#pg&e

[theinternetarchive]

pg&e workers photographed by merton doss, 1997.

[yuzukimist]

I feel like more people should be talking about utility companies implementing repeated and exorbitant price hikes for the sake of increasing shareholder profits

[nando161mando]

Victory for Utility Justice in Berkeley! Berkeley joins Richmond and San Francisco in calling on California to move beyond investor-owned utilities (IOUs) like PG&E to a new, not-for-profit utility in order to create a safe, reliable, affordable, resilient and just energy future.

[californian-odyssey]

Before and after the power went out lol! Idk what it is but California has been having a lot of blackouts lately. But luckily it was only 3 hours. Had lanterns, candles, portable chargers, and several guns to make it though the night if I had to 😆

[starryoak]

If these PG&E ads apologizing for the LA fires don’t stop soon I’m gonna fucking murder someone. No matter how obvious it is the “real customers” don’t believe you about fixing shit, it doesn’t endear me to your company. I have seen on average at least one ad from PG&E every third ad break and I am this close to snapping.

[autolabrum]

Watched Erin Brockovich

Maybe corny, but I think that sense just comes from how directly representational true-story dramas like this are starting to come out of fashion. As that kind of movie though, this is perfect. Soderbergh has a fantastic sense of pacing, Roberts and Finney (and Helgenberger, who stood out to me) perform entrancingly, the highs and lows feel real even in the family stuff (which is not nearly as interestingly elaborated as the rest of the movie). Scratches about a dozen itches just right.

[rjzimmerman]

PG&E Secures $15 Billion Loan From U.S. Energy Department. (New York Times)

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

The Energy Department plans to offer a record $15 billion loan guarantee to Pacific Gas & Electric, California’s largest utility, to improve its electrical grid and fund climate resiliency projects, the department said on Tuesday.

The loan guarantee is the biggest commitment to date from the department’s Loan Programs Office, which has doled out tens of billions of dollars in loans and guarantees under the Biden administration to fund energy and electric vehicle projects. The conditional commitment, which still has to be made final, will help PG&E invest in hydroelectric power generation, batteries and power lines.

PG&E, one of the largest utilities in the country, serving roughly 16 million people in Northern and Central California, is grappling with a surge of demand for electricity spurred by the shift to electric vehicles, the expansion of data centers and efforts to phase out fossil fuels. The company is also under pressure to prevent its equipment from setting off devastating fires.

“These infrastructure investments will help PG&E meet forecasted load growth, increase electric reliability and reduce costs for its consumers across California,” the Energy Department said in a statement.

State regulators have also put pressure on PG&E to limit rate increases for California residents, though officials have approved multiple rate increases this year.

This month, the Public Advocates Office, which represents consumers in utility rate cases before the California Public Utilities Commission, issued a report citing PG&E’s rate increases as the highest among the state’s investor-owned utilities.

The report said the utility’s rates increased 56 percent over a three-year period through October and 118 percent over the past 10 years. By comparison, Southern California Edison’s rates increased 48 percent during the three-year period and 86 percent over 10 years, and San Diego Gas and Electric’s rate rose 21 percent and 83 percent.

A variety of factors have driven PG&E’s rising prices. On top of swelling electricity demand, PG&E and the other utilities are facing the effects of climate change through extreme weather conditions — most notably, destructive wildfires that have wreaked havoc across California.

PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019, after a series of wildfires caused by the company’s equipment left it with billions of dollars in liability. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2020.

[royaltea000]

can you tell that I’m artblocked

[underwhelmingalchemist]

This isn't even getting into the rolling blackouts and price gouging.

As for the rolling blackouts: It'll be 100+°F outside, sometimes getting into the 110's, and that means a lot of AC running in a lot of houses. This puts a lot of strain on the power grid. This happens literally every year without fail.

So their solution? Rather than actually prepare for and urgently upgrade to accommodate the massive heat wave that happens LITERALLY EVERY YEAR, they just... turn people's power off. It'll be 113°F out, and your power will just go out, robbing you and the entire area around you of any form of heat relief. Unless you leave the area entirely or find a place that has working backup generators that they're using to power their AC, you're fucked.

Of course, this is dangerous for reasons related to heat illness, but this is also dangerous for anyone who relies on electricity for medical reasons. Whether it's someone with at-home devices that keep them alive or someone who's extremely sensitive to heat, disabled people get severely fucked over by these blackouts.

And then there's the price gouging. Access to electricity is absolutely a basic human necessity, ESPECIALLY when that electricity is the only barrier between you and temperatures that are 100+°F. And PG&E takes that basic human necessity and makes it cost hundreds of dollars a month. Price hikes are fairly common as well. A quick glance at Reddit will show you people who live in fairly average sized houses talking about receiving bills for $500+ for one month's worth of power. My family lives in a four bedroom house, and we've received bills upwards of $600. Luckily, we're in a place financially where we can weather something like that (not easily, but we can), but many people aren't.

And of course, this is all completely unchecked because apparently, if you charge $15 for a bottle of water during a natural disaster, that's price gouging, but if a power company charges $500+ for a month of AC during temperatures that stand a very good chance of incapacitating or killing you if you're exposed to them for too long, that's absolutely fine.

I also feel like I need to emphasize that PG&E is a monopoly. If you live in California, you're getting your power from PG&E, full stop. Literally everyone in California despises PG&E, a company that's literally razed a good chunk of the state, but we still have to give them hundreds of dollars every month.

Anyways, fuck PG&E

it was weird living outside california for the first time and learning that in most locations people DON'T have personal beef with their electrical utility??? massachusetts was like "eversource: it's fine? i don't really think about it." meanwhile i'm pretty sure everyone in california loathes pg&e passionately

[3-aem]

wonderful tiny interactions.

The guy at the post office couldn’t care less about proof of residence he was openly shouting ‘mam do you have anything to prove you live at this address’, before whispering ‘i don’t actually care’

and as i was scrolling trying to find an energy bill he just looked over my phone went: OKAY GREAT and handed me my package with a quiet don’t tell my boss

[dickensianenglishbulldog]

I have found that as a book’s style seeps into my vocabulary I stop being able to identify it and end up just saying ‘ooh jar cum spiff’; ‘lud, Man!’, ‘rem accu tetigisti’; ‘buggerit, millennium hand and shrimp’ and ‘righto chief!’ strait faced and without noticing. My friends think I’ve cracked, and honesty perhaps I have.

[stupidlittlespirit]

a true Yorkshire Tea lover doesn't hate on tetley. unfollowed /j

[checkeredflagsandshit]

[wintertundra-art]

quando non hai reference di mani adatte e devi usare le tue:

[nosleep83]

LET THEM SWEAR‼️‼️‼️‼️🗣🗣🗣🗣🔈🔈🔈

[kidsnextdoor-doodles]

British yuri