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To: CatOwner

I never knew PG&E was responsible for regulating forest management or house zoning in wooden areas within the state.
= = =

If you were as rich as PG&E, you would be responsible for all that.


37 posted on 12/30/2018 8:22:01 PM PST by Scrambler Bob (You know that I am full of /S)
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To: Scrambler Bob
If you were as rich as PG&E, you would be responsible for all that.

I worked for PG&E for about 35 years. I remember when the State of California and its CPUC bankrupted PG&E. Democrat Grey Davis was Governor, and decided that a whole contract department in PG&E were too ignorant to negotiate natural gas prices with their sources. They also decided to deregulate the supply side of electric sources, and that PG&E shouldn't own their own natural gas fired power plants. At the same time, they failed to deregulate the delivery side, so PG&E couldn't pass along their actual costs to the consumers. The CPUC caps how much PG&E can earn in any rate case, but doesn't guarantee that they can achieve that rate of return.

Guess what. PG&E was forced to sell off all its fossil fuel generation plants, and then those owners could charge PG&E whatever they wanted for the energy. Funny thing though, California's environmental regulations made fossil fuel plants so expensive to operate that the new owners couldn't afford to keep up. Several of the plants were decommissioned, and the remaining few now belong to PG&E again. There isn't any new construction, because the permit process and regulatory issues are inhospitable, and the NIMBYs in Silicon Valley don't want any power generation close to the big electrical load.

PG&E gets a significant part of its energy from good, clean, capitalized hydroelectric plants in Northern California, but environmentalists want to eliminate the necessary dams to protect the seasonal migration of spawning salmon.

One of PG&Es most reliable plants has been the Diablo Canyon nuclear units near San Louis Obisbo. The environmentalists and anti-nuke groups almost succeeded in keeping it from ever going online, but now they have managed to bully PG&E to retire these plants well before their designed life.

On the gas side, PG&E's expert buyers were replaced by Grey Davis, day-trading against experts.

Too bad PG&E headquarters is at 77 Beale Street in downtown sanctuary city, San Francisco, and subject to all the additional stupid regulations that go with that location.

44 posted on 12/30/2018 10:30:59 PM PST by RhoTheta (“I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.” Edith Sitwell)
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