Utilities San Francisco

Pacific Gas & Electric Co., already in bankruptcy, would find itself stripped of 365,000 customers and subjected to a hostile takeover under a pair of public power initiatives that supporters say will bring more reliable electricity at reasonable rates. Its headquarters here could become just another downtown customer of a new utility run by the city and county of San Francisco. PG&E Corp.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co., already in bankruptcy, would find itself stripped of 365,000 customers and subjected to a hostile takeover under a pair of public power initiatives that supporters say will bring more reliable electricity at reasonable rates. Its headquarters here could become just another downtown customer of a new utility run by the city and county of San Francisco. PG&E Corp.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the San Francisco-based electric utility, announced a companywide restructuring Monday that will trim 3,000 jobs, or about 11% of its work force. The company said the cost savings from the changes--estimated at $200 million a year by 1995--will be passed on to PG&E customers in the form of lower rates, the company said. The reorganization eliminates PG&E's engineering and construction unit and changes other units to focus on customer services.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the San Francisco-based electric utility, announced a companywide restructuring Monday that will trim 3,000 jobs, or about 11% of its work force. The company said the cost savings from the changes--estimated at $200 million a year by 1995--will be passed on to PG&E customers in the form of lower rates, the company said. The reorganization eliminates PG&E's engineering and construction unit and changes other units to focus on customer services.

PUC Regulator Wants to Open Electric Market by July 1997: The next president of the California Public Utilities Commission says he wants to begin opening the state's electric markets to competition by July 1997, six months sooner than current plans. P. Gregory Conlon, who will take over the commission presidency from Daniel Fessler next month, said he has been "talking to staff about July 1997" as a start date.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce touts itself as the world's largest business federation, boasting 3 million members. Er, make that 2,999,996. And falling. The chamber has been beset by embarrassing headlines recently, as large companies that oppose the organization's hostility toward climate-change legislation head for the exits. The very public departures of three utilities -- San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric, Albuquerque-based PNM Resources and Chicago-based Exelon Corp.

PG&E Corp., California's biggest utility owner, said Wednesday that annual cash for share repurchases beginning in 2005 will be as much as $50 million less than projected under the revised bankruptcy plan for its utility unit, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. About $259.8 million, or 15% less than proposed in July, will be available for stock buybacks, partly because of decisions by the state Public Utilities Commission, San Francisco-based PG&E said in a regulatory filing. The commission last month ordered $444 million in refunds to customers, PG&E said.

Re "PUC ruling aided donors," Feb. 20 On Jan. 14, the California Public Utilities Commission cosponsored a summit designed to increase green-collar energy jobs, especially those most vulnerable in this economy. The major energy utilities are hurting for trained staff. Several utilities and community organizations contributed to the expenses of the summit. In a leap of conjecture, this article tied the utilities' contribution to a commission decision made two weeks later advancing energy-efficiency policies.

Your March 2 editorial regarding the coming competitive electricity market took a dim view of fundamental change that has already benefited investor-owned utility customers through lower rates. More important, your view negates the ultimate benefit of exponentially enhancing the state's economic viability, as businesses choose to remain in, or relocate to, California. Not to have embarked upon this fundamental change would have been a colossal economic disservice to this state. Until January, the people of California were paying rates 50% higher than the national average.

One of the hardest things to explain about the telephone industry is how government has systematically overpriced some services just to offer others at subsidized prices--in particular, how the below-cost price of basic residential monthly service has been supported by higher-than-necessary prices for long-distance calling. The confusion in your Sept. 1 editorial ("Be Savvy on the Dial") is understandable, because what's letting long-distance prices fall is both declining costs and a phasing-down of these subsidies--which does increase local phone charges to some extent, since they have been priced below that service's real cost.

I am compelled to respond to Michael Hiltzik's "PG&E's Recovery Stifles Oversight" (Golden State, April 8) regarding Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s emergence from bankruptcy protection. Mr. Hiltzik would have your readers believe this is a tragic event; however, the settlement approved by the California Public Utilities Commission that allowed PG&E to emerge from bankruptcy has numerous benefits for Californians. The settlement gets PG&E out of bankruptcy and back under regulation by the people's representatives in California, the PUC. The settlement plan is costly, but that is the unfortunate result of the electricity crisis.

You are right in calling AB 2958 a shameful outrage, but you glossed over another disturbing fact ("Pull In Phone Monopoly... ," editorial, July 1). When it came time for the Assembly to vote, only one member, Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside), wondered about the validity of a bill that is backed by SBC Communications--which, we found, underreported its net income by $2 billion between 1997 and 1999 alone (that translates to $350 million due to customers under profit-sharing)--and is opposed by numerous consumer groups throughout the state.