How PG&E Uses Ratepayers' Money to Fund Its Political Warfare Against Compeition

[Below is Loretta Lynch's excellent description of how PG&E uses ratepayers' money to fund Prop 16, its efforts to squelch CCAs and public power, and its other political powergrabs and shenanigans. Loretta was Chair of California's Public Utilities Commission a decade ago, has been teaching at University of California at Berkeley, and is the author of a forthcoming book on energy politics in California. ~ Ed Mainland]

"The reason that every penny comes from ratepayers is that the CPUC determines what ratepayers must pay to PG&E -- and every penny PG&E gets is either from ratepayers or from the interest earned from ratepayer monies that PG&E has in bank accounts. PG&E does not magically "create value" from somewhere -- every penny they get comes from or is interest on money coming from its ratepayers.

"The CPUC, in determining the rates, assigns ratepayer money into different buckets -- this ratepayer dollar is going to pay for power purchases, this ratepayer dollar will pay for transmission lines, this ratepayer dollar will pay for administrative overhead (including their cars and drivers!) and this ratepayer dollar will pay for PG&E's profit, called a return on equity, but a profit nonetheless. So when PG&E says that they are using "Shareholder" money to pay for this political campaign it is just a label that has been affixed to a bucket of ratepayer dollars that were set aside by the CPUC to pay those shareholders/for the company's profit. The CPUC can raise or lower that bucket of shareholder money (or change the rate of return on equity) the CPUC can effectively dump more money in that bucket (by either taking it out of other buckets or by increasing the amounts of money ratepayers have to pay). Thus, the CPUC can "give" PG&E our own money to use against us."