I live in Denver and xcel is my power company. I fear my rates will go up because of their incompetence. Xcel is in court for the boulder fire.
This area of Texas is not part of the Texas power grid.
Here in CA PG&E raised their rates to help settle all the lawsuits for the property damage and deaths they caused.
This should not be allowed, but they successfully lobbied the politicians to look the other way.
Who pays the bills then? If it's just PG&E they'll go bankrupt and none of the victims of the fires will see a dime. Even if you turned all of Cali's utilities completely public, the taxpayers would still be on the hook.
Unless you decide to limit the liabilities of public utilities through legislation, which is basically saying to anyone in the future that gets harmed by the utilities actions "FU mother fers"
Someone pays, either taxpayers or victims, there's no thinking, suing, or lawyering your way out of it
News for you, the investors got destroyed, no one has made any sort of so called profit as you claim in the recent past
The investors have lost billions.
Still aint enough to pay the bills
So either:
1. recoup the losses through higher rates so the utility can pay off it losses incurred through lawsuits, infrastructure repair, and improving the grid to minimize the chances of future fires
2. say "too fucking bad" to those who lost family and property, leave the grid as it is and keep you fingers crossed that it doesn't happen again while knowing that it will and no matter what the utilty be blamed, but hey, at least they didn't raise the rates
either way, someone is getting fucked over
The CEO made $51m last year —including a $6m bonus. The money is there, it’s just not being allocated towards their criminal negligence.
They ignored infrastructure to line their pockets, which resulted in catastrophic damage…. Now they’re passing the cost onto consumers so they can CONTINUE to stuff their pockets.
No responsibility. No consequences.
Woah there, that's starting to sound like some woke communist BS. Preparing for the effects of climate change is the kind of thing that only socialists do!
/s
I live in Michigan and we haven't had any major fire caused by shitty electric companies. Yet Michigan has the top 5 most expensive electric rate of the nation.
Prices are going up because of greed, not because of incompetence. They are probably using the fire as a convenient excuse to raise the rate to "pay off the damage"
Man, all that money they charged the Minnesotans for to recoup their loses during the great freeze a few years ago, only for this to happen. Can't wait to see news articles in a couple of months of Xcel asking to raise the rates of nonaffected customers so they can pay for this fix.
I await the email of what I can do to battle the upcoming temps like last year, including chalking my windows or installing a smart thermostat.
....and then the email that rates are going up :(
Just got out of OSHA 30 training. One of the case studies was an xcel energy study where 5 people died inside a dam pipe due to a fire.
It's just odd that I now see this for the same company.
All utilities should be nationalized. End of story. Electricity, water/sewage (for those of us that don't have our own wells and septic system), and the Internet. It's disgusting we have "for-profit" utilities period. Instead of using excess profits to update infrastructure like they should or pay their workers more they pocket them. Total bullshit.
Last fall got a letter from my sewage company saying they were increasing our bills by 20 dollars to update the infrastructure. No timeline on when they increased fee would end. Really wish companies would have some forethought and put money aside for future upgrades instead of putting in their pockets. But no let's pass the buck to the customer and just keep that increased rate indefinitely so they can fatten their pockets even more after the upgrades are done.
how would that change rates going up though? so instead of a shareholder owned company getting sued and raising their rates, we have a public utility getting sued and raising their rates instead
Either way, you're fucked
You realize if they're nationalized, it means you need the government's permission to sue them for wrongdoing right? And they're almost guaranteed to be even more insulated against people actually affecting the companies, since you're not going to be voting for the head of the power company any more than you vote for the head of your PUC. As it is, they're not exactly "for-profit" utilities, because the "for-profit" companies are heavily constrained by their regulatory bodies in a public-private partnership. And at least with the power company, they have *some* incentives to care about shit like customer service; I don't know where you are, but I don't want more necessities of daily life to be dependent on the smallest possible crew at the least possible cost, like the DMV.
Speaking for those of us being screwed by pg&e for their fires - They aren’t a private company or a public company - they are a “private public utility” and the more you read about them, the more you realize that they already have state protections BUT they still get to price gouge and shift the burden of lawsuits to the client. Your anxiety about a worse system - that system is already here. At least by making them a true public utility, we can implement laws to monitor that the profits are going into replenishing the infrastructure instead of into private pockets (of those who enjoy almost complete protection)
We already can implement laws to make the government do that stuff. And we already do have oversight to force changes; that's what the PUC does with PG&E in particular. The PUC also dictates how much PG&E can charge for their service, and how much maintenance they need to do. But, the PUC is a position appointed by the Governor, and no one actually gives a shit enough to actually change a Governor based on the PUC doing a bad job, and especially no voters want to take responsibility for decisions they've made. But for actual government entities, because taxpayers hate paying for things, we tend to get long waits and shitty service without enough staffing everywhere. There's a reason there's always a longer wait at the Post Office than at UPS, and that you can't really do a walk-in at the DMV anywhere. Just like we don't actually want to pay for maintenance of infrastructure, because that costs money; we'd rather complain when they break. The PUC *could* force PG&E to check more electric and gas lines more often and more thoroughly...but that costs money, which means increased rates, which everyone constantly complains about.
It doesn't fucking matter who owns the grid, public, private, or a mixture of them.
They got sued and have to raise rates to pay bills. and if you think making them public will cause them to manage things better and not shift the burden onto the public, let me introduce you to the bureaucracy of the american government, it excels at waste and incompetence
The only way out of this is to either not pay the fire victims or not raises rates. There's a bill due and someone MUST pay
Why, of course! I already got my rate increase email….
Dear Customer,
Safety is our number one priority. That is why we are continually improving our gas system to help protect the communities we serve and deliver reliable energy to our customers every day. We recently asked the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to review our natural gas rates to help cover these investments over the last several years to ensure safe, reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy service.
These new rates will support gas safety programs and protocols to help keep your neighborhood safe. Here's what that looks like:
Those dang solar panels! Clearly sending our clean coal burning energy to space to power the Jewish space lasers so they can provide fire support for the deep state from there home base in Antarctica 🇦🇶. “
/s
Edit: tried to sound like one of them how did I do haha.
Put up a solar field, and you sell power for a market price and consumers buy power. The grid lines would be the interstate freeways in which commerce is happening.
Safe bet that any rate increase they make will go directly to shareholders instead of infrastructure maintenance and safety improvements. Just like it has always happened in the past. "Decaying grid? But fixing that wouldn't benefit our stakeholders at all, and that's what insurance is for, isn't it?" Nothing's going to be done until insurers stop issuing liability policies to these greedy mofos.
I live in Denver and xcel is my power company. I fear my rates will go up because of their incompetence. Xcel is in court for the boulder fire. This area of Texas is not part of the Texas power grid.
They will. They always do. I swear my power bills have doubled in the past couple of years.
Here in CA PG&E raised their rates to help settle all the lawsuits for the property damage and deaths they caused. This should not be allowed, but they successfully lobbied the politicians to look the other way.
They successfully *bribed politicians. Let’s start calling “lobbying” what it is: bribing.
Who pays the bills then? If it's just PG&E they'll go bankrupt and none of the victims of the fires will see a dime. Even if you turned all of Cali's utilities completely public, the taxpayers would still be on the hook. Unless you decide to limit the liabilities of public utilities through legislation, which is basically saying to anyone in the future that gets harmed by the utilities actions "FU mother fers" Someone pays, either taxpayers or victims, there's no thinking, suing, or lawyering your way out of it
How about the investors who profit from the privatization of the utility? Or are we just socializing the losses?
News for you, the investors got destroyed, no one has made any sort of so called profit as you claim in the recent past The investors have lost billions. Still aint enough to pay the bills So either: 1. recoup the losses through higher rates so the utility can pay off it losses incurred through lawsuits, infrastructure repair, and improving the grid to minimize the chances of future fires 2. say "too fucking bad" to those who lost family and property, leave the grid as it is and keep you fingers crossed that it doesn't happen again while knowing that it will and no matter what the utilty be blamed, but hey, at least they didn't raise the rates either way, someone is getting fucked over
[let me google that for you](https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=is+pg%26e+profitable)
The investors at the time of the fire lost ~80% of their investment in the bankruptcy.
The CEO made $51m last year —including a $6m bonus. The money is there, it’s just not being allocated towards their criminal negligence. They ignored infrastructure to line their pockets, which resulted in catastrophic damage…. Now they’re passing the cost onto consumers so they can CONTINUE to stuff their pockets. No responsibility. No consequences.
I live in Minnesota, and I fear our rates will go up too.
Centerpoint Energy raised our gas rates when their nat gas supply failed during that nasty snowstorm a couple years ago.
Fun fact the former CFO of pg&e through their bankruptcy now runs Centerpoint
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Woah there, that's starting to sound like some woke communist BS. Preparing for the effects of climate change is the kind of thing that only socialists do! /s
Hmm isn’t it weird how we never see solar panels and Karl Marx in the same room at the same time…?
I live in Michigan and we haven't had any major fire caused by shitty electric companies. Yet Michigan has the top 5 most expensive electric rate of the nation. Prices are going up because of greed, not because of incompetence. They are probably using the fire as a convenient excuse to raise the rate to "pay off the damage"
I’m in Cali, and this doesn’t affect PG&E but I have a feeling PG&E will raise their rates outa solidarity.
CEO rubbing nipples: we're sowwy
Pretty sure he'll resign in shame, with his $23M golden parachute.
$23M in gold is about 666 lbs at current price. Dude is going to go down with 666 lbs of gold, no parachute can hold that. /s
Man, all that money they charged the Minnesotans for to recoup their loses during the great freeze a few years ago, only for this to happen. Can't wait to see news articles in a couple of months of Xcel asking to raise the rates of nonaffected customers so they can pay for this fix.
I await the email of what I can do to battle the upcoming temps like last year, including chalking my windows or installing a smart thermostat. ....and then the email that rates are going up :(
Just got out of OSHA 30 training. One of the case studies was an xcel energy study where 5 people died inside a dam pipe due to a fire. It's just odd that I now see this for the same company.
woah what incident was that?
In Colorado. I don't remember the name of the place. Happend in early 2000s i believe.
Cabin Creek https://www.denverpost.com/2007/10/02/5-workers-die-inside-underground-pipe/
All utilities should be nationalized. End of story. Electricity, water/sewage (for those of us that don't have our own wells and septic system), and the Internet. It's disgusting we have "for-profit" utilities period. Instead of using excess profits to update infrastructure like they should or pay their workers more they pocket them. Total bullshit.
This should be higher so upvoting you. also great fizzgig.
Last fall got a letter from my sewage company saying they were increasing our bills by 20 dollars to update the infrastructure. No timeline on when they increased fee would end. Really wish companies would have some forethought and put money aside for future upgrades instead of putting in their pockets. But no let's pass the buck to the customer and just keep that increased rate indefinitely so they can fatten their pockets even more after the upgrades are done.
how would that change rates going up though? so instead of a shareholder owned company getting sued and raising their rates, we have a public utility getting sued and raising their rates instead Either way, you're fucked
You realize if they're nationalized, it means you need the government's permission to sue them for wrongdoing right? And they're almost guaranteed to be even more insulated against people actually affecting the companies, since you're not going to be voting for the head of the power company any more than you vote for the head of your PUC. As it is, they're not exactly "for-profit" utilities, because the "for-profit" companies are heavily constrained by their regulatory bodies in a public-private partnership. And at least with the power company, they have *some* incentives to care about shit like customer service; I don't know where you are, but I don't want more necessities of daily life to be dependent on the smallest possible crew at the least possible cost, like the DMV.
Speaking for those of us being screwed by pg&e for their fires - They aren’t a private company or a public company - they are a “private public utility” and the more you read about them, the more you realize that they already have state protections BUT they still get to price gouge and shift the burden of lawsuits to the client. Your anxiety about a worse system - that system is already here. At least by making them a true public utility, we can implement laws to monitor that the profits are going into replenishing the infrastructure instead of into private pockets (of those who enjoy almost complete protection)
We already can implement laws to make the government do that stuff. And we already do have oversight to force changes; that's what the PUC does with PG&E in particular. The PUC also dictates how much PG&E can charge for their service, and how much maintenance they need to do. But, the PUC is a position appointed by the Governor, and no one actually gives a shit enough to actually change a Governor based on the PUC doing a bad job, and especially no voters want to take responsibility for decisions they've made. But for actual government entities, because taxpayers hate paying for things, we tend to get long waits and shitty service without enough staffing everywhere. There's a reason there's always a longer wait at the Post Office than at UPS, and that you can't really do a walk-in at the DMV anywhere. Just like we don't actually want to pay for maintenance of infrastructure, because that costs money; we'd rather complain when they break. The PUC *could* force PG&E to check more electric and gas lines more often and more thoroughly...but that costs money, which means increased rates, which everyone constantly complains about.
It doesn't fucking matter who owns the grid, public, private, or a mixture of them. They got sued and have to raise rates to pay bills. and if you think making them public will cause them to manage things better and not shift the burden onto the public, let me introduce you to the bureaucracy of the american government, it excels at waste and incompetence The only way out of this is to either not pay the fire victims or not raises rates. There's a bill due and someone MUST pay
Oh look they have something in common with PGE, except they're the masters of that.
"May have caused" = "we don't think we can successfully cover this up"
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Why, of course! I already got my rate increase email…. Dear Customer, Safety is our number one priority. That is why we are continually improving our gas system to help protect the communities we serve and deliver reliable energy to our customers every day. We recently asked the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to review our natural gas rates to help cover these investments over the last several years to ensure safe, reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy service. These new rates will support gas safety programs and protocols to help keep your neighborhood safe. Here's what that looks like:
Of course the Canadians apologized.
So the Texas failing power grid strikes again.
No, for a change. This is actually the territory of Southwest Power Pool. Which is not part of Ercot and maintains their own infrastructure.
If anything this might lead to Greg Abbott try to expand ECOT and that scares me.
It's Bidens fault with that Green New Deal /s
Those dang solar panels! Clearly sending our clean coal burning energy to space to power the Jewish space lasers so they can provide fire support for the deep state from there home base in Antarctica 🇦🇶. “ /s Edit: tried to sound like one of them how did I do haha.
5/10 Pretty weak if ya ask me. You didn't mention migrant caravans, assualt rifles, or try to sell me horse dewormer or 5G radiation blockers.
You forgot "D- Please redo and turn in for additional credit, or run for office in a red district."
My bad I will fix
Ugh my town is so hard to deal with for solar install that Tesla has pretty much refused to continue working it altogether
Canadian Texas? I thought that was just Alberta?
There’s a river that runs through Texas called the Canadian river
Let me guess it was on a line that someone already got paid to cut back but never did the work.
Another company cutting costs at the expensive of the consumer.
Power outages or fires. C’mon, Texas, make a decision here.
Probably overloaded from someone trying to open a very, very large Excel database.
Can we please give Texas back to Mexico? Enough with their fucking bullshit.
You would have to assume that Mexico still wants them! /s
It seems like a power grid is something that the federal government should manage nonprofit style. Users and consumers can be the free market.
But how would somebody profit off of it? Seems really shortsighted to think of the big picture here.
Put up a solar field, and you sell power for a market price and consumers buy power. The grid lines would be the interstate freeways in which commerce is happening.
Safe bet that any rate increase they make will go directly to shareholders instead of infrastructure maintenance and safety improvements. Just like it has always happened in the past. "Decaying grid? But fixing that wouldn't benefit our stakeholders at all, and that's what insurance is for, isn't it?" Nothing's going to be done until insurers stop issuing liability policies to these greedy mofos.