PG&E Spends Another $6 Million to Stymie Public Power

Only billionaire Meg Whitman is spending more on a campaign

Pacific Gas and Electric is for once in a giving mood, at least as far as its efforts to pass Proposition 16 in November are concerned.

The utility company has donated another $6 million towards getting the bill passed, making for a total of $34.5 million donated by PG&E -- and PG&E alone -- in line with campaign spending estimates it disclosed in financial filings to investors.

Proposition 16 would make it more difficult for municipal governments to form public utilities through community choice aggregation by requiring a two-thirds vote instead of a simple majority.

So far opponents of the ballot proposition have raised $36,000, which would suggest David versus Goliath only if David was a three-foot tall blind man and Goliath was the size of Godzilla.

Only former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has spent more on a statewide campaign so far this year in her quest for the title of governor, having donated $59 million of her own money in that effort.

The majority of the money PG&E has spent so far has gone towards gathering signatures to qualify the petition for the ballot and advertising in support of the bill.

Jackson West loves how PG&E is still trying to claim that a "coalition" of some sort is backing the proposition.

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