Please take the time to read the article. Utilities are not your friend and investor owned utilities do not prioritize providing electricity to their service area at fair and just rates anymore. Instead they prioritize share holder value. A for profit monopoly should make everyone pause for a minute and think about just how dangerous that is. PG&E demonstrates the worst aspect of this business model every chance they get.
For context, in 2021, the year this request was made to CPUC, they received a $5 billion bailout for the catastrophic Dixie fire, which their negligence was responsible for. The CEO compensation was over $50 million that year. While that seems to be an outlier (2020 and 2022 filings show compensation to be $14 million), the median PG&E employee salary was $137,000 in 2021. This means that CEO Poppe’s DAILY compensation was nearly equal to median employees ANNUAL compensation.
Finally it’s extremely important everyone understands that this is absolutely a bi-partisan issue. While the GOP doesn’t hide their preference for fossil fuel, neither party is interested at all in protecting their constituents from exorbitant electricity prices. It’s really not hard to see, they don’t even hide it. The proponents even state the cost of compensating fire victims as one of the reasons for higher electric rates. That was the judgement they were ordered to pay when they were found guilty on 93 counts of manslaughter. Part of that judgement stated that they were not allowed to recover any of that cost from rate payers. So if that’s the case then PG&E just got away with murdering 93 people. And then they have the nerve to use that as justification to further screw people over.
Source: EnergyInsider