Senate Bill 875 is supposed to help San Francisco “break up” with PG&E.
Since December's city wide blackouts, San Francisco has renewed its interest in acquiring the company’s infrastructure and creating a publicly owned utility. But, in order to do that, the city has to get approval from the California Public Utilities Commission.
CPUC's current process allows private utilities to push back against public acquisition on the grounds of their business interests and or appraisal of their own assets.
Critics say this allows private utilities to stall the process. Senator Wiener’s says his bill could change that.
In his public address this morning, Weiner “SB 875 is an important step to make sure that San Francisco actually has the ability to make its own decision and to pursue purchase of PG&E's assets, so that we can form a publicly owned utility in San Francisco”
The bill would lower the criteria for cities to prove that converting a private utility is in the public interest and establish deadlines so that cases can’t be dragged on indefinitely.
