Sunrun, the foremost US residential solar company, has called on the San Francisco Giants baseball team to cut sponsorship ties with local utility PG&E.
“Dear San Francisco Giants,” Sunrun wrote in its letter. “If you are serious about your commitments to sustainability and respect for the law, you must cut ties with PG&E.”
Sunrun Senior Vice President Bryan Miller signed the letter, explaining how “PG&E’s illegal activities have been widely reported” in the San Diego Union-Tribune and the LA Times. According to the LA Times, PG&E’s safety performance has only deteriorated since the 2010 gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in San Bruno: “The 2011 report of the PUC’s independent review panel on San Bruno suggested that management’s safety efforts were focused more on PR than a genuine devotion to safety — its priority was ‘financial performance,’ not ‘operational safety and performance.'”
Bryan Miller also claimed that PG&E has been trying to eliminate California’s “booming rooftop solar market” by proposing a bill “to the California Public Utilities Commission to make California the first state in the country to eliminate net metering and levy discriminatory fees on solar customers.”
“PG&E proudly supports the Giants and their efforts to create the greenest ball park in the nation,” said Ezra Garrett, PG&E’s vice president of community relations and the utility’s chief sustainability officer, back in October of 2012, following several green improvements to the Giants’ home ground, AT&T Park. “As the team moves toward its second World Series in three years, Giants fans and PG&E customers will get even more chances to learn about renewable energy and caring for the environment while cheering on their team.”
Image by Art Siegel (some rights reserved)
