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

Skip to comments.

Gov. Newsom calls for Warren Buffett to buy PG&E as widespread power shutoffs continue
Sacromento Bee ^ | 10/27/19 | Hana Wiley and Dale Kasler

Posted on 10/28/2019 7:05:23 AM PDT by outpostinmass2

Calls to transition the troubled Pacific Gas and Electric Co. into a public utility intensified Sunday, as nearly 1 million customers lost power throughout California and the Kincade Fire blazed through Sonoma County.

A day earlier, Gov. Gavin Newsom told Bloomberg he would encourage Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to make a bid for PG&E. “We would love to see that interest materialize, in a more proactive, public effort,” he said Saturday. Berkshire Hathaway’s energy subsidiary is heavily invested in the utility business, in California and elsewhere. It owns multiple solar farms, including a 550-megawatt facility in San Luis Obispo County that is among the world’s largest.

PG&E’s stock price plunged by nearly one third Friday, to $5 a share, after the utility told regulators that a transmission line malfunctioned near where the fire started in Geyserville late Wednesday.

Jared Ellias, a bankruptcy law expert at the UC Hastings College of Law, said the Kincade Fire might scare off either of the two big groups wrestling for control of PG&E.

“Whether it’s turning the power off, or not turning the power off, PG&E can’t do anything right,” he said. “That’s a much riskier investment than any of these guys thought.”

He added Newsom’s hope that Berkshire Hathaway steps in could be wishful thinking.

“It feels a bit like longing for a savior when there isn’t an obvious solution or a cheap solution ... there isn’t a white knight,” Ellias said.

He said it’s crazy to think Berkshire has “hundreds of billions of dollars to invest in safety without raising rates or taxes.”

“The bankruptcy court can’t fix these problems and Warren Buffett can’t fix them either,” he said.

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; gavinnewsom; pacificgaselectric; pgande; pge; warrenbuffett
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last
To: C210N

Read this:

https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1412/ML14128A113.pdf

It pretty much lays out the issues you are seeing today.


21 posted on 10/28/2019 7:23:21 AM PDT by outpostinmass2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: outpostinmass2

Socialists scrambling for a capitalist’s life raft as their state sinks.


22 posted on 10/28/2019 7:25:24 AM PDT by txrefugee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: outpostinmass2
Hey Gav!

Buffett is not as stupid as you!

23 posted on 10/28/2019 7:26:31 AM PDT by G Larry (There is no great virtue in bargaining with the Devil)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: VanShuyten

“Newsroom is nervous because all the PG&E stock that CALPERS owns is quickly approaching zero dollars.”

About 0.01% of their portfolio.


24 posted on 10/28/2019 7:27:25 AM PDT by TexasGator (Z1z)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Huskrrrr

Buffet shoudl never have been allowed to buy Iowa Power and Iowa Public Service.
IOUs (investor owned utilities) had chartered territories, government subsidies, state-approved rate hikes, etc.
Warren scooped up companies that our public policies supported.


25 posted on 10/28/2019 7:29:14 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: C210N

> The thought crossed my mind earlier this morning, seeing it at $3 and change. Then, I said... “nope”. <

PG&E stock will probably go the way of the old GM stock (become worthless). However, once PG&E becomes a penny stock I might buy a thousand shares just for the heck of it.


26 posted on 10/28/2019 7:29:44 AM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: outpostinmass2

PG&E’s revenge.

The age of hysteria helps too.


27 posted on 10/28/2019 7:33:32 AM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: VanShuyten

CALPERS is just waiting for the next demonrat President to come along and bail it out.


28 posted on 10/28/2019 7:34:46 AM PDT by rhinohunter (I am Cristeros)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Spktyr

“You may want to check out what he’s buying these days. “

His investors are very unhappy due to his poor performance the last few years.


29 posted on 10/28/2019 7:36:11 AM PDT by TexasGator (Z1z)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Leaning Right

Gates would be perfect—so much fun separating fools from their money!


30 posted on 10/28/2019 7:37:15 AM PDT by cgbg (Vote Trump or you will _be_ Trump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Hojczyk

California has failed to be good stewards of the land. They were led astray by Green Weenies who know nothing about the environment. The need to thin the trees, but the stopped the loggers. They need to eliminate the overgrowth of grasses and weeds, but the stopped ranchers from grazing rights. They are paying the price for their stupidity now with burning houses and a landscape that will take decades to recover.


31 posted on 10/28/2019 7:37:46 AM PDT by McGavin999
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: VanShuyten

The ongoing baby boomer retirement tsunami is going to create big time negative cash flow for Calpers—and then all the phony accounting in the world won’t be able to save it.


32 posted on 10/28/2019 7:39:48 AM PDT by cgbg (Vote Trump or you will _be_ Trump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: outpostinmass2

Last week Newsom was calling for an investigation into the high gas prices since people were paying over $4.00 a gallon and now he’s all but begging Warren Buffet to buy PG&E. To me this is an admission from another Soyboy leftist that he’s starting to feel a little political heat. California will be solid blue for years to come, but it ought to be the economic powerhouse of America instead of the Third World s**thole the left is turning it into. I tell my leftist cousins who live and work in and around the Bay Area, and are starting to complain about the homeless fouling up their city, that this is all gonna end up on their doorstep because of the people they continue to vote for- the RATS!


33 posted on 10/28/2019 7:40:56 AM PDT by dowcaet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldexpat
The state and rate payers are the only two possible source of funds.

Until the next demonrat President comes along. At that point the federal teat will become available.

34 posted on 10/28/2019 7:44:22 AM PDT by rhinohunter (I am Cristeros)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: dowcaet

California has a special kind of nutcase voter base at the moment. As bad as Massachusetts is we don’t have these kind of problems at this scale. I’m not saying it can’t happen in Massachusetts but so far it hasn’t. And when the Democrats over-step their bounds in Massachusetts the voter will revolt at the ballot box.


35 posted on 10/28/2019 7:46:51 AM PDT by outpostinmass2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: outpostinmass2

Cut down all the trees and forest and develop the s—t out of CA.
CA has tons of land just sitting there.


36 posted on 10/28/2019 7:48:33 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vigilanteman

“....Good luck with that one, Newsance. Buffett may be a Democrat. But he’s no fool....”
Exactly. Buffett is one shrewd, experienced investor. Even a neophyte investor wouldn’t touch this one with a dog’s peeper.


37 posted on 10/28/2019 7:49:00 AM PDT by lgjhn23 (It's easy to be liberal when you're dumber than a box of rocks.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Erik Latranyi

Let California nationalize PG&E and see how well they do running it.


38 posted on 10/28/2019 7:50:13 AM PDT by dynoman (Objectivity is the essence of intelligence. - Marilyn vos Savant)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Erik Latranyi

socialists taking over power sources....

In Michigan the big electric company DTE has had incredibly cloying ads day and night that the president of the company is really committed to ending climate change, and is dismantling and replacing everything to be non polluting. Wind farms, etc.

He does the ads himself: “The cost of all this would be too great a shock to our customers’ pocketbooks, so we are adding increases gradually to your monthly bills as we change to climate friendly power in Michigan.” All said in a voice that would make Pee Wee Herman punch him.


39 posted on 10/28/2019 7:51:22 AM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote fraud & harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: outpostinmass2

I always thought that when they cut off water to the central valley it was a way put farmers out of business so their (the democrats) friends could come in and buy the land cheap. At which time the water would be turned back on.

Over regulate an industry, sue them into bankruptcy and then some super liberal buys it up for pennies on the dollar. Like a hostile takeover, PG&Es assets will be plundered and then left to deteriorate.

Californians will be left with the burned out mess sitting in the dark but illegals will be getting free medical and free college and free food isn’t Democrat socialism great?


40 posted on 10/28/2019 7:51:43 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN (I am not an expert in anything, and my opinion is just that, an opinion. I may be wrong.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next 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