Utilities Sector

Guardian pick Leland Yee Also Wins Approval from PG&E

SF State's Hazardous Waste Cleanup Cost Millions More Than It Should Have

Top San Francisco Headlines of 2010

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 >>

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

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 >>

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 >>

City Dwellers Doused as Water Department Flushes Fire Hydrants

Joe EskenaziJed's a millionaire!​ Conversation in the line for a chi-chi Mission Bay taqueria was dampened the other day when, a few yards off, a city water department employee hooked what appeared to be an oversize cow bell to the fire hydrant. Before anyone could make a "more cowbell" joke, a to ... 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 >>

Investigative Report: Marin County Water System Vulnerable to Al-Qaeda Attack

Does everyone want to live in Marin?​ The Center For Investigative Reporting, the Berkeley nonprofit that recently formed a team of sleuths to take up where downsized California newspapermen and women left off, came out slugging earlier this month. It published a scintillating piece demonstrating ... 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 >>

Graft and Gaming

City employees are bleeding the city to death. One way is legal and the other is not.

SF Gov InAction: Madatory Composting -- And Your Mother -- Are Back In Town

Well, that's the thing: I thought my mom would know the Snuggie was a gag gift, but she actually thought it was a real gift. So here I'd planned this completely ironic moment, and she was starting to tear up. She actually said "It looks so comfortable, and I get so cold in winter!" Shit! So what ... More >>

Green Scheme

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

Burn Green Soiree

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

Bay Guardian: Newspaper or Political Action Committee?

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

Sf Government InAction: Sauron up for Public Utilities Commission, Voldemort to select Chief of Police, Gandalf will bring a budget to save us all! Or something like that

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

Public Power Grab

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

And the Primary Results are In

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

Green Like Me

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

The Tide Is High

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

Derailing the Jaye Train

Why Matt Gonzalez should stick with his progressive roots, and ignore pressure to act "responsibly"

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

Playing Monopoly

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