On April 30, Reclaim Our Power will host a utility workshop to discuss how the community can push private utility companies like PG&E out and have public utilities take over. Through the workshop, the organization hopes to learn what the community would like to see in an energy system. The meeting will be from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Salon Juarez in Bakersfield.
Colin Logan, Cultural and Community Organizer with Recaliam our Power, explained that moving away from for-profit energy companies will ensure that the safety of residents is a priority, not making money.
“We’re trying to build an energy system where people and the planet come before profit, and energy is no longer seen as a commodity, but rather as a human right, and something that everybody is guaranteed. No one should have to choose between paying for groceries paying for bills, rent, mortgages that are all going and paying for energy. No one should be turned off their energy for the crime of poverty,” said Logan.
Private companies contribute to the high costs of utility bills because of their need to make a profit. Logan stated that while many people may think the high cost is due to generating the energy, he explained that it is actually the cost of building new transmissions and the company having a 10 to 12 percent profit margin to meet.
“We know that people in the Central Valley are experiencing some of the highest rates in California, which has some of the highest rates in the country. So we’ll talk about things that we can do right now to build our power and build the movement to abolish and dismantle PG&E. And build a different kind of energy system that’s not for profit and talk about solutions that advance energy justice, sovereignty, and self-determination to help them meet our people’s needs for affordable local clean energy today,” said Logan.
Emi Yoko-Young, policy organizer with Reclaim Our Power, stated that in 2025 the PG&E CEO got paid $17 million and that in a public utility system, there would not be $17 million dollar salaries while “20 percent of our communities are in utility debt.” She added that because of the investor-owned utilities, the profit margin that Logan had mentioned continues to be associated with the unsafe systems.
“They’re like, let’s run it to failure and let’s build something new, because they know that they get a higher rate of return,” said Yoko-Youngn, adding that these decisions add to costs, and several fires have been from faulty structures. “They said that this is a result of climate change, right? This is natural. And what we know is that this is actually unnatural. The utilities could have maintained their utilities, their infrastructure, but they chose not to, because they don’t really get a rate of return on the repairs.”
She mentioned the campfire in Paradise in 2018, stating that, “there was a hook that was decades and decades past its usable life, and they had been told for decades that they should replace this hook. And then it snapped, and it essentially, like, burned down an entire community.”
According to National Public Radio, PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and a felony count for unlawfully starting a fire. Logan stated PG&E starts an average of 400 fires a year, whereas Sacramento, which has a public utility district, started zero fires in 2023.
Logan added that within public utility systems like the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, their rates can be half as much as private companies such as PG&E and SoCal Gas.
“So, people think that we have to, just put up with having PG&E, and we don’t have to. We can actually build a movement for an alternative to replace them that has lower rates,” said Logan.
A KQED analysis in 2025 showed that the average PG&E bill went up around 70 percent from 2020 and that the average monthly bill was $300 in 2025 compared to $179 in 2020. According to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District website, the average cost for someone using 750 Killowats an hour as of January 2026 was $149, compared to $290 at PG&E for the same usage and $283 for SoCal Gas.
Logan and Yoko-Young both stated that right now, there is no way to hold companies accountable.
“There is really zero accountability, and bills have been passed that were written by utility lawyers and passed by the legislature, most of whom receive campaign contributions from PG&E and the other utilities. The governor signs bills into law because he also receives millions in campaign contributions from the utilities, and he hand-picks the members of the California Public Utilities Commission who are supposed to be regulating the utilities, but ultimately are doing the bidding of PG&E, SoCal Edison, and San Diego Gas and Electric,” said Logan.
The need for accountability led to the start of Reclaim Our Power after the fire in Paradise. In 2019, Yoko-Young stated their leadership team started the organization with the goal to abolish PG&E and rebuild the system, centered on the people and the planet. During the workshop, they hope to further this conversation with community members so everyone knows they do not have to stick to what they are used to.
“There are alternatives. We don’t have to be content with the status quo. The status quo is actually killing us, whether it’s slowly or quickly, and if we come together, we can do this. We can build an alternative that can make our lives better and improve the quality of our lives through energy. Make justice possible,” said Logan.
RSVP for the event here.
