Objects in your rear view mirror may be closer than they appear. Remember that as we say goodbye to Peter Darbee, PG&E”s CEO since 2005.
In his coronation address six years ago, Darbee said, “Turning things around hinges on restoring a sense of integrity within the company and in turn winning back the trust of customers. We want PG&E to eliminate the term ?ratepayer” from our vocabulary.” Instead, we want workers to always say ?customer.” A customer is someone that we have to go out and win day in and day out,” Darbee explained. “A ratepayer suggests someone who is the prisoner of a regulated utility “It”s going to be a big job but over a period of three years, five at the latest, my objective is for the customers of this state to say, ?Wow!””
Darbee kept his promise because there”s not a customer among us who doesn”t look back on Darbee”s career with PG&E and say “Wow.”
Darbee”s departure comes amid a federal investigation into the deadly San Bruno pipeline explosion that killed eight people, devastated an entire neighborhood destroying 38 homes and put a spotlight on the company”s safety standards.
PG&E paid for the investigation by the CPUC into the explosion and offered to reimburse the commission for what it termed “the costs of any other commission investigation that stems from it.”
Neither PG&E nor the CPUC could provide an estimate as to how much money has been spent on the investigation.
Darbee leaves PG&E with a retirement package worth $34.8 million. His annual salary was more than $10 million. That”s 74 percent above the median for large utility CEOs measured in the Wall Street Journal”s annual compensation survey.
Before joining PG&E corporation, Mr. Darbee was vice president and chief financial officer of Advanced Fibre Communications, Inc. and was vice president and chief financial officer of Pacific Bell.
He held positions with several investment banking firms including Salomon Brothers, Kidder, Peabody & Company, Citibank and Goldman Sachs.
As an investment banker at Goldman Sachs from 1989 to 1994, Darbee was vice president and co-head of the firm”s energy and telecommunications group.
A former Goldman banker described the culture as “Completely money-obsessed. I was like a donkey driven forward by the biggest, juiciest carrot I could imagine. Money is the way you define your success. There”s always room ? need ? for more. If you are not getting a bigger house or a bigger boat, you”re falling behind. It”s an addiction.”
You know what a customer is? It”s someone you turn over and shake down until all the change falls out of their pockets. Sorry Peter.
PG&E operates as a quasi-government agency and the CPUC has routinely approved massive rate increases.
The utility company funneled big bonus checks to its top corporate leadership at the brink of bankruptcy and then rewarded the executives who were at the helm.
Before becoming CPUC”s General Counsel, Frank Lindh was an attorney for PG&E and general counsel of Pacific Gas Transmission Company.
CPUC President Michael Peevey welcomed him aboard in 2008 saying “On behalf of my fellow commissioners and CPUC staff, I welcome Frank to the commission. He brings with him a wealth of experience as an attorney and as an energy expert. I am confident he will hit the ground running and provide strong leadership to our Legal Division.”
In 2010 PG&E spent $46 million sponsoring a statewide ballot initiative to limit the ability of local governments to provide electrical service and make it difficult for regions within their service territory to buy power from sources other than PG&E.
Proposition 16 would have required a two-thirds vote for cities and counties to enter the retail power business.
Critics lambasted the measure as a blatant attempt to lock in a monopoly. How does that jive with “restoring a sense of integrity and winning back customer trust?”
And when it comes to public safety concerns, PG&E has a dubious record.
The South San Joaquin Irrigation District found that out last year when PG&E tried to push a 24-inch natural gas pipeline through district easements without going through the same environmental review process everyone else has to.
PG&E threatened to sue if it wasn”t allowed to proceed immediately. Fortunately the SSJID didn”t back down and got the assurances and specifications they needed to make sure its water wasn”t polluted and its constituents were safe.
PG&E has not been faithful. It cheated on us repeatedly and now it expects us to forgive and forget.
People remember. “Sorry honey, I”ll never do it again” doesn”t cut it.
Peter Darbee was a SmartMeter champion.
He referred to himself as a pioneer. He”s quoted as saying “Pioneers get a lot of arrows.
They got a lot of arrows when they were breaking into America and we”re getting a lot of arrows here.”
Tell that to the Indians, Peter. Meanwhile let”s all not get run over by the smart grid as it lays its rails across the great American frontier.
The train”s a comin”!
Howard Glasser
Kelseyville
