• dan@upvote.au
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    3 months ago

    I still don’t understand how the Californian government bailed them out when they were bankrupt, yet they were allowed to remain an independent company? Why didn’t the government take full control?

    Electricity in cities in the Bay Area that have their own municipal power company (like Palo Alto and Santa Clara) is literally 1/3 the cost of PG&E.

    • jaybone@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      FUUUUUUUUUUUCK PG&E

      Fuck them. If there was ever a case to be made for government owned utilities (and like why is that even a debate in the first place?) these assholes would be the poster child.

      • dan@upvote.au
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        3 months ago

        Palo Alto’s got the right idea - the city runs the electricity, gas, water, sewer, and they also have a city-owned fiber internet provider for businesses (which they want to eventually roll out for residential use too). Services are cheaper than other cities where they contract these out to third-party companies, since they’re running them to benefit residents, not to make money.

        They do contract out some things (garbage/recycling/compost is contracted to GreenWaste) but not many.

    • namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev
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      3 months ago

      Because the USA haven’t had the balls to hold corporations responsible for their actions in decades. They can save them from failure, but have no willpower to correct any of their malevolent behaviors.

      I really hope this generation is the one that finally changes that trend.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Gotta keep the rich people rich so they can fund my campaign.

        It’s not about the balls to hold them responsible, it’s about not biting the hand that feeds you. They don’t want to do anything about it.