Massive PG&E Power Outage in San Francisco Renews Calls for Publicly-Owned Utilities
December 30, 2025
CBS News
Severin Borenstein, Energy Institute Faculty Director, argues that while San Francisco has the option to leave PG&E and pursue a publicly owned utility, the process would be highly complex, expensive, and would likely take many years to complete in CBS News.
“Professor Severin Borenstein, the faculty director of UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas, says a divorce is logistically possible but would be a lengthy and complex process.
‘It would take many, many years, and it would be extremely expensive. PG&E would fight it, as they did with the creation of SMUD, the Sacramento Municipal Utility. That litigation went on for nearly a decade,’ he said. ‘Mostly, what happens when part of a utility is taken over is the municipal has to pay the utility for their equipment. Then they have to decide how much to pay. That disagreement goes to court, almost certainly, and takes years and years to sort out.'”
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