Megatrends criticizes PG&E outages and calls for utility reforms

Pat Fahey dedicated a segment of the Jan. 15 Megatrends broadcast to criticism of utility monopolies, singling out Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and citing recent customer outages in San Francisco over the holiday period.

On-air, Fahey said roughly 130 PG&E customers were plunged into hours-long blackouts across San Francisco and that some outages stretched for days during a critical shopping weekend. He cited an average annual customer outage figure of 276 minutes and said PG&E reported record profits in 2024, which Fahey read as $2,470,000,000, and claimed a CEO compensation figure of about $15,000,000.

Fahey argued the incentive structure used by regulators encourages utilities to pursue costly capital projects rather than cheaper solutions and suggested breaking up monopolies or changing public-utility commission incentives to lower rates and outages.

The program offered on-air statistics and interpretation from Fahey; it did not include a PG&E statement, a regulator's explanation of the incentive model, or independent verification of the figures presented. Reporters should corroborate the outage data and corporate financial figures with official filings and regulatory sources.