Francisco

San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) was one of 10 utilities selected this year as part of the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index, created 10 years ago to track financial performance of leading sustainability-driven companies. PG&E contends that the inclusion makes it a leader in “managing economic, environmental and social issues.” It also operates in a state where political leaders from the governor on down and energy regulators subscribe to the assumption that alternative energy approaches can result in both environmental mitigation and economic opportunity. PG&E joined other utilities including Entergy, Duke, Progress Energy, Xcel Energy Inc. and TransAlta on the North American index. Entergy was the only utility included on the 2008 Dow Jones Sustainability Global Index. PG&E emphasized that earning a spot in the Dow Jones index reflects what it called a “long-standing commitment” to corporate social responsibility, including environmental sensitivity, employee health/safety, corporate governance, corporate philanthropy and community involvement. PG&E CEO Peter Darbee said “never before has there been a clearer line of sight between corporate social responsibility and creating lasting value for stakeholders. Leading companies today have to focus as much or more on how they arrive at their bottom line as they do on the bottom line itself.

A global consulting firm tracking social investment practices assigned San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) with a triple-A (AAA) rating Thursday for the combination utility’s performance on social, environmental and strategic governance issues compared to peer companies in the utility industry. The announcement coincided with PG&E’s release of its 2007 report on its social responsibility track record.

A joint $150 million underground natural gas storage project between units of Portland, OR-based Northwest Natural Gas Co. and San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) filed Tuesday with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for approval to build and operate the proposed 20 Bcf facility in 2010 at a site near Fresno, CA in the north end of the state’s massive central valley region. The proponents’ environmental assessment of the project was included in the filing.

Citing an increase in its wholesale natural gas prices, San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) last Monday forewarned customers that winter gas bills are headed upward with the December retail bills estimated to be 5% higher than the same month last year.

San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was ordered Thursday by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to refund $35 million to customers for unauthorized billing charges. The penalty was the stiffest among three competing proposed decisions in a case dealing with the period of 2000 through April 2005. PG&E was ordered to begin the refund process immediately.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco last week rejected a petition by the California Power Exchange (Cal-PX) to stay three critical elements of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Dec. 15 order, which mapped out a series of reforms for chronic problems in the California wholesale power market.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco last Wednesday blocked Shell Offshore Inc.’s plans to explore for oil and natural gas in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and Canada.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco Wednesday blocked Shell Offshore Inc.’s plans to explore for oil and natural gas in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and Canada.

In California, state officials are dreaming green this year, and the state’s major utility, San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co., has teamed up with some major farm and biofuel folks to make Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s inauguration Friday a clean energy gala. Take a little animal manure and mix in some soybean oil and sunshine and you have the perfect carbon-neutral green cocktail for the state’s political elite.