Of course, the utility’s leaders would be likely to oppose such a change. The company has so far staved off attempts by other cities, like San Francisco, to buy PG&E infrastructure to form municipal utilities.

“It’s fair to say that PG&E has not been aligned with my positions for several months,” Mr. Liccardo said when I asked whether he expected PG&E to be open to the idea. “Nor do I expect them to be anytime soon.”

According to The Journal, PG&E reiterated that its energy systems aren’t for sale and that proponents of a customer ownership plan — which could eventually include other cities — are likely to take a proposal directly to the state’s utility regulators.

Mr. Liccardo said his ultimate priority was making the city’s energy supplies more resilient amid a variety of growing, complex challenges, including wildfires, sea level rise and cyberattacks.

He said the establishment of microgrids — which essentially allow power to be generated and stored locally, rather than generated and then transmitted long distances using vulnerable infrastructure — and the wider deployment of solar energy would be critical.

[Read more about microgrids here.]

Although a nonprofit, ratepayer-owned entity would, he said, be able to borrow more cheaply, there’s no way around the fact that this would require a lot of money.

But he said the status quo was untenable.

“We’ve got to make the necessary investments to ensure we have a functioning utility that serves the greatest job engine in the history of America — Silicon Valley,” he said. “It’s going to be local communities leading the way.”