Friends,

Thank you for signing our No PG&E Bailout petition! Unfortunately, PG&E is at it again, with the help of the Governor and potentially the state legislature to pass an industry-friendly bill (AB 1054). PG&E wants to privatize the gains for their shareholders and socialize their losses at your expense!

Governor Newsom is using the upcoming recess of the state legislature to try to push through a utility-friendly bill which would allow PG&E to use taxpayer money to fund wildfire mitigation and limit PG&E's liability for wildfires, even if they caused them.

We urge you to contact your representative with a letter. We've included a basic form letter which you're welcome to personalize.

AB 1054 Background Information:

We Demand A ‘NO’ Vote On Newsom’s Gruesome PG&E Bailout! OPPOSE AB 1054!

1.     AB 1054 is a back-handed Monopoly Utility bailout!

AB 1054 would create a Wildfire Fund that utilities could access to quickly pay costs of fires they are responsible for starting. Sounds good, but guess who pays for the fund? WE DO! Ratepayers, including fire victims would pay fees on our bills to create this fund. Money from the state budget could even be transferred to the fund, with Californians paying for it with extra taxes!

The monopoly utilities should pay for their own messes, not ratepayers and taxpayers.

2. Encourages utility negligence!

The Wildfire Fund essentially guarantees that utilities would be compensated by ratepayers for costs, such as victims’ claims, even when utility equipment is responsible for starting the fires! This essentially removes any incentive for the utilities to avoid starting fires.

3. “Blank Check” Safety Certification with no enforcement of wildfire mitigation!

Whether a utility can recover costs from the Wildfire Fund would be based on whether utility actions have been “reasonable.” A valid Safety Certification alone would count as demonstrating the utility acted reasonably in any wildfire situation. However, there is no provision in the safety certification process to guarantee that a utility has actually complied with its wildfire mitigation plan.

4. If we, the people, think the CPUC made a mistake and a utility is at fault, then it is up to us to prove they did something wrong!

Currently the utilities are required to prove they are acting responsibly before passing costs on to customers. Under AB 1054, as long as a utility has obtained valid Safety Certification, the burden of proof of that a utility has not acted responsibly would be on the public, not the utility.

5. Waives transparency and public accountability

AB 1054 creates a powerful new Wildfire Safety Division in the CPUC, which would have great power and flexibility to exclude the public from hearings and rate-setting proceedings. It would create an advisory board that could confer with the CPUC in secret, and would be exempt from rules designed to prevent backroom deals between the CPUC and utilities. This would reverse restrictions that were recently passed specifically to end the CPUC’s long history of being far too cozy with the utilities.

6. Rewards PG&E and the CPUC for negligence that caused the wildfires!

PG&E is a criminal corporation guilty of obstruction of justice, and felony negligence that has gotten people killed. The CPUC, as the regulating agency, must be held responsible for allowing PG&E to pay out executive bonuses and shareholder profits with funds meant for safety upgrades. Federal agencies and judges have strongly criticized the CPUC for its dereliction, and even outright collusion with PG&E. Yet Newsom’s shocking bailout allows PG&E to survive its disastrous behavior to begin again, and unfathomably gives even more power, with less accountability, to the CPUC.

7. Cruelly uses fire victims as a smoke screen to hide the real reason this long, complex bill is being rushed through, with no time to understand what is in the bill, and no time to weigh in on its major implications for ratepayers and public safety.

AB 1054 is being moved as an “urgent issue statute” so it can bypass committees and rush through with little legislative scrutiny. The bill claims this is to speed up resolution of fire victims’ claims. But the inside story is that the bill is being rushed to prevent credit companies from downgrading the ratings of the other two monopoly utilities, San Diego Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison.