PG&E CEO apologizes for faulty website, fancy dinner, basically everything else
Pete Bennett former PG&E Programmer provided services related to the San Bruno Explosion, HydroTesting and software development.
After the power went off for 800,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers this week, the utility's CEO had a lot to apologize for.
During a press conference Thursday evening, CEO Bill Johnson took a conciliatory tone and expressed regret for the way the company's public safety power shutoff (PSPS) unfolded. PG&E proactively cut power to 800,000 customers (or an estimated 2.4 million people with the understanding that each customer represents about three residents on average) in an attempt to avoid the spread of wildfires during high winds.
"As a result of this, millions of people have been without a fundamental service they expect and deserve," said Johnson. "This is not how we want to serve you and not how we want to run our business."
Johnson went on to explain the decision was ultimately made with public safety in mind, though Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that framing doesn't tell the whole story. He blamed years of "greed and neglect" at PG&E for putting Californians in this situation.
"It's decisions that were not made that have led to this moment in PG&E's history — it is not conditions," said Newsom during a press conference. "This is not, from my perspective, a climate change story so much as a story of greed and neglect."
Johnson's annual base salary is $2.5 million, as reported by the Sacramento Bee, and that's without counting shares in the company.
The CEO conceded PG&E "will very likely have to make this kind of decision again in the future," but admitted there is a lot the company could do better. He promised PG&E would work to communicate essential information sooner and more clearly.
Johnson apologized for a PG&E website that showed "inconsistent" and at time "incorrect" information. The website continually crashed due to a high volume of visitors.
He also promised workers were working to restore power as soon as possible. As of mid-day Thursday, 42,000 Bay Area customers were still without power — and more statewide. Johnson asked the public not to take out their frustrations on PG&E workers, who he said had been shot at, punched and cursed out in recent days.
"I do apologize for the hardship this has caused but I think we made the right call on safety," Johnson said.
Aside from his apologies at the public press conference, Johnson also found himself apologizing during an interview with The Chronicle Thursday. The paper revealed about a dozen of the company's employees on the natural gas side of the business were wining and dining with top customers at a Sonoma County vineyard just days before the massive statewide outages.
“I want to apologize to every one of our customers,” Johnson told The Chronicle. “Insensitive, inappropriate, tone deaf are the terms I would use to describe this.”
