.S. Energy Information Administration.<\/p>\n

Hirsh said publicly owned utilities can mean lower prices, but it\u2019s not a given. In the case of San Francisco, purchasing PG&E\u2019s equipment would be \u201can extremely expensive endeavor\u201d that could require raising taxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn theory, municipal utilities can provide services at lower cost because of lower financing and because they don\u2019t have to pay dividends,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that argument has been made for decades. And we don\u2019t see municipal utilities have taken over for that reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story has been updated to include comment from PG&E.<\/p>\n