Analysis: California's big utilities — not its politicians — are calling the shots on power outages

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The money wouldn't have gone far to help Californians who needed to replace spoiled food, those who fled to hotels or shopkeepers forced to buy generators and fuel during the power shut-off by Pacific Gas & Electric earlier this month.

Still, Gov. Gavin Newsom urged PG&E to do something symbolic: Give a $100 rebate to each of its frustrated residential customers and $250 to every business with no electricity.

"Lives and commerce were interrupted," Newsom wrote on Oct. 14 to William Johnson, the utility's CEO and president. "Too much hardship was caused."

But last week, PG&E refused. And in doing so, what could have been a goodwill gesture became a symbol of defiance and futility: California's investor-owned utilities may be criticized for their efforts at wildfire prevention, but