‘Tired of this’: Activists rally, then occupy lobby
About two dozen people protested Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in downtown San Francisco on Tuesday, accusing the embattled utility of being responsible for California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire.
Demonstrators began with a rally in Embarcadero Plaza before marching a few blocks to PG&E headquarters. Their chants included cries of “clean power to the people” and “PG&E, no more greed, we should own our energy.”
At the utility’s Beale Street offices, they chanted, sang, struck cowbells and read off names of people killed in the recent Camp Fire, the cause of which remains under investigation, and last year’s Wine Country wildfires. The protesters remained in the lobby’s public entrance, blocked by employee gates that require key cards to open, as security guards and San Francisco police officers stood watch.
“We’re tired of this — PG&E is guilty of murder,” said Jessica Tovar, an activist with Oakland’s Local Clean Energy Alliance. “We need to take over the system.”
After about an hour and a half, protesters peacefully left, chanting, “We’ll be back.” No one was arrested.
The protest came nearly two weeks after activists
disrupted a meeting of the California Public Utilities Commission, where they similarly demanded PG&E be held accountable for the Camp Fire and called for a government takeover of the investor-owned utility.
While state officials have not released the cause of the Camp Fire, which killed at least 86 people and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes, PG&E’s role became a focus of the public, regulators and lawmakers since the utility reported one of its transmission lines malfunctioned in the area of the fire’s origin shortly before flames were reported.
Another piece of PG&E equipment in the Camp Fire area malfunctioned afterward, and officials are investigating a possible start to the inferno.
In an email, PG&E spokeswoman Andrea Menniti did not address the specifics of the demonstration.
“The families impacted by Camp Fire are our customers, our neighbors, and our friends, and our hearts go out to those who have lost so much,” she said. “Right now, our focus is on assessing infrastructure, safely restoring power where possible, supporting our customers through the recovery and rebuilding process, and helping protect all of the customers we serve from the ever-increasing threat of wildfires.”
PG&E was found responsible for many of the fires that ravaged Northern California last year, though the largest, the Tubbs Fire, remains under investigation.
Protester Claire Haas said PG&E’s recent announcement about new safety measures — which includes inspecting 50,000 transmission towers and poles in high fire threat areas — was “not enough.”
“We need to end PG&E,” Haas told the crowd. “Our lives are at stake.”
A bill passed this year, SB 901, allows the utility to pass certain 2017 wildfire-related costs along to its customers. Given another bill a key legislator is working on after the Camp Fire, activists are worried the authority granted by SB 901 will be expanded — a step they would view as a bailout.
Activists said they have also been troubled by comments from the president of the utilities commission, Michael Picker, who said he did not want to see PG&E go bankrupt.