Fresno leaders have had enough with PG&E. Should the city create its own utility district?

A coalition of Fresno leaders stood together Monday at Fresno City Hall to send a strong message to the San Joaquin Valley’s major power supplier, Pacific Gas & Electric: “Enough is enough.”

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer was joined by city councilmembers, Fresno County supervisors, education leaders and home builders to announce that the city will pay for a feasibility study on whether the city could provide electricity to residents and businesses.

The local leaders said PG&E is failing residents and businesses by continued mismanagement that results in raising costs for ratepayers.

“In short, PG&E is singlehandedly destroying our local economy,” Dyer said. “You know, the city of Fresno is also a utility provider. We provide you sanitation. We provide water, and we provide sewer. Perhaps it’s time we provide electricity so that we can definitely determine whether or not we energize our local businesses and home buyers.”

The Fresno City Council will vote Thursday whether to hire a consultant for the feasibility study. City leaders on Monday did not say how much money the consultant will be paid, but Dyer said he believes the study is a worthwhile investment.

In addition to high costs for ratepayers, local leaders also said PG&E is preventing families from moving into their newly built homes because they’re not hooked up to the electrical grid. PG&E attributes the issue to a shortage of transformers.

“They have essentially created a housing moratorium in the city of Fresno when we are in a housing crisis,” Councilmember Garry Bredefeld said. “This is outrageous and completely unacceptable.”

Temporary housing for 400 families

Mike Prandini, president/CEO of the Building Industry Association of Fresno and Madera Counties, said builders have been forced to provide temporary housing for around 400 families whose homes aren’t electrified on time. Builders will put families up in apartments, mobile homes or even hotels.

“Some of these people have already sold their home or given notice for their apartments and are now stranded and looking for a place to call home,” Prandini said.

PG&E responds

In anticipation of the Monday news conference, PG&E put out its own statement.

“While we understand the frustration some are feeling, exploring a public takeover will not benefit customers – whether in Fresno or elsewhere,” the statement says. “We are committed to working together to solve these challenges.”

PG&E officials said requests for new gas and electric service connections outpaced their forecasted demand. Plus, inflation and supply-chain delays make available fewer resources at a higher cost.

The power company also made clear it won’t sell any of its infrastructure.

“PG&E’s assets are not for sale, and even exploring municipalization will likely impose significant long-term costs on local taxpayers,” the company statement says.

‘Plunder Gouge & Extortion’

Dyer and the other leaders said PG&E’s statement was self-serving and defensive. It’s also on brand for a company that enjoys a monopoly, he said.

“It shouldn’t take us holding a news conference for them to act,” Dyer said.

Bredefeld called for PG&E to be accountable for its mismanagement of the power grid but also for its crimes.

“PG&E is nothing more than a recidivist, criminal enterprise, exploiting the people of Central Valley, many who are poor, if we’re really speaking the truth,” Bredefeld said. “They have 91 felonies and hundreds of misdemeanors on their criminal record. Any one person with that kind of criminal record would be imprisoned and never see the light of day.”

Bredefeld said the company should be known as the “Plunder Gouge & Extortion utility company.”

PG&E in recent years racked up criminal convictions for causing destructive wildfires that wiped out towns and caused multiple deaths. Most recently, the California Public Utility Commission said it plans to impose a $155 million fine on PG&E shareholders over the Zogg Fire, which killed four people in rural Shasta County two years ago.

The utility faces potential liabilities totaling well over $1 billion from fires that ignited since the company’s stint in bankruptcy — which itself was prompted by a flurry of major fires that left PG&E with billions of dollars in damages. The company got out of bankruptcy in 2020 by promising to pay victims $13.5 billion for wildfire damages.