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PG&E Union Leader Takes Aim at Bernie Sanders Ad Criticizing Utility

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Two energy workers dressed in safety gear and neon colors hold a tree amid a fire-damaged neighborhood.
PG&E workers work to repair power lines in the Coffey Park neighborhood following the devastation caused by the Tubbs Fire on Oct. 13, 2017, in Santa Rosa. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

The head of PG&E’s largest union has strong words for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders: “You’re wrong.”

In a YouTube video released Monday, Tom Dalzell — the business manager for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245 — responded to Sanders’ critique of PG&E, part of the Vermont senator’s pitch to California voters ahead of the March 3 state primary.

“You assume that public ownership somehow guarantees that a utility would always have perfect judgement. You’re wrong,” Dalzell says in the video. “You assume that public ownership would significantly and quickly change the risks of fire from the grid. You’re wrong.”

The union’s attack comes nearly a week after the Sanders campaign released a three-minute ad berating PG&E for the number of fires it has been responsible for starting in recent years.

“If we’re going to be paying for everything that PG&E does, the people of California should have a say in how it is run,” an activist said in Sanders’ ad.

The ad stops short of specifically calling for a public takeover of the utility, but concludes with a nod to the Green New Deal, which Sanders has vowed to enact if elected.

In an interview with KQED, Dalzell said he was disappointed that Sanders did not consult IBEW 1245 before issuing the ad.

“He generally pays attention to unions and workers,” Dalzell said. “No such effort here.”

A key element of Dalzell’s critique stems from concerns over how a public takeover of the utility would impact workers’ pensions.

The Sanders campaign did not specifically respond to an inquiry about its push for a public takeover of the utility and the potential impact on workers’ pensions. But, in a statement, Josh Orton — the campaign’s policy director — said that Sanders’s plan calls for a large-scale transition to renewable energy generation that will create millions of well-paid union jobs in California and across the country.

“And let’s be clear: Bernie Sanders will prioritize the fossil fuel workers who have powered our economy for more than a century and who have too often been neglected by corporations and politicians,” he said.

PG&E entered into bankruptcy protection last year, citing liabilities stemming from wildfires. CalFire investigators have found that PG&E caused several recent massive fires in the state, including the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and leveled the town of Paradise.

PG&E is getting closer to emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the state-mandated deadline of June 30. Doing so would allow it to tap a wildfire fund set up by California lawmakers to help protect the state’s utilities from future fire losses.

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Nonetheless, a growing chorus of local and state leaders are pushing for some kind of shared ownership of the utility.

Earlier this month, State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced legislation that would allow the state to seize control of PG&E. It proposes using eminent domain to force the utility’s stockholders to sell their shares to the state.

The proposal has the support of San Francisco Mayor London Breed, among others, even as her city continues to move forward with its own efforts to take over the portion of PG&E’s grid that lies within its territory. The city’s Public Utilities Commission recently unveiled a $50,000 ad campaign titled “Our City, Our Power” to provide residents with regular updates.

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At the same time, a coalition of elected officials led by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has been trying to rally support to turn PG&E into a publicly-owned cooperative.

“A lot of money needs be invested in safety, maintenance, and grid hardening. We want to ensure we better align the company’s financial incentives with the public interest, and we think a publicly-owned private-company is the best way to do that,” Liccardo said in a recent interview with KQED.

He called public ownership through eminent domain arduous and expensive. “Taxpayers always do very poorly and private landowners do very well in those eminent domain cases,” he said.

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