<story><title>PG&amp;E claims no connection between rate increases and $2.2B jump in earnings</title><url>https://abc7news.com/pge-rate-increase-2023-earning-2-billion-dollar-profit/14483425/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>sevg</author><text>For people outside USA&amp;#x2F;California, PG&amp;amp;E serves gas and electricity to two thirds of California.&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;re featured in the film Erin Brockovitch for knowingly dumping 1400 million litres of hexavalent chromium contaminated water in the 50s and not informing the water board until the 80s, resulting in countless cancer deaths in Hinkley, California.&lt;p&gt;Their equipment has led to many wildfires (eg, approximately 40 of the 315 wildfires in PG&amp;amp;E&amp;#x27;s service area in 2017 and 2018 were allegedly caused by PG&amp;amp;E equipment). They&amp;#x27;ve been guilty multiple times of criminal negligence, including for gas explosions (see comments below from epistasis and toomuchtodo).&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;ve had controversies surrounding tax dodging, deforestation, dirty tactics to maintain monopoly, collusion with regulatory agencies, and rates that are among the highest in the US (eg, electricity rates in 2021 were 80% above the national average).&lt;p&gt;Overall, a real treasure of a utility company.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Pacific_Gas_and_Electric_Company#Disasters&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Pacific_Gas_and_Electric_Com...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Pacific_Gas_and_Electric_Company#Controversies&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Pacific_Gas_and_Electric_Com...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>PG&amp;E claims no connection between rate increases and $2.2B jump in earnings</title><url>https://abc7news.com/pge-rate-increase-2023-earning-2-billion-dollar-profit/14483425/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>EchoChamberMan</author><text>Unlimited year over year growth is  cancer, and it&amp;#x27;s killing most of us. A lot of other companies are raking in records profits as well.&lt;p&gt;[Edit]&lt;p&gt;Much of these profits have just as much justification as pg&amp;amp;e - &amp;quot;I want more.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;[Edi]&lt;p&gt;Wow, they have the audacity to say the profits are &amp;quot;primarily driven by an increase in customer capital investment,&amp;quot; as if customers chose to give their money away.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pgecorp.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;news-details.d78413bf-71e9-4a77-be2c-d88f44203572.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pgecorp.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;news-details.d78413bf-71e9-4a77...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>