Ron Schenone

California’s Pacific Gas & Electric CEO Gets $9.8M Bonus – Huge Rate Increase Proposed

Posted by on Mar 12, 2010 | 2 Comments

I received an articles from a friend of mine about how Pacific Gas and Electric aka PG&E continues to gouge the people of California. Apparently the latest is that PG&E suffered a 10% decline in profits which fell from $1.2 billion last year as opposed to $1.34 billion in 2008. The article also mentioned that the CEO of PG&E received a compensation package of $9.8 million even when profits declined. The company is now asking for a huge rate increase that will line their pockets with another $1.01 billion if passed. The company is planning to spend some $35 million to get the voters in California to pass a bill that would try to stop any future competition.

Eight years ago the voters of California threw out Governor Gray Davis and his cronies because of  the irresponsible way they entered into contracts with electric suppliers and also because the state faced a $5 billion dollar budget deficit. The people voted Governor Schwarzenegger into office which resulted in a lucrative deal for PG&E, the end of deregulation, higher utility rates and now a $20 billion dollar deficit. What an approvement! LOL

We can argue that the Republicans or Democrats are to blame for our current economic situation. But the truth is that the blame falls upon all of our shoulders. Out government no longer represents the people an instead represent the large corporations and special interest groups that line our politicians pockets with money. Greed has infiltrated our entire government. Greed has infiltrated all of corporate America. Is there anyone who can deny this has happened?  Our system has slowly decayed to a point where our confidence in either the Republican or Democratic party has eroded and we can no longer trust either party.

What is disturbing about what is happening in California, is that this cancer can spread to other states as well. Is your state next for being gouged by your electric or natural gas company?

Comments welcome.

Source.

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  • MtnWolfGrl

    It is really odd that you are just waking up to the fact that corporations “own” the government. This has been going on since the days of the war between the states. In fact, probably much earlier, because the U.S. has always been a capitalist country. (There is a good article by Joe Bageant on Alternet about American capitablism: What’s It Going to Take to Make the Bastards in Finance Pay? Navigating the craters of our bombed-out economic landscape.)

    The so-called term limits that is the law here in California has really made it possible for the corporates to own California. And $20 billion deficit is only this year. Last year , it was more than twice that amount. There has been a huge deficit every year for years now, and the way to fix these deficits is to cut more and more services AND not increase taxes. Well, what happens when there are no more services to cut? This is the Grover Norquist principle of what smaller government should be. His principle also includes drowning it in the bathtub once it is really small.

    California hit the skids when ronald mcdonald reagan was elected governor, and now it looks, like we are going to get another idiot to run the state as a figurehead for the corporations in the name of meg whitman who seems to believe that the public employee unions are the reason that the state is in this predicament. I don’t even want to talk about jerry brown – he had his chance back in the 70′s. He was referred to as governor moon beam back then.

    Yes, basically, the fault is on the people of California. No one really reads all of these propositions that appear on the ballot almost every year. The other thing is that most of the voters don’t even bother to go to the polls or do mail-in voting. All people do is whine and complain. Apathy is the leading cause of the mess. The voters are under the misconception that politicians are going to fix things and that isn’t going to happen, because it is not in the best interests of the politicians to fix anything. Not when their tenures in office are being funded by the corporates. (The small percentage of those that vote will vote out this group of idiots and vote in another group.)

    California is on the merry-go-around to oblivion, because unlike the fed it can’t print more money to fix things.