Letters to the Editor: Why is PG&E warning a ‘customer’ in Culver City about outages?

To the editor: The L.A. Times reports that Pacific Gas & Electric failed to notify 23,000 customers about precautionary power outages. The company blamed some of the gaps in notification on residents not having contact information on file.

Well, I can personally verify that PG&E’s analog records are in working order.

Here in Culver City, I have been receiving PG&E’s “important safety alert” voicemails for the past two fire seasons. They warn me about possible power outages in our neighborhood and include a special code to enter on the website to pinpoint our specific location’s warning level and provide additional instructions.

Why is this happening? In the early 1980s my parents retired and relocated to El Dorado County. They returned to Southern California in 1990. My number must have been listed on their old PG&E “in case of emergency” paperwork.

Both my parents have long since shuffled off this mortal coil. But sometimes I wonder about the safety of whoever bought the home my father so lovingly built years ago. Hopefully they’re getting the calls too.

Ginny LeRossignol Blades, Culver City

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To the editor: Investor-owned utilities have been raking in our dollars for decades while failing in their duty to maintain the infrastructure as they should have.

The cost of doing business must include taking the measures necessary to avoid catastrophes. The managers at these companies already know of regular high winds in parts of the state, that the Earth is getting hotter and much of California is dryer, and that the infrastructure they built is old. But they have spent decades hording money and failing to upgrade.

Instead of prioritizing themselves and their shareholders, they should spend the money to ensure that the customer is safe and receives service. Utility company management and shareholders need to be held accountable for their negligence, and they ought to pay for losses incurred by customers.

Sally Rivera, Rancho Cucamonga

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To the editor: If your readers are anything like me, they are anxious to know where PG&E’s fire safety money went.

In a recent editorial, the Wall Street Journal wrote, “For years [PG&E] skimped on safety upgrades and repairs while pumping billions into green energy and electric-car subsidies to please its overlords in Sacramento.”

As Californians have our lungs scorched with fire smoke, can the L.A. Times figure out where the fire safety money went? For years many people knew we were playing a dangerous game on this.

Elayne Taylor, Long Beach