»... and this is my receipt for your receipt

A few weeks after I had filed yet another complaint with the CPUC, the Chronicle ran a great article on how PG&E sends estimated rather than actual bills to its customers. Morally as well as fiscally bankrupt.
Utilities should not only fall under public oversight, they should be a completely public -- owned and operated -- service. Free enterprise is for beer and house-painting services, not for critical civic infrastructure. I'm going to go watch Brazil now.

PG&E says it sends out almost 70,000 estimated bills each month -- frequently for amounts higher than actual usage would warrant -- because customers' meters are inaccessible.

But current and former insiders say the utility deliberately bypasses some neighborhoods to save itself the expense of hiring enough people to handle the workload.

State regulators worry that ratepayers are being overcharged on a routine basis. They said an investigation into PG&E's billing practices already is under way and that the utility could face significant fines or penalties.

PG&E spokesman Ron Low said that while meters in a particular neighborhood may go unread due to employee illness or traffic conditions, no policy exists to estimate customers' bills as a cost-cutting measure.

"Our policy is to read every customer's meter each month," he said. "We have the proper staffing level to allow us to do so."

Depending on the person I speak with at PG&E, I am told, variously, that my meter has not been read in eighteen (18) months, that the meter readers cannot find the meter, that the meter reader was unable to find anyone at home, that the dog ate their homework, etc., etc.