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Today members of DSA SF as part of the #NoPGEBailout coalition protested the California Public Utilities Commission’s emergency meeting to approve $5.5 billion in private funding for PG&E’s bankruptcy restructuring.

Statement released by the #NoPGEBailout coalition:

Dozens of Family Members, Ratepayers, Interrupt California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Hastey “Special” Meeting to consider $6 Billion PG&E Bailout

At a last minute, hastily organized meeting of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), dozens of protestors from the No PG&E Bailout Coalition demanded that the CPUC stop the illegal proceedings, and not move forward with preemptively offering billions of dollars in public funds to PG&E, the corporate utility, which it regulates.

Protestors chanted “Shame” and “Wall Street Bailout: We Say No” and read the names of the 88 people killed in the 2018 Camp fire, while the CPUC commissioners voted to first declare an emergency action, allowing them to forgo public process, and then to authorize loans from wall street banks to bailout PG&E if the utility declares Chapter 11 tomorrow, January 29th.

“The CPUC is enabling PG&E’s criminal negligence that killed 86 in the Camp fire with a $6Million bailout on the backs of already struggling ratepayers in California. We denounce the attacks on Community Choice energy programs and we denounce the PG&E Bailout!” – Jessica Tovar, Local Clean Energy Alliance

“We owe it to the victims of Paradise, Sonoma, and San Bruno to radically restructure what our gas and electric system looks like. What the CPUC did today by authorizing PG&E to take out these loans without discretionary review is going to create even more situations of putting profit over people. We have the opportunity to change our electric system to one that’s safe, public, and ensures everyone the right to access and the CPUC blew it.”

  • Faiq Raza, San Francisco Democratic Socialists of America

The No PG&E Bailout Coalition committed after the meeting to pressure Governor Gavin Newsom, the legislature, and the CPUC to stand up for a democratic, public, local, renewable, safe energy system for all Californians.