SAN FRANCISCO – While millions of California families struggled financially in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pacific Gas & Electric’s CEO made over $50 million for leading the reviled utility with a history of bad investments and punitive energy bills.
At the same time that CEO Patricia Poppe was raking in the money through direct compensation, the monopoly power company triggered the second largest wildfire in California history, estimated to cost more than $ 1 billion in damages, much of it from homes and entire communities burned to the ground.
Documents filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Poppe received a total compensation package of $51.2 million, according to a recent report by the Bay Area News Group.
Most of Poppe’s compensation came from $41.2 million in stock awards, as well a bonus of $6.6 million and an annual salary of $1.3 million, the report says.
Poppe’s financial windfall comes as PG&E is jacking up rates on its captive customers, in part to pay for the damage caused by last summer’s disastrous Dixie Fire. That catastrophe was sparked by a damaged power line owned and operated by PG&E.
“PG&E’s customers may not know how high their monthly gas and electric bills may go this year, how they’ll pay them, or exactly how much of California the company will burn to the ground in 2022,” said Environmental Working Group President and Bay Area resident Ken Cook. “But when they learn that the head of PG&E earned $51 million last year, they will know this: PG&E is out of touch and out of control.”
Poppe wasn’t the only PG&E executive who received millions in compensation last year.
Marlene Santos, PG&E’s chief customer officer, received a total compensation package of $7.5 million. The utility’s chief operating officer, Adam Wright, took home $6.5 million in salary and stock, according to the Bay Area News Group report.
“Even feigning shame and embarrassment is not required in order to occupy the C suites at PG&E headquarters,” added Cook.
News about the exorbitant executive compensation comes as PG&E customers have seen their monthly electric bills soar by nearly 10 percent since the beginning of 2022, with some captive ratepayers hit with even higher rate increases.
PG&E is currently locked in a battle with more than 600 clean energy and social justice advocates, including EWG, over the utility’s plot to quash California’s popular rooftop solar program. PG&E is asking the state to eliminate the financial incentives afforded to working-class families and all Californians who install solar panels.
PG&E is also seeking a hefty solar tax of more than $50 a month for all those throughout the utility’s vast service area who have or are considering installing rooftop solar – a move that will put residential solar out of reach for millions of budget-conscious residents. The plan aims to crush the only competition facing PG&E and the other investor-owned utilities in the state that allows solar customers to sell back surplus electricity to the grid.
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The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.
