Power & Profit
This essential public service is controlled in California by for-profit investor-owned utilities.
What is electricity
PG&E serves millions of Californians with these two services.
What is Electricity and Natural Gas?
This 2018 wildfire became the deadliest in California history.
What is Camp Fire?
The majority of Camp Fire victims fell under this category.
Who are people aged 65 years and older
While climate change is a factor in worsening the fire conditions, this often did not directly ignite the fires.
What is PG&E's infrastructure
PG&E is one example of this kind of utility structure in which investor returns become paramount.
What's an investor-owned utility?
Between 2001 and 2017, PG&E was supposed to have spent this amount on line maintenance.
What is 246 million
This is a town that was almost destroyed in the Camp Fire.
What is Paradise, California?
These planned outages were a strategy employed by PG&E in its wildfire-risk reduction.
What are Public Safety Power Shutoffs?
That group may be absolved of guilt if framing is done solely in terms of "natural disasters".
Who are corporate utility operators
This is the regulatory body that was supposed to oversee the likes of PG&E to protect the public.
What is the California Public Utilities Commission?
Instead of maintenance, PG&E spent more than $100 million on this for top executives.
What is an executive bonus
The Camp Fire was caused by a piece of equipment failure on a 100-year-old tower.
What is a C-hook
People relying upon this medical equipment were severely at risk during blackouts.
What is an electricity-powered medical device?
PG&E’s profit-first approach discouraged spending on this critical area.
What is infrastructure maintenance and safety
IOUs function in this type of market structure, wherein consumers do not have the opportunity to look for other providers.
What is a natural monopoly?
After deadly wildfires in 2019, PG&E granted bonuses and hired a new chief executive at this pay change.
What is twice the salary of the former CEO
PG&E pleaded guilty to this many counts of involuntary manslaughter after the Camp Fire.
What is 84
This group has disproportionately borne the harms of the fires and the power shutoffs.
Who are the seniors, disabled, and low-income communities
Under rate regulation, utilities earn returns based mainly on this, not performance.
What is capital investment in infrastructure
This is an economic problem where regulators get captured by the very industries they are regulating.
What is regulatory capture?
These activities were controversially funded by ratepayer funds instead of improving safety.
What are lobbying and public relations/image advertising?
This megafire is a giant 2021 wildfire that has burned nearly one million acres while PG&E was on federal probation.
What is the Dixie Fire?
A federal judge once referred to PG&E by that phrase while the company was on probation.
What is a "continuing menace"?
The presentation concluded that disasters result from a combination of these two forces.
What is corporate greed and failed government oversight