Wiener puts heat on PG&E to turn on sites’ lights
State Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco was furious to learn in a recent Chronicle article that PG&E still hadn’t turned on the lights at a children’s museum, a public plaza and homeless shelter in the city.
On Friday, he fired off a letter to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. calling the delays unacceptable and demanding the utility take immediate action to power the new Navigation Center in Dogpatch, the Randall Museum in Corona Heights and the lights at Noe Valley Town Square.
“PG&E’s inability or unwillingness to allow power delivery to these three projects is preventing their completion, and my constituents are paying the price. I request that PG&E take immediate steps to effectuate a prompt resolution to these power issues. I look forward to hearing PG&E’s plan of action,” Wiener wrote.
PG&E spokeswoman Andrea Menniti said the utility is “committed to working collaboratively with the SFPUC (San Francisco Public Utilities Commission) to provide interconnection as safely and quickly as possible. At the same time, we have to work together to follow necessary and authorized steps that ensure safety and compliance.”
Wiener made sure other people in City Hall knew of his dissatisfaction as well. He copied the letter to Mayor Ed Lee, the heads of the Recreation and Park Department, Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, as well as Supervisors Malia Cohen and Jeff Sheehy — the projects are in their districts.
Menniti said PG&E is “working closely with state Sen. Wiener’s office, San Francisco Mayor Lee’s office and the SFPUC to collaborate on next steps.”
Before being elected to the state Senate in November, Wiener represented District Eight — Sheehy filled his seat — where the Randall Museum and Noe Valley Town Square are located. In his letter, Wiener said he was involved in discussions with PG&E about getting power delivery to the park as far back as October, when it opened.
“At the time, we learned that a PG&E-caused delay in power delivery might delay the Town Square’s planned October opening. We were forced to open the park without power, and PG&E informed us that power would be delivered by early to mid-November,” Wiener wrote. “Six months later, the Town Square still has no power. I find that delay to be unacceptable.”
Wiener also wrote that PG&E’s delay in delivering power to the newly renovated Randall Museum had stalled the museum’s opening by more than three months and increased the cost of the project.
As for the Navigation Center, Wiener chided the utility for hindering efforts to deal with the city’s homeless crisis. “Our homeless services face so many challenges in identifying funding and locations; delivering basic services like power should not be one of those challenges,” he wrote.
Sheehy said he believed PG&E was purposefully dragging its feet because it is unhappy with the city’s push to sell clean power to PG&E customers through CleanPowerSF, depriving the utility of some of its customers. The utility, however, blamed the PUC for the delays because, it said, the commission was slow to provide information, changed the scope of the projects, or didn’t submit payments on time.
Lee, who didn’t take a position on the feud, is trying to negotiate a deal between the utility and PUC to get the projects up and running.
— Emily Green