Pacific Gas and Electric Company

She's literally just filing documents for what looks like a totally routine, boring real estate case.

Pacific Gas and Electric, PG&E, was buying up some properties in a small desert town called Hinkley, California.

But while organizing these real estate files, she notices something anomalous.

Tucked away among the property deeds and tax records are odd medical records, blood tests, oncology reports, detailed accounts of severe illnesses.

Just talking to people.

Yeah.

Why did you give PG&E your medical records? Who in your family is sick? And what she uncovers by simply talking to people is monumental.

She discovered an environmental catastrophe.

So today we're going to hear Greg Dalton's conversation with a major player in this space, Patti Poppe, CEO of California's Pacific Gas and Electric, the nation's biggest utility in terms of customers served.

I used to live in San Francisco, so I'm very familiar with PG&E and complaints about it.

After the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise, it was determined that faulty electric equipment started the blaze.

PG&E pled guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for its role starting the fire.

In 2021, Patty Poppy was brought on to fix things.

The company has been working to underground power lines to reduce fire risk, though many would say far too slowly.

At the same time, they need to manage increased demand from electric vehicles, induction cooktops, heat pumps, and of course, data centers.

Lately, rising electricity prices, repeated power outages, and the growing impact of climate change have put PG&E in the crosshairs of the public and legislators again.

So literally, I've gone out and seen what this looks like, right? It's people going out and they are inspecting lines and looking if trees are growing into it or if they're a fall risk, a limb might be a fall risk on something.

And I believe Patty Poppy, who's the head of PG&E, said that about 20, what is it, like $20 a bill is the average monthly payment for folks who, for vegetation management, this tree trimming stuff, right? It's a huge expense now because of the changing climate and wildfires.

OK, so in terms of wildfires, Meredith, can you explain how exactly we are paying for them in our bills? Can you break down a bit more of what Mike has told us?

Yeah, I can do my best.

So, and I need to be careful here.

We've done some work on this.

We looked at PG&E's data and found that these, this sort of, they call them fast trip settings, basically de-energizing at high risk times can reduce ignition risk by 80%.

That's

So today we're going to hear Greg Dalton's conversation with a major player in this space, Patti Poppe, CEO of California's Pacific Gas and Electric, the nation's biggest utility in terms of customers served.

I used to live in San Francisco, so I'm very familiar with PG&E and complaints about it.

After the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise, it was determined that faulty electric equipment started the blaze.

PG&E pled guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for its role starting the fire.

In 2021, Patty Poppy was brought on to fix things.

The company has been working to underground power lines to reduce fire risk, though many would say far too slowly.

At the same time, they need to manage increased demand from electric vehicles, induction cooktops, heat pumps, and of course, data centers.

Lately, rising electricity prices, repeated power outages, and the growing impact of climate change have put PG&E in the crosshairs of the public and legislators again.

Thank you.

PG&E CEO, Patty Poppy on rates, on wildfires, and on who fits the bill for the AI boom.

CEO Source with Diane Brady is up next.

Hi, Patty.

Hey, Diane.

Great to be with you.

Well, I think about Patty Poppy, PG&E, and I think data centers, wildfire, California, AI.

I mean, you are in the center of all the biggest debates that we're having right now.