Buried more than half way through a long article in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune entitled, “SDG&E Gas Customers to See Price Drop Again for March,” by reporter Rob Nikoiewski, was this little bombshell:
On Tuesday, Sempra reported its 2022 earnings. Among its holdings, the company reported that SDG&E posted profits of $915 million in 2022.
In 2021, SDG&E earned $819 million.
From our calculations, that’s a 11.7% increase over 2021. (Sempra is the parent corporation of SDG&E.)
San Diegans already knew that our electrical rates were the highest in the country. But this latest revelation just shows what it means for its share holders in round numbers. $915 million made off the backs of San Diego rate payers.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Why wasn’t it the main headline?
And they have the audacity to go to the CPUC to ask for a 17% rate increase starting on January 1, 2024. How is this possible when we are already paying the highest rates in the country. How much money is SDGE kicking back to local politicians?
Question: Why does the entity CPUC even exist when ‘Public Utilities’ are just for-profit corporations run by thieves in nice suits? Isn’t the entire point of the concept of public utilities is for it to be owned by the PUBLIC and not freaking greedy stock traders and corrupt over-paid executives? Perhaps turning this bloody corporation into a non-profit public utility is the way to go. Better pay to the workers, more money to go for maintenance and upgrades so maybe the lines wouldn’t burn down forests and towns so much, ya know?
So who do you have to bribe..a-HEM, donate a generous campaign contribution to so that this process can be started?
Sounds to me like something like this is needed down there I remember Ken Lay and his little rip-off in SoCal back when… guess not a whole hell of a lot has changed?
Sure are a lot of things needing fixed in this country.
sealintheSelkirks
The only problem with a “non-profit public utility” would be that it would be managed and operated by the City of San Diego.
About a week ago, I woke up to no electricity in my house. I went on line to SDG&E and filled out an outage report. An SDG&E technician showed up (in a bucket truck) 30 minutes later. He quickly diagnosed the problem (failed transformer) and called in the work order to get the transformer replaced. While he was there, he mentioned his crews had been very busy working through the night due the storm. But in spite of the high number of service reqests, my power was back on by 1700, at which time the food in my freezer was still frozen.
Have you been reading anything lately about the SD city police response times? How about SD City code enforcement response times ? How about the time to get a building permit? etc. etc.
Seattle has a non-profit public utility called “Seattle City Light”. When I lived there in the 60’s and 70’s they did a great job of keeping the lights on, and their rates were pretty low due to hydropower. San Diego is not Seattle.
There will always be corruption, but I don’t think a publicly owned utility would come close to what SDGE is up to. While Los Angeles’ LADWP is not perfect, it delivers quality service to 4 million residents at a price that is half of SDGE.
Yup, we’re getting screwed by Sempra with this transfer of wealth.
What are we going to do?
Lyle: I agree that San Diego is not Seattle but why can’t it learn from example and implement policy changes that benefit the PEOPLE of the city instead of handing out giant executive pay packages and stock dividends? Shouldn’t the ‘shareholders’ be the workers and people that PAY THE BILLS? Do you like to get ripped off by corporate owners or something?
Other than the dams on the Columbia, what is the problem with the nearly $1 billion in profits SDG&E reported making? And that’s after labor and infrastructure like the crew that fixed the transformer! The rest is gravy skimmed off by the wealthy and put into their own pockets.
The pricks that own the corporations are going to destroy this country because they are greedy sociopaths. This is how a society dies…
Ain’t this a fun ride?
sealintheSelkirks