09x11 - Electric utilities

[bunniefuu]

LAST WEEN TONIGHT
WITH JOHN OLIVER

Welcome to "Last Week Tonight",
I'm John Oliver.

Thank you so much for joining us.
It has been a busy week.

Bongbong Marcos was elected
president of the Philippines,

we saw a pretty hot picture
of a black hole,

and the Eurovision Song Contest
took place,

featuring this spectacular entry
from Norway.

See where you're going
but I don't know where you've been.

Is that saliva or blood
dripping off your chin?

If you don't like the name Keith
I'mma call you, Jim.

And before that wolf eats my grandma,
give that wolf a banana,

give that wolf.

And before that wolf eats my grandma,
give that wolf a banana,

give that wolf.

Give that wolf. Banana.

Yes. Every part of that
gets a big yes from me.

From the dress code,

which can only be described
as "werewolf applying for a loan",

to the sexy business minion
backup dancers,

to the Fosse meets 2008
Gaga choreography,

to the lines "is that saliva
or blood dripping off your chin"

the horniest lyric since all of
"Montero", immediately followed by,

"If you don't like the name Keith,
I'mma call you Jim,"

which is pure chaos.

That band,
called Subwoolfer, by the way,

understood exactly
what Eurovision is for.

As incidentally did the Latvian entry,
which didn't even make it to the final,

despite having one of the best openings
to a song in the history of music.

Instead of meat,
I eat veggies and p*ssy.

I like them both fresh,
like them both juicy.

Come on, are you not entertained?

The Eurovision song contest is absolute
mayhem, in all of the best ways.

But as much as I would love to spend
the next 10 minutes talking about that,

we sadly have to move on, especially
because this happened in Alabama.

The use of puberty blockers and
hormones to treat transgender minors

is now illegal in Alabama.

Yeah, the state's transgender youth
ban is now in effect,

and that means it is now a felony
for doctors to provide medications

to trans people
under the age of 19.

Alabama's the first state to enact
such a ban on these treatments.

It's punishable
by up to 10 years in prison.

That is absolutely appalling.

There are lots of understandable
reasons that someone in Alabama

might be criminally punished.

For m*rder, say,
or for running a Ponzi scheme,

or for creating this actual statue
at an Alabama McDonald's

of Ronald McDonald,
reimagined as a giant boll weevil.

But no one should ever be
facing criminal punishment

for providing healthcare
to young people.

This law was signed
by the state's governor, Kay Ivey,

a woman who, as you can see,
always looks like she's saying, "ham".

Here she is, again, saying "ham",

and here she is, mixing it up,
and saying "ham, y'all".

Ivey was deeply committed
to anti-trans legislation,

even making it a feature
of her reelection campaign.

Some things are just facts.

Summer's hot, the ocean's big,

and gender is a question of biology,
not identity.

Here in Alabama, we're gonna
go by how God made us,

because we identify with something
liberals never will: reality.

Okay, first, f*ck you.

Second, "summer's hot,
ocean's big"

doesn't sound like the wind-up
to denying trans people their rights.

It sounds like a children's book
the author wrote while hungover.

"Summer's hot. Ocean's big,

I dunno, what more do you
f*cking kids want from me?"

As for her point there that we have
to respect "how God made us".

Do we? Really? Why?

'Cause we've got too many holes,
way too little hair, and necks,

fragile lollipop bones,

that balance our dum-dum heads
in one very specific direction

or else we die.

None of this
is "intelligent design".

And while Alabama's
worst mee-maw

might appeal to "reality" there,
the truth is,

the major medical associations
oppose bans on gender-affirming care,

and with good reason,
because it saves lives,

and withdrawing it
can be incredibly harmful,

as this 15-year-old girl named Harleigh
will tell you.

If I did stop
my gender-affirming care,

my physical outside
wouldn't reflect on who I was inside.

And that would, like, completely
destroy me mentally and physically.

Okay. First off, Harleigh,
you seem great.

You're living your full, authentic self
with a level of confidence

that I did not have at 15,
or quite frankly, now.

Now, as for Governor Ivey,
if you can look at Harleigh,

or any child,
and comfortably say,

"Take away the care that gives them
peace and a sense of self,"

you are a bad person.

The only good thing you could
possibly bring into this world

is if you were played by beloved
character actress Margo Martindale

in a limited series.

It wouldn't be easy for Margo,
because she's so universally beloved,

and you're an absolute garbage lady,
but it would be unmissable TV.

The rhetoric around this bill
is that it was designed to prevent,

and I am using the biggest air
quotes imaginable here,

"irreversible harm".

And its supporters,
like many transphobes,

tend to fixate on the surgery part
of transitioning,

even though transitioning
is far more expansive than that,

may not entail surgery,
and, as we've said before,

when it does,
is none of your f*cking business.

But when it comes
to the children of Alabama,

as a doctor told their legislature
last year, it's not even a factor.

Here's what we do
and what we don't.

Genital surgery is never
performed on minors in Alabama.

Puberty blocking medications
are 100 percent reversible,

and can be lifesaving.

Now, some older teens,
not seven-year-olds,

merit hormonal therapy.

But initiation
involves lengthy informed consent,

lengthy mental health oversight,
and the sub-specialized care provided.

Yeah, of course doctors are going
to be thoughtful and rigorous

when caring for their patients.

Unlike the Alabama legislature,
they care about kids' well-being.

But you can also see why lawmakers
don't tell the whole picture

when it comes
to gender-affirming care.

Because a lawn sign saying,
"Ban Lengthy Informed Consent,

Lengthy Mental Health Oversight,
and Subspecialized Care"

doesn't quite have
the same punch to it, does it?

Now, the good news is,
on Friday,

a federal judge issued a preliminary
injunction on Alabama's ban,

meaning that the state is barred,
for now,

from enforcing part of its law,

specifically,
the ban on access to medication.

But it's already
"working on filing an appeal",

and the rest of the law
very much remains in place.

You can't help thinking that this thing
is right-wing virtue signaling,

sending a hateful message
to a conservative base

with no thought given
to the pain that it will cause.

And no matter what the eventual
fate of the law is,

actual trans people
and their advocates in Alabama

have heard the message it was
meant to send, loud and clear.

As humans, they're afraid of us.

It's not really fun,

but as long
as it's protecting their ideals,

they don't care.

I'm just a normal kid.

I went to Hoover High School
and I was in engineering.

I played hockey,
a little weird for Alabama.

That's probably
the most abnormal part.

I'm trans,
and what harm am I doing?

Why you feel so comfortable
dictating other people's lives?

I just need to know,
not religion-based,

where the entitlement
comes from.

To those senators and representatives
who support this bill,

thank you so much for making Alabama
a national embarrassment yet again.

He's absolutely right. And to trans
children in Alabama right now,

let me just say this.

Y'all... Am I saying that right?
Is it "y'all?"

I don't think I can carry that off.
You are important.

Your lives are important.

I cannot imagine trying to build
self-esteem in childhood

as your own government attempts
to undermine your very existence.

You should know, you are profoundly
valuable and you are irreplaceable.

Now, as for Kay Ivey,
what the f*ck is wrong with you?

I know that's a simple question with
probably a long, complicated answer,

but to put this in terms
that you will definitely understand,

summer's hot, ocean's big,

and the people of Alabama
deserve a lot better than you.

And now, this!

And Now...

The Delightful Delight
of Alison Hammond.

These were from the original
"Blade Runner."

- This is what they used.
- Beautiful.

So, I thought, attention to detail,
the fans will probably like that.

That's so cool that you did that.

- Are you a fan of the original?
- Never seen it.

I'm going to give you a quote

and you have to let me know
whether you think it's Fakesheare.

Fakespeare.

Look at that, it's beautiful.

- How amazing is that?
- Why can't you just pick it up?

I care about you, too.
Here's some of the notes.

Here's one of them.
This is, "Love you".

You're just a badass.

You're a badass woman.

I don't drink.

And there you have it.
My cookies!

Moving on. Our main story tonight
concerns utilities,

specifically, electric utilities,

the companies responsible
for delivering us power,

and also giving us the creepiest mascot
ever created: Reddy Kilowatt,

a hell creature who appeared in ads
for over 200 electric companies,

like this one about him
"emancipating woman in the home",

and this one,
where he tells a housewife,

"Don't k*ll yourself,
it ain't worth it."

Reddy even appeared
on children's shows,

where he undoubtedly gave
a whole generation nightmares.

What's going on here?

You should know that you can expect
anything to happen here, Mr. Toot.

Boy, I'll say.
What's happening now?

Those peanuts,
they're floating in the air!

That's my new
electrostatic generator.

Get out of there, Mr. Toot!

That's the only time
I've ever been scared for a clown.

We can't actually
show you the rest of that video,

because, and this is true,
if you watch it 'til the end,

Reddy shows up behind you
and brutally murders you.

You probably don't give too much
thought to your local electric utility.

But if you do, it might be because
they're charging exorbitant rates

for a basic human necessity,
as this North Carolina pastor explains.

One of the founding members
of this church, Sister Linda Jones,

she literally cut her pills in half,
skipped days,

in order to pay her light bill.

God bless her soul.
She passed on.

And there are hundreds of people
right around here

who need that help.

That is terrible.
And in case it bumped you at all,

you're right, that was a property
brother that you just spotted there.

He made a documentary about utilities,
and it's actually pretty good,

to the point you're even going
to see a little more of it later on.

And if you're wondering
which property brother that is,

I'll give you a clue:
it is the circumcised one.

And if you don't know which
property brother is circumcised,

you're clearly not that big a fan
of the property brothers.

And high bills are just the beginning
of the problems here.

Because utilities are also
exceptionally prone to scandal.

In fact, Google your utility company
right now, and the word "scandal",

and chances are, they've gotten
into some major trouble.

It's basically like Googling
your local Jimmy John's and "e. Coli"

or the name of your favorite teacher
from high school and "January 6th",

you're not going to like
the results that you find.

And at their worst,
utilities can even be deadly.

Take Pacific Gas & Electric,
one of California's largest utilities.

We've talked before
about the 2018 Camp Fire,

the deadliest wildfire
in California history,

and how it all started
when this hook

holding up a PG&E
transmission line broke,

causing the line
to ignite the brush below,

decimating several nearby communities
and leaving 85 people dead.

PG&E has since paid fines
and settlements,

but it's still very much in operation,
despite the fact

that wasn't close to the only scandal
that they've been involved in,

as this reporter will tell you.

This is a company that,
it was fined hundreds of times

and faced more than two,
almost $3 billion worth of fines.

If PG&E was an individual
and not a corporation,

by now
they would be in prison.

There's just been repeat offenders,

they've been on probation,
they've violated the probation.

The problem is, you can't take
a corporation and put it into prison.

He's right! You can't.
Even though many corporations

clearly deserve to be in prison,
from Enron to Purdue

to any company that insists on talking
like a sassy bitch on social media.

Hellmann's once Tweeted,

"You're in their DMs,
we're getting spread on their bread".

And why?
You don't need to do this, Hellmann's.

You can just be mayonnaise.

But PG&E is not only not in prison,

it is still supplying power
to millions of Californians,

who have no choice in the matter.

And if you're thinking,
"How the f*ck is that possible?"

that is what this story is about.

It's about the incredible amount
of power that we give to utilities,

how weakly they can be regulated,
and the damage this can do.

Let's start with the most important
thing to know about utility companies,

which is that for most of us,
they're actually the only game in town.

If you want to go buy an iPhone,
or any other kind of consumer product,

you go out to a store
and you have a number of choices.

With electricity,
in most of the country,

you really only have one choice,
and that company has a monopoly.

Exactly! In our modern economy,
you are supposed to have choice.

Just look at all the streaming
services out there.

There's a Blockbuster 2.0,
superheroes and old racism,

anime, probably crashing
on you right now,

no idea, no idea,
and until recently, news Quibi.

That is arguably too much choice.

But utilities operating
as natural monopolies

dates back to the fact that,
around the start of the 20th century,

we needed to build a nationwide
power grid from scratch,

and that obviously
required a huge investment.

Companies were only incentivized
to do that with a guarantee

that they'd be able to operate
in a noncompetitive environment.

And at the time, that made sense.
Those monopolies persist to this day,

and mostly as for-profit,
investor-owned companies.

Now, in exchange for giving
utilities a deal that sweet,

we did put some restrictions
in place.

The law says that they should
spend the least they can

while providing quality,
environmentally safe service.

Which sounds great. Because it caps
their ability to make too much money.

But, and this is a huge but,
there is a carve out.

Because when they build something,
a piece of physical infrastructure,

they are allowed to then pass
along that cost to you,

through your bill,
plus an additional percentage

that they get to keep as profit,
usually around 10 percent.

And this creates a clear incentive:
the bigger the project,

like a power plant,
the more profit they make,

as this activist explains.

Big monopoly utilities get a guaranteed
range of a rate of return

on their capital expenditures.

So, like a waiter in a restaurant
where there's a guaranteed tip,

the more that is spent, if you buy
dessert or you get a bottle of wine,

the more money
they're going to make.

Right. If your profit is pegged
to doing certain things,

you're going to make sure
that you do those things more.

It's like if HBO only paid me for every
time I got weirdly horny for an animal.

Except that's a bad example,

because the show would pretty much
look exactly like it already does.

Not now. Not now.
I'm trying to make a point.

Go away before I change my mind.

Goodness gracious.

And in the best-case scenario,
this might mean that utilities

are investing in infrastructure
that is badly needed.

The problem is, they can also be
shameless in increasing spending,

even when it is not needed,

or on projects
that are actively falling apart.

Take South Carolina.

When utilities there tried to add two
nuclear reactors to an existing plant,

the project's cost spiraled.

And a massive federal investigation
later revealed

that executives at South Carolina
Electric & Gas and its parent company

knew the project was facing major
delays and cost overruns

but withheld that information
in order to keep it going.

Meanwhile, local customers

paid more than $2 billion
in the form of higher bills,

for a project which, by the way,
"never generated any power."

Some working on the project at the time
were troubled by what they were seeing.

Listen to this leaked voicemail, from
a vice president at the parent company

who later became a whistleblower,

in which she tried to warn her
colleagues about what was happening.

They are mismanaging that project.
And it's at y'alls expense.

They're doing it
because they want to make money

and they're propping up earnings
to be able to make their bonuses,

and it's going
to be at your expense.

That's pretty shocking, isn't it?
Not just what she's saying there,

but also,
that people still leave voicemails.

Absolutely no one
should be doing that anymore.

In fact, every voicemail
greeting should just be,

"Sorry I missed your call. Please
don't leave a message after the tone,

just text me instead,
because it's not 1997".

Overspending isn't the only way
that utilities' incentives

can wind up
screwing over customers.

Because they can deliberately
stifle innovation

that might make power cheaper,
or be a net benefit to society,

as this solar power
executive will tell you.

Now solar is becoming real,
the utility monopolies are saying,

"Well, wait a minute, we've got
to crush it before it gets too big".

They want to build more plants
so they can make more money,

and if we take a little bite
out of that apple, and we say,

"Hey guys, we've got solar panels
everywhere on all these homes,

you don't need to build
that many more power plants".

Then the utility goes, "How am I
going to make more money next year?"

Yeah. People putting up solar panels
and generating their own electricity

threatens the anticompetitive
structure of a utility's monopoly,

so they're obviously going to try
and step in and block it.

Who wants competition?
It just makes things harder!

You think I want to compete
with "Euphoria" or "Love Island"

or this YouTube video of ducks
annihilating a bowl of peas?

You could be watching
that on a loop right now

instead of watching this show,
you idiots.

Why are you still here?
Make better choices!

Some activists
have even used rooftop solar

as a way of challenging
the monopolies in their states.

Remember that church from earlier,
where the pastor was talking

about people cutting pills in half
to make ends meet?

Well, in 2015, to help cut costs,
it partnered with this local nonprofit,

and in an attempt to challenge
the laws on the books,

the nonprofit installed
a small solar panel system

on the roof of the church,
at no upfront cost,

financing it
by selling electricity to them

at about half the rate that their
utility, Duke Energy, charged.

Similar arrangements
are permitted in other states,

but not in North Carolina,
and Duke Energy pushed back hard,

asking the state's regulators to "issue
a cease and desist" to the non-profit

and invoke its power to fine them
up to $1,000 a day

for every day it sold power
to the church.

And in the end,
Duke Energy got what they wanted.

That church's solar arrangement
was shut down,

and any hope of replicating it
in the state was squashed.

And when
Circumcised Property Brother

asked Duke about this whole saga,
their response wasn't great.

Faith Community Church wanted
to test regulation in North Carolina

by doing something
that was basically illegal.

- They were trying to pick a fight?
- You could say that.

They had a good setup to get publicity.
This was an African American church,

and we're a big utility
and we're a target,

and sometimes
there are groups out there,

they're not trying to advance policy,
they're trying to get media attention,

and they did a good job here.

Are there situations where,
as a human being, you have a conflict

as a utility company where you're
saying this is how it has to be,

versus maybe there's a bigger picture
with something that's broken?

I think that's just the way
it has been.

Wait! "Just the way it's been"
has, historically,

never been a great justification
for something still happening.

In fact, there is only one time
that that works as an argument,

and it's when you're talking about
the Milwaukee Brewers sausage race.

Why do a bunch of sausages
race around the field

before the bottom
of the sixth inning?

Because that's the way it's been.

It doesn't make sense,
and may it never change.

Long live the racing sausages.

And there are examples
all over the country

of utilities getting in the way
of people using solar energy.

The argument being,
if people start leaving the grid

and generating their own power,
then over time,

the cost is gonna go up
for everyone left behind.

And look, there is
a longer conversation to be had

about the proper way to bill
people who use solar panels.

But making it cost-prohibitive
is definitely not the answer.

And if you're thinking,

"Shouldn't there be someone
who can rein these companies in?"

In theory, there is. Most states
have public utility commissions.

They are responsible for signing off
on any big investments proposed,

and, also, overseeing
the setting of rates.

Unfortunately,
many of them are badly outmatched

by the utilities
that they're supposed to regulate.

And this can have major consequences.
A few years back,

Mississippi Power
ran into massive cost overruns

on a new plant
that it was building,

which was initially
"expected to cost $1.8 billion,"

but ended up ballooning
to seven and a half billion.

And in hindsight,
there were obvious red flags

that you would hope the state
commission would've been more wary of

from the very start.

Just listen to a company representative
explain his side of the story.

Can you tell us why the project

is over budget
and also behind schedule?

I would tell you that if we made
any errors in judgment at all,

any missteps, is that when we took
that proposal to the commission,

we were only at between


The little engineering that we had
done at that particular point in time

that has sort of come back to haunt us
in terms of cost and schedule.

Let me get this straight. The plant
was only 10 to 15 percent designed,

and the commission let it go
ahead anyway?

That is not how designing
complex energy plants should work.

That's not even how
designing Lego sets work.

That's why
you've never seen one called

"A Little Tree
and You Figure Out the Rest."

In Mississippi's case, the problem
seems to have been a commission

rushing to approve a project
without doing proper due diligence.

But in other cases,
like Alabama's state commission,

the problem
seems to be ideological.

It has been described
as "one of the most opaque,

politically motivated, environmentally
hostile commissions in the country".

Their commissioners are elected,
and I do want to show you

one campaign ad for the woman
who is currently running it.

Twinkle's priority
is our priority: jobs!

We need more conservatives
like Twinkle who put jobs first.

Twinkle is a proven
conservative Republican.

Who has stood up and fought the liberal
special interest in Washington.

Conservative, Republican,
Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh.

Our way of fighting back.

Yeah, that woman is named Twinkle.
That is her actual given name.

As in, when she was born,
her parents were asked,

"What do you want
to name your baby?"

And they genuinely replied,
"Twinkle. Definitely Twinkle."

She even confirmed
this story herself, saying,

"My daddy
thought I needed a fancy name.

It may be cute for a 3 year old,
but it gets old."

I could see how being called Twinkle
could get old after a while.

But let me just say this, Twinkle:

for everyone who isn't you, calling
you Twinkle will never get old.

It will never get old, Twinkle.

And look, I'm not saying that Twinkle
is a bad commissioner

because she's called Twinkle.

I'm saying that Twinkle's a bad
commissioner because for one thing,

when there was a push
for more open hearings

on electricity rates in the state,
she outright said,

"I want to exclude environmentalists
from taking part in the process,"

and suggested
that "environmental extremists"

only wanted these open proceedings
so they could

"trot out their fancy San Francisco
environmental lawyers

and junk science hucksters."

And the thing is,
it's not just Twinkle!

When one of Alabama's
other commissioners, Chip Beeker,

again, real name,

because it seems Alabama's utility
commissioners must, by law,

sound like Hanna-Barbera
cartoon characters.

When Chip Beeker was running
for his position, he wrote in an op-ed,

"The so-called 'climate change crisis'

is about as real as unicorns
and little green men from Mars."

Which is obviously ridiculous
because climate change is very real,

and unicorns,
sadly, do not exist.

Which I know is not ideal.

Although if you're in the market for
a majestic creature with a lot of horn,

this guy

may be able

to help you.

Having a commission run by science
denying ideologues is bad enough.

But in other states, public officials
can appear fully in utilities' pockets.

Take Ohio. A few years back,
a big utility there, FirstEnergy,

was caught up
in this massive scandal.

Ohio House Speaker Larry
Householder and four others

have been charged with racketeering,

accused feds of funneling millions
from the energy company

into a 501c4 dark money
group called Generation Now.

Generation Now sounds
like a failed '90s boy band

whose members are all now spokesmen
for different crypto currency companies.

But very basically, what happened
there is that FirstEnergy

funneled $60 million
to the Speaker of the Ohio House

to get him to pass a bill,
HB 6, that has been called

"the worst energy bill
of the 21st century."

I have to tell you,
the House speaker in question

denies wrongdoing,
and is still awaiting trial.

What is very clear is that FirstEnergy
was working extremely hard

to influence
the decision-making process.

They actually paid the chairman
of the state's utility commission

$22 million in consulting fees,

in the years directly preceding him
becoming their regulator.

And while he denies
doing anything improper,

I will point out that,
on the very day the bill passed,

FirstEnergy's CEO wrote to him,
saying, and I quote,

"HB 6, f*ck anybody who ain't us."
Which is very cool, right?

And just so you know,
the man who wrote that is this guy,

who looks like
he's left lengthy reviews

for multiple gas grills
on Home-Depot-dotcom.

This man wrote the words,
"f*ck anybody who ain't us."

This old, white man typed those precise
words with his old, white fingers.

To recap: our utility system largely
consists of for-profit companies,

with monopolies
over an essential service

building as much sh*t
as they possibly can

so they can pass the cost along
to you on your electric bill.

And to see just how bad all this
can get, let's go back to PG&E,

arguably California's
most hated company.

A quick skim through
any PG&E affiliate's Yelp page

gives you just a taste of that,
because you'll find reviews like,

"Absolute sh*t show,"
"f*cking garbage company,"

"f*ck you, PG&E.
Your day will come."

And my personal favorite,
"The actual technicians = lovely.

Often hot, too boot.
Phone people = hit or miss.

Either dismissive and
stupid or thoughtful and kind.

Corporation itself
= evil empire personified."

Which is a lot more nuance than you
typically find in Yelp reviews.

"I understand
that the lowest ranking,

smoking hot employee
that I interfaced with

isn't to blame for the company's
larger structural problems.

But for the record, f*ck everyone
in the C-suite with a cactus."

And you can see why Californians
hate PG&E so much.

In just one three-year timespan, it was
responsible for around 1,500 fires.

That's an average
of "more than one fire a day."

And at that point, PG&E are less
a utility and more a fire company

that occasionally also
delivers power to people's homes.

And so many of PG&E's problems

stem from the way
that they're incentivized to operate.

Because remember,
their profits are pegged

to money that they spend
on new infrastructure that they build,

not on what they spend maintaining it,
or the area around it.

And when you don't maintain
equipment, eventually, it fails.

That old hook that broke and started
the Camp Fire was 97 years old.

And it's not even their only hook
that was dangerously worn down.

This hook,
found a couple of miles up the line

from where the Camp Fire started,
shows just how bad things got.

A groove, more than halfway through
the metal from decades of grinding,

against the hole it hung from.

Holy sh*t!

"Decades of grinding"
isn't exactly a phrase

that you want to associate with
a vital piece of our power grid.

It's barely a phrase you want to hear
at your grandparent's 50th anniversary.

You're happy for them,

it's obviously what's kept
them together for so long,

you don't want to hear it.

It's not like PG&E didn't have the
money to perform basic maintenance,

because in the five years
before the Camp Fire,

it issued over $5 billion
in dividends to shareholders.

This isn't a system where you, the
customer, are going to be prioritized.

If anything, the model only makes sense
if the company's shareholders

are viewed as the customer,
and your bills are the product.

And while you would hope
elected officials in California

would cr*ck down on PG&E,
many take money from them,

and don't seem to see anything
really wrong with that.

Just watch as California's governor
blows off a pretty pointed question.

PG&E was convicted of a federal,
of six federal felonies in 2016.

After that, you took more
than $200,000 to help get elected.

How should people trust you
to come up with the solutions?

I wish you luck
with whatever you're working on,

but that's a strange question.

Wait, is it, though? Is it?

Because that seemed
pretty reasonable to me.

It's not like that reporter asked,
"Mr. Governor!

Why do you think The Wiggles
had Princess Diana k*lled?"

That is a strange question.

There was no big red car
anywhere near the scene.

But what he just asked
you deserved a proper answer.

And yet, frustratingly,
if you live in California,

and PG&E is your provider,
there is nothing you can do.

Every time you turn your lights on,

you are reminded
your utility has k*lled people,

and the only real recourse you have
is giving them a shitty Yelp review.

So, how do we fix this?

If we were able to start
our power grid over from scratch,

what we would probably do

is make utilities publicly owned
and run by the government.

It wouldn't fix everything,
things might still go wrong,

but you would remove so many
of the worst incentives here.

Unfortunately, transitioning now
would be hugely expensive,

and, in all likelihood,
isn't happening anytime soon.

But there are smaller steps that we
should also be taking in the meantime.

For instance,
instead of having a system

where utilities are incentivized
just to build stuff,

we could incentivize them to work
in the customers' best interests,

by investing in things
like maintenance, renewables,

and energy conservation.

This is something known
as performance-based regulation,

and several states
are already trying it.

Now, as for the regulators,

commissions will, unfortunately,
probably always vary in effectiveness

depending on whether it's staffed
by people who give a sh*t about this,

or, let's say,
someone named Twinkle.

But we have to make sure
that under resourced regulators

get more support,
more access to technical expertise,

and more jurisdiction over
the companies that they monitor.

At this point I would usually bring out
a mascot that we made for utilities,

that's representative of just how
terrible and horrifying they are.

But amazingly,
I don't even need to do that, do I?

Because they already made
a murderous hell-demon

almost 100 years ago,
with Reddy Kilowatt.

So, all we really need to do
is simply bring Reddy back.

So, ladies and gentlemen,
I'm thrilled to present to you

the glorious return
of Reddy Kilowatt!

Reddy, where are you?
Where are you, Reddy?

Hello, John!
Hello, boys and girls!

Yeah. This is creepy.
I'm already regretting this.

Where is the clown, Reddy?
Where's Mr. Toot?

- He's dead, John.
- Yep.

I k*lled him.

Of course you did. I'd like to leave.
This is a bad idea.

- Who said you could do that?
- Why! f*ck!

The world is my monopoly,
and I alone control it.

- Do you want to use the refrigerator?
- Yes, I do.

Do you want your f*cking lights
to go on and off?

- Yes, I do.
- Then your local utility is your god.

- Right.
- I am your god.

I cannot believe I'm saying this,
but you are actually

too good at representing
how shitty utility companies are.

- You have no idea.
- Why?

I could k*ll you right now, and there's
nothing anyone could do about it.

Don't be nasty about it.
sh*t, what happened to the lights?

- Blackouts happen, John.
- Turn the lights back on, you freak!

You can do it yourself, John!
Just go ahead and pull that lever!

Wait, just this one here?

Okay. Here it goes.

I am gonna get
such a fine for that!

That's our show.
Thank you so much for watching.

See you next week
for another episode

of "Last Week Tonight
with Reddy Kilowatt."

Bye bye!

In Loving Memory
of John Oliver

Beloved Son, Husband, Father
and Aspiring Comedian.