SACRAMENTO, California — As power bills continue to balloon for the 16 million people who live in PG&E’s monopoly territory, investigators and experts are casting doubt the utility can deliver the safer power its customers are paying for.
Californians who get power from PG&E, America’s largest for-profit power utility, already pay some of the highest rates in the nation.
Even so, the company is warning customers to be ready for more rate increases this year, asking regulators for upwards of 20% more in the name of preventing PG&E from sparking more wildfires.
For the tens of thousands of PG&E customers who’ve already had their homes destroyed in wildfires started by the utility, the power bills are more than a monthly burden: They’re insufferable.
"I don't want to f—ing pay it,” said Eula Yetter, a survivor of the 2015 Butte Fire. “But I have to or they'll turn it off.”
Yetter splits a PG&E bill each month with her daughter, Renee Ray, in Calaveras County.
The electricity powers their side-by-side camping trailers. It's how the mother-daughter duo have survived most of the last eight years ever since their home burned in the Butte Fire, started by a PG&E power line in 2015.
The pair haven’t seen all of their settlement money from PG&E. They very likely won’t get all of that money, thanks to PG&E’s bankruptcy protection.
Even so, they’ve sent thousands to PG&E since the fire to pay their monthly bills.
"It's all about greed. It's all about money. They don't care,” said Ray.
On top of the pain of paying more, there’s another reason PG&E’s captive customer base should be concerned.
A chorus of investigators, regulators and utility experts shared with us their reasons to doubt PG&E is going to deliver the safer grid it’s making customers pay – again – to create.
“They've been diverting money for years away from safety… in order to maximize their payouts to their investors. And as a result, we have a failing system,” said Butte County prosecutor Marc Noel. “Now they're coming back and they're saying, ‘we need more money to take care of all of these problems that we created, that we didn't cure with the money that you gave us before.’”
Noel was the lead prosecutor who convicted PG&E of 84 felony counts of manslaughter and felony reckless arson for starting the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise and surrounding communities.
He’s been a vocal critic of PG&E’s government regulators, particularly the California Public Utilities Commission, which he says acted in ways that obstructed the criminal investigation he led.
Moreover, he says, the regulator didn’t police PG&E effectively. He found the PUC had a habit of judging PG&E by whether the company was following its own policies, but not probing whether PG&E’s policies actually made the grid safer.
That’s why he was thrilled when earlier this year a two-year-old state agency called the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety ripped into PG&E’s latest proposal for wildfire prevention.
“We are extremely happy at this point with [Energy Safety],” said Noel. “They're taking PG&E to task.”
Energy Safety found PG&E is “skewing” its priorities and leaving fire danger “unaddressed in the highest risk areas.” The agency repeatedly slammed PG&E’s latest fire safety plans as “regressive.”
“PG&E can't regress,” said Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey. “When PG&E regresses, towns die, people die.”
Hazard trees hit PG&E lines and started the Zogg Fire, killing four people. A fallen tree also started the Dixie Fire, which burned almost a million acres.
But Energy Safety found PG&E is ditching digital tree inspections and going back to paper inspection forms. It’s the kind of thing prompting Noel’s ire.
“What faith should we have that you are changing,” he asked. “When you're doing crap like this?”
In a written statement, PG&E spokesperson Lynsey Paulo told ABC10 “our energy system has never been safer, and we continue to make it safer every day.”
PG&E PUSHES AN EXPENSIVE SOLUTION
PG&E’s current CEO Patti Poppe declined to answer our questions, just as she has every time we’ve asked since she took the job in Jan. 2021.
But she is talking to the masses through an expensive ad blitz, promoting PG&E’s plans to bury 10,000 miles of power lines underground.
“It’s clear that it will be less expensive and safer to underground lines in high fire threat areas,” says Poppe in one commercial. “Undergrounding power lines in the highest fire threat areas makes us safer and it’s less expensive in the long run.”
“All those commercials that you and I are paying for," said former California PUC president Loretta Lynch. “PG&E is using our money to basically brainwash us into thinking undergrounding is the only way because undergrounding is the most expensive way, and undergrounding is the most profitable way.”
Lynch says undergrounding makes sense in select places, but argues PG&E is trying to do as much of it as possible instead of pursuing less expensive safety work because the company is guaranteed to make profit on the money it spends.
She likened PG&E’s behavior to ripping out drywall and replacing your light fixture, rather than simply replacing a burned out light bulb.
“This is financially motivated, not safety motivated,” said Lynch. “The PUC and [Newsom] administration needs to just say no and put a stop to it. We can't afford it. We can't afford it because our electric bills are too high, but we can't afford it because it's still unsafe. PG&E’s system is unsafe. Don't take it from me. The [Energy Safety office] says so. Critical deficiencies: dozens of them.”
A ‘GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD’ AT STAKE
The safety work isn’t the only expense at stake for PG&E customers. The decisions about PG&E’s fire plan could affect who pays for billions of dollars in potential future damages if PG&E starts another major wildfire.
Under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 PG&E bailout law, which an ABC10 investigation revealed was drafted by PG&E’s longtime law firm, the state has annually certified PG&E as a “safe” utility.
The certificate under the AB 1054 law has tangible value for PG&E and its shareholders.
“Their equipment causes a wildfire, the customer pays,” explained Lynch.
“That's Governor Newsom's Get Out of Jail Free card for 'em,” said Noel. “That's put in there to assure [PG&E’s] survival.”
The Kincade Fire in 2019.
The Zogg Fire in 2020.
The Dixie Fire in 2021.
Under investigation for the Mosquito Fire in 2022.
Under AB 1054, the five governor-appointed commissioners on the PUC routinely approve PG&E’s plans despite these disasters, allowing it to get a new safety certificate.
This time, PG&E wants three-year approval of its fire plan.
“If the PUC rubber stamps this critically deficient plan, they get a Get Out of Jail Free card to any future wildfire liability for three for three years.”
ALL EYES ON NEWSOM’S APPOINTEES
Lynch says she’s lost all faith in her former agency to do the right thing; it’s been captured by the utilities.
The best thing customers can do is to complain loudly to the governor and their state lawmakers, she adds.
Newsom’s office did not respond to our request for an interview for this story. He appointed all five PUC commissioners.
Butte County prosecutors have a direct message for them:
“I would tell CPUC commissioners the same thing we keep telling PG&E people,” said Noel. “What's more important: PG&E's bottom line or your freedom? Because if it falls apart, we will be coming after you.”
None of the commissioners agreed to an interview for this story. Lynch says they should think twice before writing off the threat of prosecution.
“They're aiding and abetting this criminal. That's the problem,” said Lynch.
Back in their trailers, Ray and Yetter swelter in the summer and freeze in the winter, despite the hundreds of dollars they pay PG&E for electricity to run air conditioners and heaters.
They would love to see authorities force PG&E to do better, but say they’d love it even more if PG&E’s leaders took it upon themselves.
“Fix their equipment and pay people their money,” said Ray. “And stop being so f—ing greedy.”
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