Typically, as long as the expense is deemed prudent by regulators, utilities are permitted to ‘rate base’ the expense and earn a return on investment. If PG&E think it’s politically possible to increase expenses by $20-30B because there’s a good narrative to offset complaints of rising utility prices, it’s the selfish thing to do. The times that require strict scrutiny for investor-owned utilities is when they jump on the bandwagon of a politically popular spending proposal (wise infrastructure investments comes from experts getting the politicians on board, not politicians getting the experts on board).
Typically, as long as the expense is deemed prudent by regulators, utilities are permitted to ‘rate base’ the expense and earn a return on investment. If PG&E think it’s politically possible to increase expenses by $20-30B because there’s a good narrative to offset complaints of rising utility prices, it’s the selfish thing to do. The times that require strict scrutiny for investor-owned utilities is when they jump on the bandwagon of a politically popular spending proposal (wise infrastructure investments comes from experts getting the politicians on board, not politicians getting the experts on board).