The New Normal: Blackouts

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HARDER of California. Madam Speaker, I rise in frustration for my constituents in California's Central Valley. Folks across my community are reeling from blackouts caused by greed, corruption, and mismanagement at our State's largest utility, PG&E.

I am not the only one who is fed up. More than 1,000 people in my district had their power cut by PG&E, some for days.

Now the company is saying more blackouts could be coming this week and that it could be the new normal for the next decade. I refuse to accept that.

Regular people can't choose to not pay their bills, and PG&E shouldn't be able to abuse that fact by refusing to invest in their grid. These blackouts are happening because rich executives decided to give themselves millions of dollars in bonuses instead of investing in their crumbling infrastructure.

Hundreds of thousands of people lost power because of these executives' greed. PG&E even proposed handing out another $16 million in additional bonuses this year. It took a judge to stop their plan. Meanwhile, their shutoffs are estimated to cost our families more than $2 billion.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source