As California AG, Kamala Harris Protected Politicians & Corporate Interests, Abandoned Fire Victims
Harris has a damning history of turning a blind eye to powerful California utility companies as victims suffered and powerful allies profited.
Kamala Harris likes to say that as a prosecutor, she never asked victims whether they were Democrats or Republicans, just “How can I help you?”
Dozens of fire victims and millions of consumers in California might challenge this. As state attorney general, Harris failed to prosecute powerful utility companies with a history of deadly disasters in the state.
Consumer advocate groups say her connection with the California political machine and desire to advance her own career kept Harris from pursuing justice in multiple serious, high-profile utility cases.
“Clearly there were prosecutable issues…and she let it all go, and it was not good for the public interest,” Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, told RealClearPolitics. “It’s all public record, and it was all documented. It’s about the political class and not wanting to make trouble for the other members of the class, and I find that appalling when the crimes rise to the level of the facts that we saw.”
PG&E Fire Victims Unpaid as Political Donations Roll In
During Harris’s tenure as California attorney general, Governor Jerry Brown appeared to ignore utility companies’ malfeasance while those in his inner circle reaped the benefits.
Governor Brown’s sister Kathleen enjoyed a seat on the board of directors for Sempra, parent company of Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, where she made over $1 million in cash and stock. He also appointed his personal friend Michael Peevy to run the Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), a state-regulated utility company with a monopoly on natural gas and electricity services across large swaths of state, was responsible for over 1,500 fires between 2014 and 2017, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation.
The company was found liable for the 2018 Camp Fire after a neglected power line sparked a horrific blaze that ultimately took 85 lives and destroyed nearly 18,900 homes and buildings.
After pleading guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter in the Camp Fire, PG&E was ordered to pay $13.5 billion to victims. PG&E promptly filed for bankruptcy.
Infamous for making large donations to powerful politicians like Gavin Newsom, Jared Huffman, and Nancy Pelosi, PG&E would go on to spend millions of dollars on lawmakers’ campaigns. PG&E also treated employees to expensive dinners just days before a planned power shut-off, and earmarked $11 million for performance bonuses to top executives.
Many fire victims remain unpaid.
“What PG&E has in California, is a lineup of elected officials acting as their lobbyists and lawyers,” Chris Coulombe, who is running to represent California’s 2nd congressional district against Jared Huffman, told UNWON. “All it takes is a glance at their donor list and you can see people like Jared Huffman, who have been on PG&E’s payroll for over two decades.”
Backroom Deals, Maxed Out Political Contributions, Vetoed Fire Prevention Bills, Scandals at CPUC
For years, Governor Brown used his veto pen to shield CPUC, headed by his friend Peevey, from legislation. He killed multiple fire prevention measures in 2016 that would have required more aggressive intervention and safeguarded rural Californians from dangerous and outdated equipment.
One such bill would have required CPUC to identify high-risk areas where power lines were present and demand utility companies increase fire prevention efforts in those zones. The bill could have prevented the Camp Fire, which was sparked by a neglected utility line, but Governor Brown vetoed it.
Peevy was eventually forced to step down after an email scandal revealed him asking PG&E for over $1 million in political donations.
At the time, Consumer Watchdog published a one-page paper on “public utility corruption and Kamala Harris’s failure to act for the public.”
“She was absent, she was AWOL, she didn’t file any charges whatsoever,” Court said. “She was the first line, and she should have stepped in, and she didn’t because of political concerns.”
Fatal San Bruno Gas Line Explosion
Harris also failed to bring charges against PG&E when a 2010 gas line explosion in San Bruno killed eight people and injured 66. Her office opened an investigation, but never pressed charges.
Six years later, the U.S. attorney’s office looked into the case, and PG&E was found guilty of six felony charges.
Peevey allegedly intervened to help PG&E find a sympathetic judge in the penalty phase.
Quid Pro Quo in San Onofre
In 2013, the San Onofre nuclear power plant in San Diego County sprung a radioactive leak and had to be shut down.
Ratepayers were alarmed when CPUC announced consumers would be footing $3.3 billion to close the plant, while Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric would be responsible for just $1.4 billion.
At first, Harris appeared to launch a real investigation into the ethics of this negotiation. Her office ordered a search warrant for Peevey’s home and turned up a smoking gun: handwritten notes revealing a secret meet-up at a luxury hotel in Warsaw, Poland between Peevey and a powerful Southern California Edison executive.
Additional documents showed Peevey tried to convince the utility company to give $25 million to a personal passion project of his at the University of California at Los Angeles in what appeared to be an off book, quid pro quo deal disenfranchising California ratepayers.
According to documents released by her office in 2015, investigators were prepared to charge Peevey and the utility companies with felonies including obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. It seemed Harris was building a case. Then, she launched her campaign for Senate—an inopportune time to go after the close friend of a Democrat governor.
KPBS reports she let the three-year statute of limitations on the clandestine Warsaw meeting run out.
Mike Aguirre, city attorney for San Diego, accused Harris of deliberately stalling until the end of her Senate run in order to protect Democrat allies who had endorsed her.
“For her to let the statute go is malpractice,” Aguirre told the San Diego Reader.
He claims she chose not to act on a search warrant of CPUC and Southern California Edison’s parent company, instead simply requesting the entities turn over their documents. CPUC withheld documents claiming lack of resources to obey the order. Harris did not challenge them.
“Accountability for Utility Executives Act”
Harris seems aware that her history with California utility companies could be damning to her political aspirations.
During the beginning of her failed 2019 presidential campaign, Harris brought legislation that would have banned utility companies from paying bonuses to executives while under bankruptcy.
The “Accountability for Utility Executives Act” looks like an effort to preemptively defang accusations related to her actions when she had the power to actually hold these companies accountable, and repeatedly refused to do so.
The bill died with no co-sponsors.
Power shut-offs, extreme rates, and no end to fire season in sight
PG&E continues to announce planned power shut-offs for customers in high-risk fire zones. Rather than update equipment, consumers will be left without power and water.
Californians pay the highest electricity rates in the contiguous U.S. outside of New England, with utility companies appearing to pass on the cost of their losses and liability to consumers.
There are 55 lawmakers representing California in Congress—53 Representatives and 2 Senators. All but nine have received money from PG&E. In 2019, ABC10 asked all 44 lawmakers who accepted PG&E money to comment on those donations. Only four said they had donated the money or planned to.
Harris received $1000 to her leadership PAC from PG&E, and had no plans to donate.
In an email to ABC10, a spokesperson for Harris stated, “Senator Harris believes bad corporate actors must be held accountable for their negligence and greed. Throughout her career, she has made it abundantly clear that she believes PG&E has failed California and must be forced to face consequences. That’s why she wrote the Accountability for Utility Executives Act, brand new legislation that would ban bonuses for the executives at bankrupt utilities like PG&E. And when she was Attorney General, she helped spearhead a criminal investigation into PG&E that led to federal charges and a conviction against the company," a spokesperson for Harris said in an email.”
Governor Gavin Newsom also has a rich financial history with PG&E. Prior to serving as California governor, PG&E gave Newsom’s winery over $500,000 for “advertising services.” During his governor race, PG&E was Newsom’s second-highest political contributor with $208,000 in donations.