For those who don't quite understand it, allow me to explain how PG&E (and other utilities) steal from the public to enrich a small number of executives.
For decades, they neglected maintenance on their infrastructure. (This is well documented fact.)
Neglected maintenance doesn't cost anything, and because the company wasn't spending any money on maintenance, it turned a nice profit.
This profit was then sucked up by the PG&E parent company, redistributed to shareholders, and because HEY GREAT JOB MAKING BIG PROFITS, executives were rewarded with nice fat bonuses.
In effect, they were pocketing the money that should have been used for maintenance or redistributing it to investors.
Then, decades go by and that neglect causes disaster after disaster, and they MUST fix it. Those billions that should have been spent over decades but went to bonuses and dividends now come from ratepayers.
The effect is the same as if they'd stolen the money directly.
Nobody went to prison.
#CPUC #PGE #PublicUtilities