Gov. Newsom accuses PG&E of 'corporate greed,' but the company helped fund his and his wife's career

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has accused his state's largest utility company of mismanaging funds he said it should have used to upgrade an aging electrical grid prone to deadly wildfires.

But over the past two decades, Newsom, a Democrat, and his wife have accepted more than $700,000 from the Pacific Gas & Electric Co., its foundation and its employees as the utility has supported his political campaigns, his ballot initiatives, his inauguration festivities and his wife's foundation, including her film projects, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post.

The contributions illustrate Newsom's ties to the company responsible for wildfires that have killed at least 85 people and caused billions of dollars in damage over the past three years. The governor has slammed PG&E for paying bonuses to executives and cash dividends to its investors instead of spending more on infrastructure upgrades that could have prevented the fires.

"As it relates to PG&E, it's about dog-eats-dog capitalism meeting climate change," Newsom said at a news conference last month. "It's about corporate greed meeting climate change. It's about decades of mismanagement. It's about focusing on shareholders and dividends over you and members of the public."

He added that he while can forgive the company for not predicting the degree of impact climate change has had on California, "I will not forgive them for not making the kind of investments in their equipment - hardening and undergrounding and anticipating this new reality of which they have had ample time to anticipate."

Records show PG&E has spent at least $227,000 on Newsom's political campaigns and committees supporting them over his two decades in public office, helping to fund his rise from San Francisco mayor to one of the country's most influential Democratic leaders. PG&E employees have spent an additional $70,000 on his campaigns. The company gave $25,000 for his mayoral inaugural costs and $25,000 to city ballot measures that he supported.

Between 2011 and 2018, the utility's philanthropic arm gave $358,000 to the Representation Project, a nonprofit group founded by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the governor's wife. The PG&E Corporation Foundation also gave $10,000 to the PlumpJack Foundation, a charity led by his sister, Hilary Newsom, according to information provided by PG&E.

The company gave enough money to be listed as an associate producer in the credits for two of Jennifer Siebel Newsom's documentary films. It also hosted high-profile screenings of the films at its offices, including in the atrium of its San Francisco skyscraper in 2011.

The payments are not unusual for PG&E, one of the most politically active companies in California state and local politics and a prolific contributor to Bay Area charities. PG&E spent $5.3 million on state and local political campaigns in 2017 and 2018, the company said in a court filing this year, with Newsom receiving more of that money than any other single candidate.

PG&E's political and philanthropic spending, along with executive compensation and shareholder payouts, are determined by the holding company PG&E Corp. Its subsidiary, the PG&E Co., is a regulated monopoly that must negotiate its revenue and expenses with state regulators every three years.

Still, the money PG&E contributed to the campaigns of Newsom and other politicians could have been used to put power lines underground or clear brush that leads to wildfires, said David Pomerantz, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, a San Francisco-based utilities watchdog.

"Every dollar that PG&E spends on a campaign contribution right now is one they should be spending to hasten the transition to a safer, more distributed electrical grid," Pomerantz said.

PG&E, an investor-owned utility whose largest shareholders include hedge funds Knighthead Capital Management and Abrams Capital Management, filed for bankruptcy in January, declaring itself unable to pay the billions of dollars in mounting liabilities from repeated seasons of wildfires. Its market value is about $3.4 billion, after losing more than $30 billion in equity value over the past two years.

When a federal judge asked PG&E in July to explain why its political spending was "more important than replacing or repairing the aging transmission lines," the company said it needs to make the concerns of its employees, customers and shareholders known to policymakers.

"Like many individuals and businesses, PG&E participates in the political process," Ari Vanrenen, a spokeswoman for the company, said in an emailed statement. "PG&E holds itself to the highest standards of public disclosure and compliance with applicable laws and regulations."