Behemoth utilities provider Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has announced they may pass on the cost of the San Bruno pipeline disaster and the upgrade of their natural gas pipeline distribution system to rate payers.
This is WRONG, and it is yet another example of why utilities should be provided by municipalities, not by publicly-held corporations. Preliminary investigations have shown that their pipeline system was not only poorly-maintained, but that some records of the system don't exist or have been difficult to locate.
So far, PG&E has spent $63 million in response to the explosion, which killed eight people. The company has also set aside $220 million in 2010 to pay for lawsuits related to the fire, and has said it may set aside another $180 million this year. The utility made $1.1 billion in 2010, and if the fire hadn't happened, that number would have been $1.33 billion in 2010.
Oh well, that's the cost of doing business.
I've said this before and I'll say it again, you can't privatize your profits and and when things go south, socialize your losses.
Here in Sacto, we have a municipal electricity utility (SMUD) but gas comes from PG&E. Last election, PG&E paid millions in a campaign to try to pass a proposition that would have blocked cities/regions from starting their own utilities (Davis, in particular last year). Thankfully, the other side was successful in exposing PG&E as the originator of this proposition and it lost.
ReplyDeleteyeah, they spent millions on a campaign against marin taking over the utilities there and lost BIG.
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