Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Cali wildfire bailout results in electric rates 70% higher than national average
American Thinker ^ | July 21, 2019 | Chriss Street

Posted on 07/21/2019 2:06:30 PM PDT by upchuck

California’s proposed $26 billion bailout of bankrupt PG&E’s wildfire liability will push the state’s average residential electric rates to 70 percent higher than national average.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on July 18 that supposedly will share equally between Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) shareholders and its customer the estimated $21 billion liability for 2017 and 2018 wildfire losses. The deal is also contingent on PG&E and the state’s other two investor-owned utilities, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas, contribute another $5 billion to cover losses.

According to the latest U.S. Energy Information Agency report, California’s residential electric rates currently average 18.05 cents per kilowatt hour (kwh) versus a national average for the other states of 13.16 cents / kwh. Despite already being 37 percent higher than the national average, the bailout will push rates up to about 22.22 cents / kwh, or almost 70 percent higher than the national average.

PG&E is the seventh largest U.S. electric utility. The company has 106,681 circuit miles of electric distribution lines, 18,466 circuit miles of interconnected transmission lines, and 24,000 employees to service 5.4 million customer accounts for 16 million residents.

The State of California has implemented a series of disastrous policies since the 1990s to slash utility profit margins, demand conversion to much more expensive sustainable electricity generation, and shriveled spending money on forest management.

The California Public Utilities Commission slashed investor-owned utilities’ return on shareholder equity from 13 percent in 1990 to about 9.45 percent since 2016. The very low return on equity clearly encouraged PG&E to cut back on maintenance spending.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; electricity; energy; gavinnewsom; pge; wildfire
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-94 last
To: House Atreides

It’s not just propaganda, man.

I’ve been on a contract recently where we’ve been looking for IT personnel. We’re not hiring H1Bs or imports, but we’re having a very hard time finding reliable skilled personnel for our client’s project even though we’re paying more than our market average. We have had 1200 applicants for a recent position and having gone through 700 of them have yet to find someone who can fit the bill - i.e., actually has the proper skills instead of lying about them, who actually shows up or logs in on time, doesn’t leave early, doesn’t have an awful sense of entitlement, etc. We’ve gone through 12 probationary employees so far and had to term all of them before their probation was up.

Not my first time in this situation recently either. Recent grads are the worst I’ve seen in 25 years in the business.


81 posted on 07/21/2019 7:33:32 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: SecondAmendment

Please see my post 81 above. While I do agree that there is more than a little propaganda out there about it, recent recruiting experience tells me that there is at least some basis in fact out there.


82 posted on 07/21/2019 7:34:39 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: Okeydoker

You’re leaving off one or two zeros (before the decimal point). Or you live in a tent.


83 posted on 07/21/2019 7:40:48 PM PDT by steve86 (Prophecies of Maelmhaedhoc O'Morgair (Latin form: Malachy))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

Well,
I plan to setup
Residence in Arizona.
Cochise County is in
South East corner.
Do a little exploring
and keep busy away
From the maddening
Crowds.


84 posted on 07/21/2019 7:50:10 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (Despised by the Despicable!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: steve86

Unfortunately i dont know how to send a copy of the bill page. It doesnt allow copy and paste


85 posted on 07/21/2019 7:55:09 PM PDT by Okeydoker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

So.... can people sue PSE&G for causing wildfires that increased the rates, to recover the additional cost of electricity?


86 posted on 07/21/2019 8:01:04 PM PDT by Born to Conserve
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jeff Chandler

I don’t know how the lower income or elderly fixed income folks can keep up.
........................................................
Many homes in California use natural gas for cooking, heating, and hot water. Also, the weather is quite mild throughout much of the state. I grew up in La Mirada — on the edge of Orange County — and there were only two or three weeks in the year when we used air conditioning.
***************************************************
Where I live electrical costs are not anywhere near as high as California’s. We switched to natural gas soon after they laid in the necessary pipe infrastructure because natural gas was comparatively cheap. In addition to the uses you mentioned we also use natural gas for our clothes dryer which yields a significant savings compare to the usage costs of an electric dryer.


87 posted on 07/21/2019 8:05:14 PM PDT by House Atreides (Boycott the NFL 100% — PERMANENTLY)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Spktyr
It’s not just propaganda, man.

It's because our universities and the teachers they produce have been intentionally sabotaged for more than a century, largely through the machinations of globalist foundations.

Dodd Report to the Reese Committee on Foundations, 1954. Look it up.

88 posted on 07/22/2019 12:10:16 AM PDT by JustaTech (A mind is a terrible thing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

California is a mentally deficient state on drugs, hallucinating and can’t understand why.


89 posted on 07/22/2019 2:24:47 AM PDT by opbuzz (Right way, wrong way, Marine way)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JustaTech

I don’t disagree with that - but as mentioned, that’s not a problem we can solve right this second. I suggest we get started on it, but for right now, we bluntly need people to fill those roles if we want to maintain/re-establish supremacy in many fields and fill other needs.

One way to fix the H1B type systems (and again, the contract I am working is one that will not and cannot hire anyone but American citizens, so this won’t benefit me at all) would be to allow companies to import temporary workers with some additional vetting... but if you need them so badly, you should have no problem paying them at least three times (this could be adjusted higher) the going pay for a position.

This would completely kill the idea of using the system to bring in cheap workers to replace Americans - but if a company really desperately needed someone’s expertise and literally could not find talent domestically, they could. There could also be a tax added on top of that, which would generate revenue for the government.


90 posted on 07/22/2019 3:15:48 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Kind of like laws that say you have to shovel the sidewalk in front of your house. Don’t do it and you get fined but nobody can sue you for injuring themselves from what “God wrought”....Shovel it and you can get sued if someone slips and hurts themselves because you “modified the natural state”...


91 posted on 07/22/2019 3:16:46 AM PDT by trebb (Don't howl about illegal leeches, or Trump in general, while not donating to FR - it's hypocritical.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Spktyr
I just read it, and I do agree that the public primary education system in U.S. has gone from teaching marketable skills to leftist indoctrination in less than two generations.

With that being said, I am curious about the type of IT skills you are looking for, my best guess from what you are describing is for frontend/JS development.

92 posted on 07/22/2019 10:17:43 AM PDT by SecondAmendment (This just proves my latest theory ... LEFTISTS RUIN EVERYTHING!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: SecondAmendment

Pretty close. I am prevented from being more specific by an NDA, but it is frontend work and involves AWS *and* Azure integration.


93 posted on 07/22/2019 11:43:29 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: Secret Agent Man

No argument here. That’s why I left in 78.


94 posted on 07/23/2019 8:26:12 AM PDT by DownInFlames (Galsd)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-94 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson