Nobody wants to pay more for electricity. But if we don’t take action, that’s what’s going to happen.  

For more than a century, San Francisco has flirted with the promise of full public power, a system where rates are more affordable because customers aren’t paying for corporate profits and executive bonuses. And for just as long, PG&E has fought to keep us from getting there. 

There is one big reason Bay Area cities like Alameda, Santa Clara, and Palo Alto have been able to successfully operate public power systems for most of the last century: Their systems were established in the 1890s, years before PG&E was founded.  

These local power providers offer customers the same thing as the more than 50 other public power utilities across California: Reliable service, at lower rates, without all the chaos, wasteful spending, and periodic bankruptcies of PG&E. 

San Francisco has had a public power system for almost as long as its Bay Area neighbors: Hetch Hetchy Power has been in operation for more than 100 years (Early Intake Powerhouse coming online in November 1918), with local power programs now providing 75% of the electricity consumed in the City. 

City residents might have spent the last century enjoying all the benefits of a true public power system if not for one thing: the project running out of money in 1925.  The completion of O’Shaughnessy Dam in the Sierra Nevada not only provided an invaluable water supply to much of the Bay Area, it also opened up access to a huge new source of hydroelectric power. San Francisco was ready to provide this cheap, clean electricity to its residents and businesses. It had built transmission lines to transport the energy to the Bay Area but lacked the funding for the final stretch to San Francisco.  

Looking for a temporary solution, City leaders contracted with PG&E, whose private power lines could deliver the electricity the rest of the way. The City agreed to sell Hetch Hetchy power to PG&E at wholesale rates, until the City could ask voters to approve a bond measure to pay for the remainder of its public power project. 

It was a decision that has haunted public power efforts for literally a century.  

The City put multiple bond measures before voters over the next 15-plus years. PG&E spent massive dollar amounts opposing each one, all while pocketing the profits it charged San Francisco customers for their own power. The federal government tried to put an end to this, going to court to argue that Congress had only allowed Hetch Hetchy to be dammed so long as the electricity generated was not sold to PG&E.  

PG&E, though, did what it does best. Delay, distract, and delay some more—in this case for decades.  

After undercutting the City’s bond efforts and stymieing elected officials at every turn, the utility found new ways to charge the city for its services. From “wheeling” and “firming” fees imposed in the 1980s to the more than $1 billion in unnecessary equipment PG&E tried to charge San Francisco for in recent years, the PG&E playbook has always been the same. 

San Francisco leaders, though, recognize that they have every right to finish what the City started more than a century ago.  

That’s why the City in 2019 made its first cash offer of $2.5 billion to purchase PG&E’s electric assets that serve San Francisco and complete the transition to full public power.  

It’s why the City has already gotten voter approval to use revenue bonds to finance the purchase—before PG&E could undermine yet another election campaign.  

It’s why we’re not taking PG&E’s usual no for an answer and have requested a formal assessment of the system’s fair-market value from the California Public Utilities Commission.  

And it’s why we’ve also begun the environmental review process required to complete this purchase. 

It’s no secret, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) has built a nationally recognized record of leadership on climate action, rooted in more than a century of public power through Hetch Hetchy Power. San Francisco has long championed clean, reliable, and community-driven energy. That legacy is reflected in bold achievements, including reaching the City’s 100% renewable electricity goal two years ahead of schedule and cutting greenhouse gas emissions from electricity use by 98% since 1990. The SFPUC also continues to drive innovation through its CleanPowerSF program and a suite of forward-looking initiatives for EV charging stations, rebates for e-bikes through Electrify My Ride, and new bill credits to help customers transition from gas to efficient, electric water heaters. Together, these efforts improve air quality, lower costs for residents, and advance a healthier, more sustainable future for San Francisco.  

Public power is not new. Public power is coming to San Francisco. It’s been coming for more than 100 years.  

And this time, we’re not going to let PG&E stand in our way.