Electric Utilities

Power Play: San Francisco's Plan for Clean, Local Energy Lacks One Detail: Everything.

Occupy, Environmentalists Say No to Nukes

San Franciscans found yet another reason to protest PG&E.Yesterday, on the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, OccupySF Environmental Justice Working Group, No Nukes Action and Greenaction for Health as well as Environmental Justice gathered in front of the Japanese Consulate ... More >>

PG&E Tries to Explain Vague "Lost Its Way" Comment

PG&E, the company that evokes nightmarish images of Satan's lair for many San Franciscans after sparking the fire that killed eight and burned 38 homes, recently launched a $10 million multimedia advertising campaign to subtly quell the storm of Bay Area citizens. In the company's most recent tel ... More >>

Guardian pick Leland Yee Also Wins Approval from PG&E

List: Why We Should Believe that PG&E Won't Kill Us All

Top San Francisco Headlines of 2010

Castro merchants say PG&E mishandled gas leak

To Where, Exactly, Will PG&E Move Deadly Gas Main?

Not in my backyard​Pacific Gas & Electric Company's announcement Friday that it will  not rebuild the gas main in San Bruno's Crestmoor neighborhood -- where 37 homes were leveled and eight people killed when the 30-inch transmission pipe exploded on Sept. 9 -- was welcome news to the are ... More >>

PG&E Ripped for Slow Response in Fatal 2008 Natural Gas Explosion

WiggsLet the blame game commence for the fatal explosion and fire in San Bruno​In the wake of the terrifying explosion and fire that incinerated a large swath of San Bruno, the key questions may yet be: "What did PG&E know and when did they know it?" In the weeks preceding the detonation of a ... More >>

PG&E Calls for 'Green' Rate Increase

Gee, Reddy, seven cents doesn't seem so bad to save the planet​The list of companies opposing Prop. 23, a measure that would knock down California's 2006 anti-greenhouse gas law, reads like a Who's-Who of the sort of high tech and outdoorsy companies that usually line up behind environmentally-fri ... More >>

City Attorney Tries To Save City From Invasion of Incredibly Dumb 'SmartMeters'

Running interference with your electricity bill...​City Attorney Dennis Herrera petitioned the California Public Utilities Commission today to stop PG&E's invasion of "SmartMeters," the electricity meters that purport to calculate your energy intake and wirelessly transmit it to the company th ... More >>

After Prop. 16 Defeat, Public Power Advocates Still Can't Promise Cheaper Rates

Still no price tag attached​The weeks leading up to Tuesday's election saw no shortage of hand-wringing among public-power advocates. With passage of PG&E-backed Proposition 16 -- which would have required a two-thirds popular vote before municipal governments could get into the electricity bu ... More >>

Will PG&E's SmartMeters smoke out pot growers?

Smoked Out: City Announces Plans to Close Mirant Power Plant -- This Time, Definitely!

Going, going, gone​The final word is in: after more than a decade of activism and negotiations, the Mirant Power Plant will be closing for good by the end of 2010. "There was really no need to have these dirty power plants continue to exist in San Francisco," City Attorney Dennis Herrera tol ... More >>

City Attorney Wants PG&E Muzzled On Government-Run Clean Energy Plan

City Attorney Dennis Herrera is asking state energy regulators to shut PG&E up when it comes to a controversial overhaul of San Francisco's power system that proponents say would provide greener electricity.A city brochure for CleanPowerSF​In a petition filed today with the California Public U ... More >>

No Smoking: City Attorney Announces Settlement to Shut Mirant Potrero Power Plant 'Irrevocably' By 2010

Joe EskenaziCity Attorney Dennis Herrera delivers the big news, backed by (from left) PUC head Ed Harrington, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, and former Board of Supes President Aaron Peskin​The answer has been revealed to the "mystery settlement" announced yesterday by City Attorney Dennis Herrera ... More >>

The Prop. H Campaign's Big Lie

Bay Guardian: Newspaper or Political Action Committee?

Fortunate Sun

Public Power Grab

Why some "progressives" are putting energy into a bad idea.

Why is the Guardian Shilling for PG&E?

Green Like Me

The Tide Is High

Powerful Advice

Leaders should ignore the temptation to over-regulate energy policy and let competition reign

Water on the Brain

One energy executive claims a tidal system that meets the city's electric needs could be built in over 20 years, at a cost of $1.5 billion

Nuclear, Dude

When it comes to terrorism and U.S. atomic power plants, we may as well put Homer Simpson in charge

Mirant's Morass

The plan to build a massive new power plant in San Francisco -- once thought inevitable -- hits a few snags

Attack of the Self-Serving Pol!

A deft film in which a southland legislator and lazy journalists rewrite history, blame Enron for the energy crisis, and leave Sacramento corruption untouched

The Perfect Crime

As we're now finding out, Gov. Davis may be the only one who won't have to pay for his mishandling of the energy crisis

Will Blackouts Be Back?

With many power plants scheduled to go down for repairs, a stretch of bad weather could spell trouble

A Vote of Competence

This is no time for softheaded governing. In this election, Prop. F and Dennis Herrera pass the confidence test; MUD fails completely.

Dog Bites

Don't Take This With You to Your Polling Place Nov. 6; War Is Bad. Or Good, Depending.

Dead Mud Walking

A ballot measure that would create a Municipal Utility District has so many legal flaws, it's all but DOA. In fact, passing the measure might delay the advent of public power here for years.

Some People Have All the Luck

And then there's developer Michael Strausz

The November Wild Card

Upcoming ballot proposals on public power could complicate the fight over the Potrero Hill plant.

Gray Skies

If Gov. Davis has his way, California soon will have dozens of new power plants -- a lot of them in the wrong places, some of them unnecessary, and very, very few of them based on renewable energy

"They're Hijacking Our Rally!"

Opponents of the Potrero Hill power plant expansion could use a lesson in organization.

Contract Killings

How the state's contracts with crucial electric power providers actually encourage them to gouge us

The Return of the Screw

PG&E is doing to New England what greedy, polluting, out-of-state energy suppliers have done to PG&E and California

Dog Bites

Details, Details; Problem Is, It's Hard to Read in the Dark; PG&E Strikes Back

Letters to the Editor

Letters from April 11, 2001

MUD in Your Eye

A small group wants to foist a municipal utility district on the city without evidence its version of "public power" will work. Demand evidence.

Delusions of Power

Is it smart to jump into the Bay Guardian's version of public power, without even studying whether it will save money?

Dim Bulbs

Greedy out-of-state profiteers make easy targets, but the real villains of California's energy debacle are the ones under the state capitol dome.

Don't Let Them Turn Out the Lights

It's time for consumers to take back California

Regulating Change

Bush will likely gut national health and safety regulation; local liberals screw up regulation by forgetting its purpose -- protecting the general public

Power Politics

Why a retreat from electricity deregulation is a victory for PG&E, and a loss for you and me

PG and ... EEEK!

State advocate says S.F. utility padded rate hike request by $900 million

Imbalance of Power

Competitors say delay in electric deregulation helps PG&E, other utility monopolies

PG&E Is All Charged Up

The S.F.-based utility embarks on a nationwide buying spree