Officials in Calif. call for new utility

Frustrated with wildfires and intentional blackouts caused by Pacific Gas & Electric, more than two dozen California mayors and county leaders are calling for a customer-owned power company to replace the giant utility.

In a letter delivered Tuesday to the California Public Utilities Commission, the officials embraced a proposal by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo to create a cooperative that would use their collective resources to take over the utility.

PG&E, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January after accumulating an estimated $30 billion in liabilities from wildfires caused by its equipment, is expected to emerge with a different structure. Any bankruptcy plan requiring a rate increase is subject to approval by the utilities commission.

PG&E said it was aware of proposals to change it to a customer-owned or public power utility but said it expected to emerge from bankruptcy as a strong and effective company.

Calls for alternatives to PG&E’s existing structure have grown louder over the last month, after the utility intentionally blacked out millions of customers — some without warning — to prevent wildfires as fierce winds swept through Northern and Central California, elevating fire hazards in hot, dry conditions. Some customers lost power for as long as a week during multiple blackouts.

Despite the blackout strategy, PG&E’s equipment has been identified as the possible cause of at least five wildfires last month, including the Kincade Fire, which has burned nearly 80,000 acres in the Sonoma County wine region and damaged or destroyed more than 400 structures.

“There’s a strong response among the local leaders that I speak with that their communities are fed up,” Liccardo said.