Electric Utilities

Watch Out for Those Fake PG&E Workers Scamming You

San Francisco police are warning everyone to be skeptical when getting a phone call from a PG&E representative. There's a scam going around where crooks pose as PG&E reps or sometimes the Water Department, demanding payment for overdue bills. According to police, the faux workers contact innocen ... More >>

PG&E "Green Option," a Competitor for CleanPowerSF, Discloses its Terms

PG&E "Green Option" expected to cost far less than tentative CleanPowerSF ratesIn the current edition of SF Weekly, we explore the long-term goal of CleanPowerSF to provide San Francisco with "a local build-out which would supply the city with vast quantities of renewable power, energy independe ... More >>

Here's How Heart-Shaped Balloons Could Actually Ruin Your Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day might be good for the American economy, but that Hallmark holiday isn't always so great for the environment. Every Valentine's Day, those tacky balloons that suckers buy as their last-minute cover-your-ass gift wind up in the power lines, and there's nothing erotic about that. S ... More >>

Watch Out for These Faux PG&E Workers and Newspaper Delivery People

You've probably noticed that a lot of people are trying harder to get your money this time of year. The department stores offering seasonal discounts. The luxury car companies with their red-bow-on-the-roof commercials. Even your own body, with its demands to turn up the heater in the house. And n ... More >>

Public Power: Economic Report Says It'd Cost Millions, Lose City Jobs

On Friday afternoon, the city Controller's office released a report on the economic impact facing the city if it chooses to dabble in providing residents with public power. You couldn't time a release better -- if you were hoping no one would read it. And that's too bad. Because, per the controller' ... More >>

PG&E Contractor Says He's Really Sorry for Busting San Bruno Gas Line Yesterday

The contractor responsible for nicking the PG&E gas line yesterday in San Bruno sent his apologizes to the city and residents who were evacuated during the  gas leak and vowed to implement better safety measures.Workers for San Francisco-based Shaw Pipeline ruptured a 2-inch gas line while ... More >>

PG&E Pipeline Pressure Surges Are a Real Threat

PG&E is starting to feel some unwanted pressure over its gas pipelines. The company is being asked to be much more transparent following a federal directive requiring all utilities to maintain and report instances of pressure surges along their gas pipelines. That might be a tall order for ... More >>

Who Hates Smart Meters? Glen Park Residents

It's been a while since we've seen any good sparring over the contentious so-called smart meter, but apparently strong sentiments are circulating in parts of the city. A kind and anonymous reader passed along this photo that's being posted around homes in Noe Valley and Glen Park neighborhoods, wher ... More >>

Smart Meter Protest in SF Thursday

A December 2010 protest against SmartMeter installation in West Marin Despite its status as a tech hub where virtually every square inch of land is within range of a wireless Internet signal, San Francisco has proved hospitable over the years to people with all manner of fears about radiation from g ... More >>

Jackie Speier Blasts PG&E for Sloppy Record-Keeping

This is what happens when you are disorganized​Congresswoman Jackie Speier tells the Chronicle this morning that she is "appalled" by the fact that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. leaders "don't know what's underground." This became transparent after the company admitted it can't find important docum ... More >>

SmartMeter Protesters Block PG&E Trucks in Marin; 2 Arrested (PICS, VIDEO)

​Around 30 members of the group West Marin Citizens Against Smart Meters yesterday blockaded the only route into the remote village of Inverness, turning back trucks they claim were en route to install SmartMeters. Two of the protesters, Katharina Sandizell-Smith and June DiMorente, were arrested ... More >>

Who cares about gas lines? Worry about killer cellphone radiation

PG&E's '100 Riskiest Pipelines' List Could Be Released Today

WiggsWill your neighborhood make the list? ​What's worse than not knowing if you're living atop a high-risk PG&E pipeline? Knowing you are. After Friday's entreaty by the California Public Utilities Commission that PG&E provide a list of the specific locations of its 100 riskiest subterran ... More >>

PG&E Disseminates List of 100 Riskiest Pipelines

Is this pipe on the list too? ​List is released. See jump for more. PG&E President Chris Johns told the media today a list of his agency's 100 pipes most likely to explode and ruin your day will be disseminated later today. In the meantime, he says, customers can call (888) 743-7431, and disco ... More >>

PG&E Will Reveal Pipeline Locations -- Sort Of

KTVT/KTXALook! There's one! ​In the wake of the San Bruno disaster, a number of environmental and First Amendment types have demanded PG&E disclose the routes of its riskiest gas pipes. The utility provider has declined, however, citing the risk that terrorists could capitalize on that sort of ... More >>

San Bruno Fire: PG&E Twice Billed Ratepayers to Replace Pipe Near Blast, Never Did Work

WiggsWas this disaster really necessary? ​According to documents released by the San Francisco consumer watchdog The Utility Reform Network (TURN), PG&E received $5 million to replace a "high risk" section of piping not far from last week's San Bruno blast zone -- but didn't do the job as sche ... More >>

San Bruno Fire's Death Toll Mounts

Wiggs​As smoke rises from the devastated chunk of San Bruno, the death toll stands at four, with four more residents still unaccounted for. The dead are also now more than mere statistics -- there's student Jessica Morales. And, in a grim coincidence, one of the victims was Jacqueline Greig -- A C ... More >>

San Francisco's Clean Power Program Collapses, Starts Over

Electricity never strikes out twice in one place... we hope.​After spending months attempting and failing to negotiate the terms of a new program to provide clean, relatively cheap power to the local citizenry, San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission earlier this month began the process anew w ... More >>

Power Surge: Program could raise your electric bills

PG&E's New Definition of 'A Few' Faulty SmartMeters: 43,000

'A few' problems found with this SmartMeter and its bretheren​After earlier insisting that only "a few" of its SmartMeter customers were incorrectly billed, PG&E has now been forced to admit it has no idea what the total is -- but tens of thousands were installed improperly and even more were ... More >>

Green-Energy Agency's Response to Critical Grand Jury Report: Screw You Guys, We're Goin' Home.

Marin County's civil grand jury caused an uproar in the ranks of Bay Area eco-activists earlier this month when it released a scathing report on a proposed overhaul of the county's energy policy. The grand jury's panning of Marin Clean Energy, a plan to provide many areas of the county with governme ... More >>

City Softens Requirements on Clean Energy Master Plan

City officials have backed off from several of the more ambitious aspects of a planned overhaul of the local power grid that is intended to make San Francisco's energy supply greener and less dependent on Pacific Gas & Electric Co.The promised land​The city's Public Utilities Commission and Lo ... More >>

Is LAFCo Getting Ready to Sue PG&E?

LAFCo Chairman Ross Mirkarimi may not be smiling for long​Lawsuit, anyone? That could be the case, to judge from what took place at the most recent Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) meeting on July 31.LAFCo is a sort of energy task force controlled by supervisors who advocate municipalizin ... More >>

Billionaire Oilman's Traveling Green Energy Road Show Hits S.F.

Daniel KramerT. Boone PickensAs Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens hits San Francisco tonight in his ongoing tour promoting a curtailing of foreign oil imports and a bolstering of domestic clean energy (in which he is invested to the gills), a long, strange article about Pickens' long, strange trip h ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: Meet the Guardian's Imaginary Friend and Congratulate the Department of Technology on Its Fictitous $750,000 Tech Center

When your whole government shuts down so that it can go to Washington D.C. and lobby for handouts, you know you've reached a point of no return. Economically it's a sign of total defeat, an acknowledgment that we are a zombie municipality that needs fresh infusions of federal blood just to go thr ... More >>

PG&E Steals SF Activists' Thunder -- Make That Sunlight -- With New Solar Power Plan

David BlaikieMore attractive than ever.San Francisco-based utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co. announced yesterday that it will be undertaking a $1.5 billion project to produce more solar energy for its customers throughout the state. The initiative, which includes plans to build new solar-power ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Green Scheme

The city's master plan for cleaner energy is fraught with risk. And, like it or not, you're already signed up.

"You Go Down to Moscone Convention Facilities. It's Compostable." And Other Gavin Newsom Environmental Insights from the State of the City Address

Does Gavin Newsom turn into Stalin when the moon is full? By Benjamin Wachs (This is State of the Citysode III: The Environment. Click here for Part II: Education, and Part 1: Health Care) 00:00 - Gavin begins philosophically. "I like to say that the world's consumption is the sum of all loc ... More >>

New Report Foresees a Short Road to Extinction for CA salmon

It’s Time to Panic. But Then What? By Peter Jamison I recently observed that San Francisco salmon fishermen, despite some relatively good news in an industry that of late has lumbered from one calamity to the next, are still pretty glum these days. That’s because a number of highly publicized ... More >>

Election Night Storylines

Can PG&E Make Carmen Chu into a Star? You Bet, Kiddo!

Most "Censored" Story in S.F. History: If It's Been Censored, Why do We All Know About it?

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Letters to the Editor

Week of 3-28-2007

What Lies Beneath

Brain and stomach cancer. Asthma and bronchitis. Miscarriages and stillbirths. All are health problems suffered by residents of Midway Village. Why won’t authorities close it down?

A Bridge Too Costly

The city's way of contracting out public works construction is broken — so much so that companies are not bidding on important municipal projects and that could cost us billions

Invasive Species

A Modest Post-Election Proposal

For Preventing the Homeless People of San Francisco From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to the Public in an Energy-Efficient Manner

First SF Weekly Sharpie Literary Awards

DISCUSSED IN THIS REVIEW: Cons, Scams & Grifts, 2001, Mysterious Press, Confidence, 2003, Lion's Gate Films What Should I Do With My Life?, 2002, Random House

Apples and Oranges; Water Fight

How Kennedyesque is Gavin Newsom?

Letters to the Editor

Power Point;The Chronicle Chronicles;Outlawing Landlords and Other Amusements

Power Politics

Two major S.F. energy projects are in the works. Do we need both? The question isn't really being discussed.

Letters to the Editor

Power to the People; A Love/Hate Relationship

A Silver Lining

Letters to the Editor

Letters from October 4, 2000

Midway to Nowhere

The residents of Daly City's Midway Village wonder if their environmental concerns will ever be addressed

Mayoral Web

Whirly Birds

The wind-power entrepreneurs at Kenetech have spent millionsin vain tosolve this avian mystery: Why have hundredsof raptors, including golden eagles, died alongside the windmills of Altamont Pass?

Dog Bites