A California utilities giant has gone into combat mode to stop progressive billionaire Tom Steyer’s bid for governorship and his plan to “break up electric monopolies.”
Pacific Gas & Electric contributed close to $10 million to an anti-Steyer PAC called Californians for Resilient and Affordable Energy, according to state campaign disclosures filed this month.
The political action committee, which is funding another committee named California Is Not For Sale, has been blasting ads against Steyer across sceens.
Most recently, they aired an ad taking advantage of Steyer’s gaffe on last Wednesday’s debate stage, where the candidate said that “me paying more taxes is not the answer.”
Steyer has been running on a platform of higher taxes on the wealthy. Another plank of his far-left agenda is to take apart the state’s energy companies.
Steyer has relished into branding PG&E as one of his top enemies. In a campaign ad launched in December, he states that “PG&E really p***** me off.”
He blamed California’s sky-high energy bills on the corporation and pledged to cut utility rates by 25%.
The way to do that, he said, is to break up “the monopolistic power of utilities.” The proposals could end up being a threat to investor-owned utilities.
Truly taking on PG&E, however, may be more politically challenging than Steyer’s ads may make it out to be.
Even state Democrats effectively derailed legislation last week that would have helped cities move away from PG&E toward publicly owned utilities.
The ads ran by the anti-Steyer PACs haven’t made much mention of Steyer’s utility plans. Instead, they criticize other issues such as proposed tax increases.
The utility company in response to Steyer’s utility proposals said it is already delivering energy “at lowest possible cost” and pointed to a $12 drop in typical residential monthly bills over the last two years, PG&E told SFGate.
Steyer remains one of the leading Democrats in the governor’s race thanks in part to more than $100 million of his own money he’s poured into his campaign.
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