SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — In the fallout from PG&E’s citywide holiday weekend outages, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is calling on the utility to lower its rates, joining a growing chorus of city and state leaders who say frustration with the company is nothing new.
“I spoke to the CEO yesterday. I told her my frustrations with the communications,” Lurie told ABC7 News on Wednesday. “Our ratepayers are paying far too much for the collapse, so I want to see rates going down.”
The outages upended holiday plans across the city, leaving residents scrambling just days before Christmas.
“It was just a huge inconvenience,” said San Francisco resident Sunshine McLawhorn. “You need to take care of the people who pay a lot of money for that power. I just had to go grocery shopping yesterday, $400 just to make up for what I lost. So we need to do better, PG&E.”
MORE: SF power outage spurs utility scrutiny; political leaders calls for PG&E reform
The outage has also become a flashpoint in the 2026 governor’s race, with candidate Tom Steyer using the moment to renew his push for PG&E’s reform.
PG&E says it is offering automatic rebates ranging from $200 for residential customers to $2,500 for businesses.
Lurie says his concern now is ensuring customers aren’t ultimately left paying for PG&E’s mistakes.
“We have to make sure that the ratepayers are not the ones that pay for this,” he said. “They have admitted that it was their fault. They’ve set aside $50 million. I think that is a good first step. But we need more from PG&E. We need to make sure that there are no future blackouts. We need to know that their infrastructure is sound.”
But city leaders say the outage has reignited deeper concerns – especially given the city’s history with PG&E.
Twenty-two years ago, San Francisco experienced a similar blackout tied to a fire at the same downtown substation.
State regulators later found the 2003 failures were avoidable, concluding PG&E had not resolved issues identified after an earlier fire at that facility in 1996.
RELATED: San Francisco’s power outage problems persist even after citywide restoration
That history is now fueling renewed scrutiny at City Hall.
“There’s some things that we all need to get some answers to,” Supervisor Matt Dorsey told ABC7 News.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors plans to hold hearings with PG&E after the holidays – with some supervisors openly discussing more drastic measures.
“That would be where the city and county of San Francisco takes over, basically purchases PG&E’s infrastructure in San Francisco, and they run it as a municipally owned utility,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey pointed to accountability and cost when asked if residents could trust the city to do a better job.
“The result would be that we would have better rates. I think it would be more affordability. And we would have more accountability,” he said.
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A city takeover would not be quick. In 2021, San Francisco asked the California Public Utilities Commission to evaluate how much it would cost to acquire PG&E’s local assets – an ongoing process that could take years.
State Sen. Scott Wiener – who is running for San Francisco’s congressional seat – says he plans to introduce legislation in Sacramento early next year aimed at speeding up that process.
“We want to make it even more straightforward and create an even clearer path, for cities like San Francisco, to be able to break up with PG&E,” Wiener said.
PG&E leadership has issued public apologies in the days since the outage.
“We will not rest until we know what happened,” said COO Sumeet Singh in a Tuesday social media video. “We know we need to do better in providing you with accurate estimated time of restorations.”
Singh did not provide specifics when ABC7 News asked what system upgrades PG&E has made to the substation at Mission and 8th Streets since the 2003 fire, but said the utility company has invested about $200 million at the facility.
He noted the SoMa facility underwent preventative maintenance in October and conducted its most recent bimonthly inspection Dec. 5. Singh said neither inspection identified any problems.
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