[strangeloops85]

Worth noting: This does not affect many of the major municipal utilities, including SMUD in Sacramento, LADWP in LA, and Silicon Valley Power in Santa Clara because many have their own generating capacity and are also in alternate distribution arrangements. The investor-owned utilities don't have much direct generating capacity anymore and rely on CAISO, and well, that has its limits. Also pretty sure that customers of the municipal utilities pay less than PGE/ SCE customers. For example, this is why Santa Clara has so many data centers (municipal utility, Silicon Valley Power).

Really unclear what value investor-owned utilities provide us - the municipal utilities in general seem way better.

[chaostheory]

I’m guessing it shields local government from lawsuits. You’re right though, better alternatives to an investor owned utility would be a co-op or non-profit.