PG&E sent me a Valentine signed ‘with love.’ As a customer, I’m not feeling the love | Opinion

PG&E doesn’t love its customers

“State agencies propose how to lower California energy costs,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 18)

PG&E’s CEO Patti Poppe is signing letters to customers this Valentine’s Season “with love,” while blaming them for higher rates because they have been more energy efficient and, subsequently, buying less power.

Her letter says that PG&E avoided summer blackouts in 2024 due to rooftop solar energy and battery storage kicking in during peak heatwave demand. Yet Poppe continues to blame rooftop solar owners for driving up energy prices.

The only thing driving up rates is overbuilding transmission lines. If she really loved her customers, Poppe would charge them affordable energy rates.

Sandy White

Fremont

Residential solar is not to blame

“State agencies propose how to lower California energy costs,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 18)

As a residential solar rooftop owner, I put about seven times as much energy back into the grid as we use in our home. This is sold to our neighbors at “prime time” rates (about four cents per kilowatt). We receive a whopping three-cent credit toward our bill for this generous contribution to the electrical grid.

Residential solar is not to blame for the huge spike in utility bills and the record profits of your local utility provider.

Dave Osland

Aptos

Taxpayers left with the bill

“Sacramento pays $300,000 settlement to ousted fire chief,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 12)

Sacramento’s former fire chief — whose “nearly four-year tenure in Sacramento was muddled in controversy, from allegations of harassment, bullying, hazing and racial insensitivity within the department to the chief and city’s decision to allow a reality TV series to film Sacramento firefighters responding to calls” — received a whopping $300,000 from the city.

From the city’s perspective, it’s better to settle. After all, it’s not their money.

Bill Motmans

Sacramento

Elimination of vital support

“Trump ban puts Sacramento-area Afghan refugees in limbo. ‘An incredibly difficult time’,” (sacbee.com, Feb 13)

My church, the Sierra Vista Community Church, has supported the local Afghan community for years

After planning a big dinner to raise funds this month, we were horrified to learn that the International Rescue Committee, the group we worked with, was closed by the Trump administration. These families work, pay taxes and want to lead productive American lives. Now their transportation is cut off?

IRC supplies starter kits for homes, food, resources and support for families (many of which have a family member who helped support the U.S. military). It is inhumane and certainly un-Christian to eliminate this vital support.

Kay Muther

Carmichael

Trump’s water failure

“Trump ushers in dangerous era of water management in CA,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 13)

The recent unilateral order by President Donald Trump to release water from California reservoirs ostensibly to assist fire-fighting efforts in Southern California was totally ineffective and grossly wasteful.

If such an irresponsible action had been directed by an employee of a water management agency, that employee’s future service with the agency would undoubtedly have been terminated.

Ken Lentz

Sacramento