"On Dec. 20, 2025, over a third of San Francisco residents were plunged into darkness as the power went out. During the outage, caused by a fire at a SoMa substation, residents worried about getting in and out of buildings with non-functioning elevators, losing critical supplies like medications as freezers stopped working, and communicating once their phone batteries went dead."
"Acquiring electrical infrastructure will be costly - PG&E turned down a $2.5 billion offer in 2019 - but proponents point out that with ratepayers as the priority, not shareholders, cities with public power tend to have lower electricity rates."
"In addition to power outages, people have been upset at PG&E for high electricity prices, long waits for electrical hookups, and safety issues (its equipment has triggered several of California's worst wildfires)."
A December 2025 power outage affecting over a third of San Francisco residents lasted more than 24 hours, causing widespread disruption including elevator failures, medication loss, and business closures during peak shopping season. Additional outages followed in subsequent days. PG&E, which operates the city's electrical infrastructure, has faced criticism for high rates, service delays, and safety issues linked to wildfires. In response, San Francisco politicians have proposed publicly acquiring PG&E's infrastructure to prioritize ratepayers over shareholders. While acquisition would be costly—PG&E rejected a $2.5 billion offer in 2019—cities with public power typically offer lower electricity rates. The city has pursued this groundwork since 2019 through potential buyout or eminent domain.
#public-power-acquisition #pge-infrastructure #power-outages #san-francisco-politics #utility-reform
Read at Mission Local
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]