What a start to the (almost) weekend: PG&E filed for Chapter 11 this morning. The Govenor's proposing a 37% rate increase for residential users, which goes on top of a 10% increase put in place in January. It's hard for me to justify paying nearly $200/month to a company that's paying people not to produce energy, has failed to invest in alternative sources of energy, encouraged the passage of the "landmark" deregulation bill in 1996, and has a parent company with $30 billion in the bank. The best part?
"[S]tate power grid managers said California will see more than a month of rolling blackouts for as many as 5 million people at a time if residents use as much power this summer as last summer." – SFGate
$200/month for power which may or may not be delivered to your door? This whole situation makes me ill.
Live in the Bay Area? Receive email alerting you if your block is going to loose power. Seems handy, assuming there's enough power for the mail to make it to your inbox.