Maybe you know more about this than I do, but I am not sure what Gov. Gavin Newsom meant when he said he “owned” the PG&E blackouts. Some people say it means he is going to put up $75 million in state funds to repay victims of the shutoffs. Others think it may be that he owns a chunk of PG&E and is going to use his ownership clout, small as it may be, to fire the president of the company.
Or, he may be blow-harding, so that people think he knows something about the power and gas business, and if the problems eventually improve, that may give him some bragging rights.
Of course, he could fire the people on the Public Utilities Commission, but they have proved to be hard to get rid of.
Besides, people don’t always listen to the governor. You may remember that shortly after he took office, he shocked a gaggle of reporters by saying he was going to pull the plug on the high-speed rail construction project.
We can’t afford it and it isn’t practical, he said. Well, boy howdy.
However, in case you haven’t noticed, work is going ahead on the high-speed rail system non-stop. Maybe he owns the high-speed rail system, too.