Lawmakers planning to ‘break up’ with PG&E
September 4, 2026
Severin Borenstein, Energy Institute Faculty Director, said San Francisco’s effort to form a publicly owned utility could lead to lower bills for San Francisco ratepayers and higher bills for remaining Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) customers in less-dense areas, while cautioning that separating from PG&E would be a difficult and lengthy process.
“Severin Borenstein, director of UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute, said it’s hard to tell how those added costs would factor into the equation but that exiting PG&E would probably lead to lower bills for ratepayers in San Francisco and higher bills for remaining PG&E customers in rural and less dense areas, which are currently being subsidized by the city. That could make the legislation less attractive to some stakeholders, he said.
Still, there is ‘no question’ that Weiner has raised legitimate concerns about operational failures at PG&E, Borenstein said. But divorcing the utility is likely to be a difficult and drawn-out process for San Francisco. Sacramento’s similar effort to leave PG&E and form the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in the 1940s led to years of legal and political battles, with the city ultimately using eminent domain to acquire PG&E’s local system.
‘The track record is that these are long, costly, difficult processes that usually fail,’ Borenstein said, although he noted that Wiener’s legislation is attempting to ‘make it less long and less costly and less difficult.’”
Photo: LA Times