With multiple criminal convictions for disasters that killed people, destroyed property and devastated communities, you might think that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. would finally be held accountable by California’s leaders, but you would be wrong, according to an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee. Despite PG&E’s long record of catastrophe and failure, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other California politicians have been undercutting their promises to hold the company accountable, shoveling tax dollars into its pockets and leaving us all less safe. After 85 people were killed in the Camp Fire, which leveled the Butte County community of Paradise in 2018, PG&E went into chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Reclaim Our Power Utility Justice Campaign, our diverse coalition of fire survivors, was among those demanding a new energy future that values lives over corporate profits. Feeling the pressure, Newsom proclaimed that the era of PG&E greed and mismanagement was over. And with PG&E in bankruptcy, California had the leverage to set the terms of our energy future. But after the cameras were turned off, Newsom quietly backed down and handed the keys back to PG&E, according to the op-ed. This month, for example, Newsom’s appointees on the California Public Utilities Commission voted to remove PG&E from enhanced oversight. The company was released from that regulatory probation despite its role in the 2020 Zogg Fire in Shasta County, for which the company faces further criminal charges; the following year’s Dixie Fire, which started in Butte County and became California’s second-largest on record; and, apparently, this year’s Mosquito Fire in Placer and El Dorado counties, for which the company is under federal investigation.
