October 11, 2019
Dear Everyone:
Let’s talk about Pacific Gas and Electric, also known as “PG&E”, or
Piracy, Greed & Extortion.
In other words, the power company in California.
In 1993, Erin Brockovich, a single mother working for a local law firm,
exposed the fact that PG&E was trying to hide evidence that it was
poisoning nearby residents.
Her story was later depicted by Julia Roberts in the role that won her
the Academy Award.
In 2001, the citizens of California were forced to endure something PG&
E called “rolling blackouts”.
This was caused by the poorly managed purchases of power from
Enron, a company whose unethical practices ultimately resulted in its
own complete implosion.
Nine years later, in September, 2010, PG&E blew up a neighborhood in San
Bruno. The cause was blamed
on possibly improper installation of a gas pipeline and “poor records
management”.
Some 20 law firms, along with the federal government, gleefully jumped
on the lawsuit bandwagon.
The state Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which was supposed to
oversee PG&E’s operations, allegedly helped the company “shop around”
for judges deemed to be friendly to the utility.
Ten years after that, as in this week, PG&E is now attempting to avoid
wildfires caused by high winds and their utter contempt for equipment
maintenance.
PG&E recently announced their “Public Safety Power Shutoff” (PSPS)
program. The idea is that
the utility will shut off power in areas where power lines might cause a
fire, as happened last year with the “Camp Fire” which wiped out the
town of Paradise, thus allowing the management of PG&E to once again
trumpet their incompetence across the state.
Lots of “Public Service” announcements on TV and radio.
Add to that the text messages and phone messages flooding
voicemail inboxes throughout Northern California.
Messages with poorly enunciated, jumbled instructions to go to
the company’s website for more information.
Their website promptly crashed due to the massive traffic it sustained.
Is anyone surprised?
The whole thing is another example of PG&E’s management’s sloppiness.
Instead of shutting power off in areas at risk, they’re happily
killing the lights on any area even near the actual danger zone.
Throwing over a half-million customers to the wolves.
They’re calling it a “Safety Step” caused by the weather, with high
winds and dry vegetation.
California has had high winds and dry vegetation for centuries.
This isn’t a weather issue, or a safety issue.
This is a self-manufactured crisis caused by greed and
mismanagement on the part of a public utility that only cares about its
stockholders and its executive’s Golden Parachutes.
PSPS is really just CYA.
Also, another attempt to avoid costly lawsuits.
Again.
Are we beginning to see a pattern here?
PG&E has been mismanaged for DECADES.
And I, for one, don’t expect it to improve any time soon.
Ironically, this was the week for me to check and clean the Emergency
Supply Box out on the patio.
It pops up on my “To Do” list every other month.
This time I evaluated the contents a little more closely than
usual.
I found a small flashlight, still in the original package, complete with
AA batteries guaranteed to last all the way through March, 2004.
Probably time to replace that, huh?
A few days later, I stopped at the Big Orange Warehouse
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Store.
Popped into the aisle where they keep the flashlights.
The shelves were completely cleaned out.
The cardboard display case that usually offers hundreds of batteries
was, likewise, similarly ransacked.
Fortunately, I already have lots and lots of batteries in the
Emergency Supply Box. It
will due for now.
Let’s face it: Being without
electricity for a few hours is not, generally speaking, the end of the
world. It’s an
inconvenience.
I’m sure the thousands of Kurdish fighters and civilians in northern
Syria, fleeing invading troops from Turkey, would prefer a few days
without power to what they’re currently facing:
A Turkish invasion, blithely condoned by an utterly self-absorbed
Donald J. Trump, who thinks nothing of sacrificing hundreds of innocent
lives to his desperate attempt to distract attention away from his
latest Scandal du Jour.
Obviously, PG&E is not the only one.
Love, as always,
Pete
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