Commonwealth Club: PG&E Chief Patti Poppe & State Sen. Scott Wiener on Affordability, Outages, and Returning Power to the People

After PG&E pled guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the 2018 Camp Fire, Patti Poppe was brought on as the utility’s new CEO. Her stated mission: to fix it.  Now, rising electricity prices and repeated power outages have put PG&E in the crosshairs of the public and legislators. Again.  At the beginning of the year, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and City Attorney David Chiu asked state regulators to open an investigation into the company’s ability to provide safe and reliable electricity. Then State Senator Scott Wiener introduced a PG&E “breakup bill” (SB 875), which would have made it easier for municipalities to sidestep PG&E and get into the electricity business themselves. While the bill did not make it out of committee, there’s widespread public interest in California and around the country in challenging the power held by for-profit utilities.  Is the investor-owned utility putting too much emphasis on profits at the expense of maintenance? Is it finally time for cities to ditch the power monopoly? And if so, how? Join Climate One for an engaging, in-person conversation with PG&E CEO Patti Poppe and California State Senator Scott Wiener, followed by a reception and opportunity to continue the discussion with other members of your community.