A Call For A Just Transition To A Not-For-Profit “People’s Utility” in California
We, the undersigned members of the Reclaim Our Power: Utility Justice Coalition, call on California to enact a Just Transition to a safe, reliable, regenerative, renewable and affordable utility system controlled by workers and the community.
Reclaim Our Power is a growing statewide coalition of organizations and individuals fighting for a just energy future. We share the conviction that the energy system we all depend on to live must serve the needs of the people and the land, not the stock market.
The Consequences of an Energy System Shaped by Corporate Greed, Mismanagement & Extraction
PG&E has repeatedly demonstrated that it prioritizes profits over the safety of people and the planet. They have caused some of the worst disasters in California’s recent history: gas pipeline explosions, catastrophic power shutoffs, major blackouts, and countless wildfires that have killed hundreds of people and destroyed whole communities.1 These preventable utility-caused crises are a result of the profit-driven decision by PG&E leadership to defer grid maintenance for decades.2
A Crisis of Affordability and Energy Debt for Millions of Families
PG&E’s rates are among the highest of any electric utility in the United States.3 As a result, more than one in five California families are in utility debt,4 and hundreds of thousands of households have their power shut off for nonpayment every year, disproportionately harming low-income, Black, brown and disabled communities. A tiny fraction of shareholder profits would be enough to forgive all the debt that resulted in shutoffs in the US.5 This leaves people with an unbearable choice: pay the energy bill or put food on the table.
At the root of these problems lies the business model of investor-owned utilities (IOUs), whose purpose is to maximize profits. This structural profit incentive drives IOUs to overspend, overcharge, and under-perform – making us all less safe and forcing families into poverty just to enrich a handful of Wall Street shareholders,6 including hedge fund investors like Vanguard and Black Rock, who also profit from crimes against humanity, including genocide.7
Our Vision for a People’s Utility
There is a better way. It is unsafe, unaffordable, and unsustainable to allow PG&E and other IOUs to remain as California’s electric and gas utility monopolies. With the increasing severity of the climate crisis – longer, more frequent and severe heat waves, wildfires, droughts, storms, and floods – it is critical that we act decisively and responsibly to prevent further harm and build resilience to weather the storms ahead.
Reclaim Our Power is advancing justice-centered utility system transformation. Energy is a human right and should not be sold as a commodity for profit.
A not-for-profit People’s Utility must have a mandate to repair past and ongoing harms, and prepare for the architecture of tomorrow. It would prioritize environmental justice, local clean energy, and equitable rate design. No one would have to go without power because they can’t afford to pay, and every dollar could go into making a more reliable, affordable, and safer grid for everyone.
The new utility system must be designed in partnership with our coalition, in line with our Principles for Utility Justice.
What We Believe: 10 Principles of Utility Justice
Land Back and Reparations.
California must advance Indigenous sovereignty by returning stolen land to Indigenous stewardship and advance racial equity and justice by making reparations to Black Californians.
Environmental Justice.
California’s utility system must collaborate with environmental justice leaders to replace polluting power plants with clean, safe energy generation in communities that are most burdened by poverty and pollution.
Frontline Leadership.
Our future utility’s governance structure must provide for decision-making power by frontline communities.8 Those most impacted by the problems of pollution, utility-sparked fires, utility debt and shut offs have the solutions to ensure that the utility system meets their communities’ needs.
Energy Democracy.
The only way to create an energy system that works for us is if it is determined by us. The new utility must provide a vehicle for workers and community members to have decision-making power.
Worker Rights.
The utility must provide good union jobs with living wages, good benefits and safe working conditions. Change in utility ownership must account for pathways for existing workers to sustain their employment and pensions.
Affordable, Reliable, Local Clean Energy.
The People’s Utility must replace dangerous nuclear and gas power plants with more affordable, local, community-owned and -controlled clean energy.
Corporate Accountability.
Investor-owned utilities must be held accountable for the consequences of their decisions and pay for the damages they cause, instead of California residents.
Equitable Emergency Planning.
The People’s Utility must collaborate with and provide support for Californians who are disabled, seniors, underinsured, undocumented, linguistically isolated, medically vulnerable, and unhoused to meaningfully participate in community-driven disaster and resilience planning.
Distributed Power.
The People’s Utility must limit centralized power plants and long transmission lines in favor of a decentralized network of resilient, local clean energy systems to save ratepayers billions of dollars and support local wealth creation.
Climate Resilience.
The People’s Utility must reinvest its revenues into energy conservation and efficiency, and support the development of community-owned solar and storage microgrids, and resilience hubs for weathering climate disasters.
We Demand a Just Energy Transition
We call on the Governor, Legislature, and other decision-makers of California to implement a just utility system transformation by:
- Collaborating with the Reclaim Our Power: Utility Justice Coalition and frontline community members to design a new, not-for-profit, justice-centered People’s Utility (or utilities) that will replace PG&E and the other IOUs.
- Pass and sign legislation to address the structural, legal, financial, workforce, and other barriers to enable a worker- and community-led Just Transition to a People’s Utility system that is structurally accountable to people and the planet, not shareholders’ profits.
Sincerely,
Members of the Reclaim Our Power! Utility Justice Campaign Coalition
References
- PG&E’s Rap Sheet: The Criminal History of the Largest Utility Monopoly in the US, Liberation News, 2024. ↩︎
- PG&E Knew for Years Its Lines Could Spark Wildfires, and Didn’t Fix Them, The Wall Street Journal, 2019. ↩︎
- PG&E Bills: Answering Frequently Asked Questions, The San Francisco Chronicle, 2025. ↩︎
- Q4 2025 Electric Rates Report, Public Advocate’s Office, 2026. ↩︎
- Powerless in the United States: How Corporate Utilities Drive Energy Unaffordability and Climate Chaos, Center for Biological Diversity, 2025. ↩︎
- The Secret Society Raising Your Electric Bills, The American Prospect, 2025. ↩︎
- From economy of occupation to economy of genocide – (A/HRC/59/23) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 – Question of Palestine. ↩︎
- Frontline communities are those who are most vulnerable to a particular burden or impact. They are also most sensitive to its effects, and have less adaptive capacity to mitigate the harm they are experiencing.
Low-income and BIPOC residents of environmental justice (EJ) neighborhoods are also frontline and most vulnerable to climate impacts: they are most exposed, more sensitive to, and have lower capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate change. As low-income residents of EJ communities are least responsible for causing the climate crisis in the first place, climate change ends up being an ‘injustice multiplier.’” (Oakland General Plan Update 2045, Racial Equity Impact Assessment | Environmental Justice & Safety Elements, Marybelle Nzegwu Tobias & Colin Miller, Environmental / Justice Solutions, p. 5, 2023). ↩︎