Florez challenges PG&E on promised ‘investigation’
Majority Leader believes recent PR campaign insufficient outreach to individual consumers

SACRAMENTO – Following a series of full-page ads in major California newspapers and meetings between company executives and editorial boards to improve the public image of PG&E and Smart Meters, Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez is calling on PG&E for a more concrete explanation of the pledge to “investigate and resolve” each customer complaint.

Florez sees the company making public promises he deems “vague at best,” and which fall far short of actions he requested based on serous consumer complaints from residents of his district.

A series of public hearings held in the Central Valley this fall by Florez revealed widespread dissatisfaction among customers with their new digital meters, designed to one day – with the right additional technology -- help customers adjust their usage to conserve energy and money.  In some cases, customers have seen their usage spike and bills double or triple when they were out of town or had vacated their homes.

Since then, the California Public Utilities Commission has ordered PG&E to obtain outside, third-party testing of the digital meters’ accuracy, and the company has launched an intensive public relations campaign.

Following Florez’s district hearings, the Senator forwarded to PG&E contact and account information provided to him by concerned Smart Meter customers in search of help, with a request that his office be provided with a status update on each of those cases. 

Despite the company’s recent promises to investigate and resolve these cases, they are now hiding behind a veil of “privacy concerns” – despite the fact the information was provided by the consumers themselves to Florez – and will only say they have all been “contacted.”

In today’s letter to PG&E CEO Peter Darbee, Florez says that – at a minimum – each customer with a Smart Meter should be contacted by direct mail and asked about their concerns, saying, “PG&E cannot resolve what they do not know about.”

Florez goes on to challenge PG&E to explain what they define as an “investigation,” since many of those who complained have simply had their Smart Meters replaced… with new Smart Meters.

Attached you will find a copy of today’s letter from Florez to PG&E CEO Peter Darbee. 

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12-03-09 pg&e pr campaign.pdf