The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 572 - PG&E - part one

Episode Date: February 28, 2023

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine private California utility company Pacific, Gas, and Electric.  Sources Tour Dates Redbubble Merch  

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Five, four, three, two, one. You're listening to the dollop. Action, from the top, back to one. On the All Things Comedy Network, this is an American History podcast for each week. English accent. I, man with a hat on. Guy who has two eyes.

Fellow enjoys his Apple Watch. Dave Anthony, or he's a story from American History to a guy. No, your friend, your best friend, your best friend in Hollywood. Gareth Reynolds, who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. I don't have any friends.

You're my best friend. In Hollywood. You're the best friend that I've ever had. This is a song from Dave Anthony, dog owner and dad. Hey Gareth, I sure love you. This is a song from Dave that I've been dying to. Sing about my buddy who's named Gareth, not Gary. I'm a good guy.

I look like Mary and Barry. The man who smokes crack. That's why I'm back. Dave loves Gareth. You make me sick. Wow. And called it, quote, his jam patch. Jam patch?

I'm the fucking hippo guy. Dave, okay. My name's Gary. My name's Gareth. Wait. Is it for fun? And this is not going to come to Tickly-Quad, Gareth. Okay.

This is like Adam. I'm a five-part coefficient. My room's a place. Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments. Don't sleep, don't hip-hop. That's like, don't hip-hop. Action, partner.

Hi, Gary. No. I sleep done, my friend. No. No. Roda, Roda, in the car. You're a problem. Is that it?

Yep. That's it, we're going home. Oh my God. Ruin it. Dave, I'd like to invite you specifically to come see me do some standup on the road. A lot of these bits are underdeveloped. It's going pretty good though.

March 13th, they'll be at Summit City Comedy in Fort Wayne. March 14th, they'll be in Indianapolis. March 15th, they'll be in Louisville. March 16th, they'll be in Columbus. March 17th, Dayton. March 18th, Perrysburg. March 19th, Perrysburg. No, that's March 18th again.

March 19th, Cleveland. March 21st, Lexington. March 22nd, Richmond Heights, Missouri. March 23rd, Kansas City, Missouri. March 24th, and March 25th, they'll be in Des Moines. And March 26th, they'll be in Omaha. April 12th, Tacoma. April 13th, Spokane.

April 14th, and 15th, Bozeman, Montana. Last best comedy. You can go to garethrenals.com for ticket information. And there's also some dates in July being added. You are exhausting. What about, no, screw you. What? Dummy.

You're the stupid one now. Cool MAGA hat. January 11th. He was the best president we had. And next president. July 11th, 1822, year of Lord of Yuzuru's death. Jesus Christ. Yeah, oh, cool.

You know, a lot of us Christian folk don't appreciate you taking the piss. Most Christian folk are super in to people taking the piss about the mighty Jesus. J-Town. Listen to me, as a. It's his nickname. As a non-religious person,

I'm not gonna allow you to start tossing in J-Towns. It's his nickname. J-Towns. No, it is. It is, that's what his really tight friends call him. Listen, I shouldn't have giggled, because shut your mouth. You're not gonna start calling Jesus J-Town.

You wanna stay with me? Wait, he's not like a guy who walks into a bar that your buddy's with. J-Town! Hey, I think we should get that Jaeger out. Guess who just came in? It's J-Town. J-Town.

Well, yeah. I'm telling you, that nickname's gonna stick. Oh God. I think we're beyond nicknames. We're still as Christians. We're still looking for Jesus Nickname. Trying to hip it up for the kids. Hey y'all, cool, nice doobz gang.

Y'all ever heard of J-Town? Peter Donahue was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Northern Irish parents Peter Donahue and Mary O'Kane. Tuss Royce, we've had a baby. Tuss Royce, and unfortunately we think it'll be Scottish. That's great, I'm a little baby, and I've got the accent of Glasgow. He had an older brother, Michael,

a younger brother, James, and two sisters, Ellen and Ann. Wow. As kids, the brothers worked in sweatshops. Sure. I mean, what else are they gonna do? Ah, we still have that. We never got rid of that. Well, I thank God that came back recently we discovered.

Yeah. The kids are working in meatpacking. Yeah, that's cool. In 1833. But their little hands get the ground beef more than the adult digits. And they can pull out the innards that they need to pull out. Yeah, they got those little hands, it's easier.

In 1833, the family headed for America and ended up in Amadawan, New York. The boys did not go to school, but instead worked at a cotton mill. Sure, that's basically class. Yeah. And then they moved on to working in a locomotive factory. Sure.

What year is this? This is, they got to America in 1833. Okay. A locomotive factory? Yeah, that's a trend. Oh, right. I'm tired. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Right. Does that trend go to J-Town? When Peter was a teen, he landed an apprenticeship with Union Iron Works in Patterson, New Jersey. Gorgeous. Oh, being a teenager and... Gorgeous. Given your dream, working in an Iron Works 12 hours a day.

Grace, I'll tell you, it's nice as having to leave the beautiful hills and sprawling grass of Glasgow to come to this place. Beauty. Oh, I wonder what old Jersey looked like. Couldn't it be nice? He was working as a student machinist and making a buck fifty a day.

And then his brothers followed him in and Michael became a molder and James a boiler maker. What was a boiler maker? They made boilers. Oh, great. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I mean, now it's a drink, but back then, you literally were making...

Yeah. In December, 1845, Peter helped build a gun boat for the country of Pearl. I mean, by the way, there's just some terms now that like my mind goes to like the 2023 version. Like a gun boat to me now would be like a aquatic gun. That's actually kind of cool. Yeah, like you would be like on Revolver the ship.

Yeah. Or like, you know, the SS Uzi. Well. So he made it, they made it for the country of Pearl and he just, I don't know how this worked out, but he got on the ship and went to Pearl on its maiden voyage. Sure.

And his brothers then went to, into the military and fought in the US-Mexico War. Okay. And after a bit, Peter headed north. Peter north. Peter north, because California has struck gold and he was gonna... Go get some...

Make his fortune in the gold. Absolutely. I'm a bit more mature now, right? How old am I? I'm like... Oh, you're about 23. Yes, 23. Absolutely stunning.

Now a man. So... Do you like what I've become? No. Did you say... His brothers joined him? Jesus, these dudes. They like each other.

Get your own, get your own gig. James had a crude metal workshop in Yerba Buena Cove, which is in San Francisco. Sure. It was an Adobe shack roofed with sails. Yep, that's perfect. That's good for metal working. Hopefully it doesn't get windy.

Yeah. We're in Adobe. Yeah, we're rain. But as far as the wind... Oh no. Christ, where are we? The Pacific Ocean. Bloody breeze.

They expanded it into a bigger blacksmith tent and built a furnace out of an old smokestack that they took from an abandoned steamship. Wow. Okay. That's just when you could take giant things from ships laying around. Yeah, right.

Yeah. Yeah, so they just... Okay, that sounds pretty like... Crafty? Yeah. The business grew. Now there's a lot of fires in San Francisco because it's a windy place.

And this is... Oh, Christ! I mean, J2! Yeah! So in 1851, 18 blocks and 2,000 buildings burned. Wow. Great for the guys, though, because they scavenged the ruins for metal

and they would make new appliances out of the old burnt ones and sell them off. Call it the toaster. This is a stick. Here you are. Then they became... Then they transitioned into a ship repair company. Okay.

And then they founded California's first iron foundry. Okay. So they're doing really well. Yeah, right. They became... They named it the Union Iron Works after the place they had worked at in New Jersey, which they apparently love so much.

Well, yeah. It was so great when I was a child. I mean, it was also probably like a long... I mean, whoever started in New Jersey, it's like 50 years later, like we just got word to you about the lawsuit. Like they're taking your name. Like, oh, that took forever.

Oh. So now they were the biggest shipbuilding operation on the West Coast. Now they had 80 employees. In 1857, the Sacramento Daily Union reported, quote, with regard to the health of those employed in foundries, the brawny arms and stalwart chests of the operatives we saw while inspecting the Union Iron Works

sufficiently show the manly and invigorating nature of the work they perform. There is surely no feminine or enumerating labor about a foundry. So this is kind of just like, yeah, they're just like, pure, they may as well be banging steel with their tongs. Absolutely pure, unadulterated testosterone, they're only men. You should see the balls on these men.

And you're able to. Because each apron's got a hole cut inside of it, where you may see the genies of each man. Yeah. While making certain things, it's not coming for these men to get enormous erections. Oh, yeah. And then they bag them into each other

and it sounds like someone's kicked a gong. Oh, they call it dong gong. Oh. So the article, we were just talking about their arms. Are they kind of big muscly arms? They've got big, veiny muscly arms and it goes all the way down to their beautiful decks. No, no, we're just.

Yeah. If they don't even have arms, they've just got extra genies. Yeah. These are blokes made fully of 100% taja. Woo. I don't think we can print this. Oh, they're just sucking each other's arms.

Wait, what? Oh, the blacksmithing. Oh, you should see it. The day I was there, they didn't even make a bloody thing. They just had cock fights. Ah. All right, so I think this is your first story.

Oh. For us as a reporter, but I'm not gonna. Give me a cigarette before I explode. We're not gonna actually need your services. Oh my God, you gotta go see it for yourself. No. Thank you. Woo.

I'm really ripped on this one. Yeah. I'm fucking jazzed. Okay, thank you. Oh, I'm gonna take my own life. Ha ha ha. Why bother continuing past this beautiful apex? So the Donny brothers were nicknamed the Iron Men.

The Donga Hughes. Don't know. Yeah. They were nicknamed the Iron Men. Iron Men. Yeah. At the time, there were no gasworks on the West Coast. Only Merchant Street had lighting,

which was done by oil lamps by hand. Sure. And so Peter knew gas was the next big thing and he talked his brothers into getting into the gas business. Okay. And they went all in, even though they knew nothing about it.

Sure. So they learned about it. They studied it and then they got a franchise from the city of San Francisco in 1852. And on August 31st, 1852, the company was incorporated as the San Francisco Gas Company. Two years later, on February 11th, 1854, city streets were lit by gas for the first time.

Wow. From the Alta California quote, in traveling over the muddy sidewalks and in wading through the street crossings, there was a light ahead, which showed the pedestrian had to pick his way and seemed as if some sort of a guiding star. I love that everything, they're like, you could finally see how shitty everything is.

Finally, with the beauty of gas lamps, you can realize you probably would have died if you continued to walk home this way. It's just amazing. The roads were paved with quick sand. With muddy shit road. Muddy. Oh, it's like a guiding star.

It's a light. Oh, that's real, yeah. It's a sign. What about over there? Another sign. Oh my God, it's J-Town. Oh my God, I don't know if he likes that name, so. He does.

No, he doesn't. He likes it a lot. He's never confirmed that he liked it. The new Jesus has his hat backwards. What's up, kids? He had a crown of thorns. I'm Jesus. You guys want to hear a rhyme?

Oh no. Yeah, I do, Jesus. Let's hear a rhyme. Yeah, yeah, go ahead, Jesus. I don't know. Go ahead, Jesus. I would not be more of a white guy doing that. It would be very upsetting.

Well, I think that we all would like to hear your Jesus rap, sir. I think we would, too. Ha, ha, ha. So business keeps increasing. Donnie Brothers are now just rich. Right. Peter built a mansion and gave his wife a coach

made of glass for her birthday. Look at that. It's like a bowl you can raid in. This is also the time that there's just filth everywhere. Yeah. It's just people who are just like, I need some bread. Do you have any bread?

And look what I made. Of course we do. We've got a ton of it. Fuck off. So wait, what did he put her in? He built a coach out of glass. Glass coach. It's a glass coach.

So he's co-mobiling her. Yes. And so she could just kind of in her little floating orb ride around the poverty streets and just be like. Yeah, just throwing shit at people. I don't know what you do for them. Thank you, miss. Yeah.

They expanded into other developments, politics. Peter got into railroads, but he only hired white men and mostly just Irish. OK. From the society. Thank you for the opportunity. From the society of California pioneers, which is an organization Peter was president of.

Quote, Mr. Donahue was steadfastly opposed to the employment of Mongolians in any service that would be antagonistic to that of the white race. Specific. Cheers. I mean, good lord. And it is. So it's just propaganda about him

because it's a publication by him for him. Yeah, he's like Bezos fluff piece. He's like, look, I only hire white people. And I'm going to put that in my thing. He's like, huh, pretty good article I wrote, huh? I'm all for the whites. And then electricity came. Oh, gosh.

Can you imagine what it's going to do to the factory? I can't, eh? Well, it's a very big threat to their gas monopoly. Oh, wait. I don't think we like it. It's bad? Yeah, because it's a threat to our monopoly. There you go.

Yeah. In 1879, Sampson became the first city in the US to have a central lighting generator for customers. And not a lot of people know they still use the exact same one. Now, the brothers died. The brothers died? Yeah, we're done with them. What?

Peter died. But they were just pure, unadulterated sex in men. Yeah, they're gone. They lived a long time. Peter lived until 1885. How old was I? You were like 60 something? 60, something.

Nine? 63. Oh. The other brothers died a few years earlier. So they, whatever. Be gone. Any parting words for me since I've gone? No, bye.

Get out. Amazing. No, no, you don't get to sing for yourself. Why? No, that's not how we do it. I'm about to go off into the clouds. No, you're already in the clouds. You're dead.

I'm going to G-Town. Oh. Well, then it's a wrap. We're not there. I'd rather not. No, you put your hat backwards in your wrap. That's what G-Town wants when you get there. No, I feel like, no, that was your thing.

So in 1888, the first electric street light was installed in front of City Hall and then came an electrical grid. Other electric companies popped up. Lots of rivals. The gas, Pacific Gas Improvement Company was the largest. So they start buying each other and merging all these companies?

Ha, ha, ha, ha, imagine. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And October 10, 1905, this led to a monopoly, which was called the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Oh my god. How are you feeling right now? I'm not excited. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Oh, good lord. Oh, good god. Just a few small competitors. What have we done? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. What have we done? Just a few small competitors remained. In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake struck.

And PG&E was the only gas and electric company standing after the earthquake. All small competitors were wiped out. A lot of people think they were behind the earthquake. Yes. In 1909, PG&E began publishing a journal. Issues were sent to clients. It included sections, manufacturing

and technological developments, political matters. Oh, my God. Scores from company baseball games. What's a section called some strange true gas stories? What anonymous humor columns? Personals. So they just fully had a gas paper. That's correct. The gas set. Imagine putting your personals in the gas.

Personals. I want to meet a nice lady who also likes gas gas. Loving single woman looking for a man who embraces the gas life. A question box poetry. If I made this poems also about gas. So it's in the gaslight district. Short fiction. Short fiction.

It is not OK. One night I was out walking the streets and I smelled gas. Bert, is that you? I said, but no, it was coming from the lamp post. The gas lamp post. And that's when I saw JTown. OK, dig this cats and dogs. Little story about some gas I found under water.

Uh, there are also biographies of executives. It had in a section called accidents and their lessons with the brief description of employer deaths from that month. Employer deaths. Employer, yeah. Oh, wow. OK. Well, that's that seems like the only section that they would not keep today. Yeah, right.

So throughout the 1910s, PG&E expanded, bought reservoirs, ditches, dams, and flumes from the mining industry as it sought to get into hydroelectric power. Sure. By 1914, PG&E have become the largest system on the West Coast and ranked among America's five largest utilities, operating in 30 counties in Central California, supplying a population of 1.3 million. Great. Keeps growing.

Great. Building long pipelines from Texas to bring in natural gas, which is a new, cleaner, cheaper way. It's very clean. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. It's so good. America's veins. Can we find something that actually makes us heat up faster? Yeah.

Uh, so this is World War II that's happening. PG&E built its first two compressor stations in Topac, Arizona, and Hinkley, California. OK. Their new network would serve 4.2 million customers. And they take it seriously. Yeah. Compressor stations increase the pressure to keep the gas moving through the pipeline, quote, to prevent rust from corroding, the cooling PG&E uses the corrosion inhibitor Chromium-6.

Chromium-6 is one of the cheapest and most efficient commercially available corrosive inhibitors. Is it safe? Chromium-6 has been a known carcinogen since 1925. So cheap, not safe. Yes. Right. Cheap, not safe. Interesting.

I mean, those names are always a bit of a giveaway. Chromium? Yeah, it sounds like a villain from a Marvel movie and is always followed by a number. Yeah, so it's not good. You know. From 1952 to 1966, PG&E dumped 370 million gallons of Chromium-6 filled water into online ponds and created a plume of contaminated groundwater about two miles long and one mile wide. You sound cheery.

It's not good. Yeah. The plume size only increased over time. And PG&E didn't report their dumping for another 21 years. This is one of these feel-good episodes, right? Yeah, this is a happy one. Over that time, Hinkley had an inexplicable rise in birth defects and illnesses. What do you think it was?

I have no idea. I assume it's because they were doing something smoking, maybe? Yeah, probably. Hey, it's me from before. Hi. Hello. Hello. Felt like I should pop back in because it's getting dark.

Well, the thing you started? Yeah. Really fucked. Why do these children have four legs? Yeah, that was because of you, what you began. But I was just trying to... Huh? Have some fun with my brothers.

Okay, murderer. We were just donging about. Donging about? We're the donger here. Oh, no, it's too weird now. What? What is it? Well, don't tell me the climate change.

Well, it's just that... What? People are more serious? Or am I going to get canceled? No, no. You're going to cancel me and the boys? It's that kids have birth defects and people are dying of cancer and you're running around talking about dongs.

So maybe if we dunk ourselves in this polluted corrosive water, we might get extra dongs. Yeah, that's crazy enough to work. It's not. God, it burns. It's yeah. And I'm an angel. So on December 7th, 1987, PG&E discovered Chromium had entered Hinckley's groundwater supply in 10 private wells.

Some Hinckley residents believe PG&E knew of the Chromium 6 contamination as early as 1965, but told no one. So the regional water board orders PG&E to clean the water. But how... Okay. Clean it up. But how... I mean...

With a filter or something. What do you get? Like a pool net? You got charcoal? Just go ahead and drain it through that. That's what I never understand with these sort of situations where it's just like, hey, we'll figure it out, but I don't think that's how fresh water works. Pretty sure.

Yeah. So they're ordered to clean it. And residents in Hinckley start... We should start ordering them to drink it. Yes. Like they should have to drink all of it. Not like the little fake Obama sip and flint. No, that's right.

They have to drink it every day. They have to like just drink it. Swim in it and drink it. You got to toss your kids in it. Yeah. We got to fill your pool with it, and it's the only water you can use. Yeah. And that's what we're doing.

That's totally fair. Yeah. Okay. So residents begin to believe the drinking water, dust particles, and soil are causing the cancer, birth defects, and tumors. It's a very rural area. So PG&E responds by stating, quote, the frequency of these type of health problems was not statistically significant in a population the size of Hinckley.

Was not... So basically they're saying like, this is just regular birth defects again. Yeah. Yeah. Rural people get tumors in birth defects. Well, that is one of the things going on now that is like, it's really a bit of a fucker because... It's a bit of a fucker.

It's a bit of a fucker. Because you... The distance between when you're ingesting these things or when you're exposed to these things and the thing that kills you can be so long. Oh, yeah. So it's like, you know, cancer is just, I mean, cancer is obviously on the rise, but it's like, it's... For some reason, we're not able to kind of like shrink that timeline enough to be like,

you did this. Yeah. We're like, gosh, a lot of people in this city got cancer. Yeah. In 1993, Aaron Brockovich, a legal clerk, began investigating the Hinckley illnesses and aided in a class action lawsuit, 650 plaintiffs, quote, attorneys for the plaintiffs also alleged that two PG&E employees turned whistleblowers were instructed by PG&E to dump all of the Hinckley compressor station records.

Oh, my God. In the water. Put it in the chromium. All right. In 1994... They won the Oscar. Yes. In 1994, a fire in Nevada County burned 500 acres, 12 homes, and a school PG&E was charged

with 739 counts of criminal negligence for failing to trim trees near its power lines. It took the court clerk an hour and a half to read the charges. Oh, my God. Can we take a brief recess in the charge? No, we got to get through this. I just... I'm so... My tongue hurts.

Yeah. Nope. You got to keep going. All right. Killing. Dumping. Inspections across Western Nevada found 200 safety violations where PG&E's power lines were touching nearby vegetation.

During the trial, internal PG&E memos revealed that PG&E's corporate headquarters praised managers for cutting down on tree trimming costs. Yeah, that is the fucking thing. It's so, like... Oh, God, it just doesn't stop with this, where it's just like... It's like, yeah, okay, like... I mean, it's everything now, where it is just basically like... Save a little money.

So spend a little there, and then it'll be, okay, longer, but they're like... Don't put new brakes on that train going through Ohio. Yeah. Or don't put two people on that train. It's just one. Yeah. A prosecution expert testified PG&E had diverted 80 million from its tree trimming program into shareholder profits.

There it is. So they're taking the things that'll make everything safe. And they're putting it towards those... And they're giving it to the shareholders. 0.1%. Which then causes fires. Yes. But not for them.

And they were fined 2 million. So you can see the difference between it. Do you... Is there a difference between 80 million and 2 million? Hold on. It's hard. Hold on. Okay.

I don't want to rush you. I don't want to rush you. Please, let the human calculator calculate. Okay. 80 million and 2 million is what we're talking about. Which is the greater sum. Which is bigger. Which is the bigger sum.

Out of 80 million. Two million. Two million. Yeah. Two. Two. Yeah. Two.

Yeah. They weigh the same. No, they're different. One's a lot. Trick question. More. A lot. The mother was the doctor.

That's right. Nevada County Deputy District Attorney, Jenny Ross, quote, hopefully this sends a message to upper level management that they must do whatever is necessary to comply with law and protect public safety. And I think that history has shown that it has. We'll be right back. You've learned your lesson. Yeah.

All that profit you made. Yeah. By the way, I'm the only one talking to the camera. Oh, sorry. All that profit you made. Nope. The Hinkley case goes to arbitration. Okay.

The judge informed PG&E's lawyers that an award-winning 1987 study by a Chinese, by Chinese scientist, Jean Dong Zhang would be very influential in the case. Did you say Dong? Shit. Brothers. It's our time to shine. They've called us back down to earth. The chosen word has been spoken.

Fuck. So Zhang had found a link between ingesting Chromium-6 and stomach cancer in northeastern China. Well, shocking. I mean, it is shocking that we're like, can you study this? Yeah. The first 40 of the 648 Hinkley residents in arbitration got a total of 120 million. Wow.

So PG&E was like, we're going to get our asses handed to us. So they settled, 333 million to the 648 plaintiffs in 1996. Okay. It was the largest settlement of a direct action lawsuit in U.S. history. PG&E was required to stop using Chromium-6 and clean up the plume. But the clients only got 196 million of the 333 or 300,000 per person after legal fees. Right. Dennis J. Postenbach is an American scientist, businessman, and researcher, and he created

a consulting firm called ChemRisk in 1985. Oh, dear. What? Doesn't ChemRisk sound nice? Oh, God. Doesn't it sound nice? Like a nice, happy ChemRisk? It uses toxicology and risk assessment to characterize the hazards of chemicals in oil, in soil, air,

water, and food, sediments, and consumer products. ChemRisk clients include British Petroleum and PG&E. As a PG&E consultant, Dennis made $300 an hour. So ChemRisk scientists go to China and they pay Zang $2,000 to reanalyze his data. Then they published new changed results, which exonerated Chromium-6 as a cancer-causing substance. Because they just bribed the guy? No, they just paid him to look at the data.

Then they just changed it. And then they published it in the Journal of Occupational Environmental Medicine without getting permission from Zang. The second author on the original paper was now the lead, and Zang names was misspelled in several places. So they just went and found that guy, he's like, for sure. The report did not acknowledge that ChemRisk had done almost all of the work in the new study.

Right. So they just wrote it, published it, and then they're like, we're good. And it took Chromium's fine. Chromium's fine. I just don't get it. What's the problem? What I don't get is it's not like it's, I mean, we don't have Elysium yet. Like, this is your shit, too.

Yeah. But it's not going to affect them because they actually live in rich places where it doesn't affect them. Yeah. But at some point. No, it won't. Yes. At some point they'll have to come down and drink our, they'll have to, at some point.

Why? Because time, because eventually it, push will come to shove and they will run out of resources, too. Maybe not in our lifetime. So in 1996, deregulation comes to California. Oh, what? Like, oh, I shockingly thought it was already here. If there was ever a company that needed to be unburdened by regulations, it is the honest

and great PG&E. Yes, for sure. At first, PG&E said they were against this deregulation, but conservatives and companies like cement companies and steel companies are pushing it hard because they think it's going to lead to lower rates for them. So once PG&E is like, well, this is definitely going to happen. They spend millions in contributions to lobbyists and whatnot to advance their position. PG&E thinks they can make more money and buy cheaper gas from out of state.

Okay. So these regulations are going to make it so they can buy from anywhere, cheapest on the market. One reason in-state electricity is so high is because of mistakes and over-costs that have happened. Like when PG&E built the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, they built the reactors backwards. An engineer in 19... Sure, that happens.

It's like Lego. It's IKEA. It's like a dresser. Oopsie. Yeah, you just got to... You built it backwards. Yeah, you built the reactors backwards. Yeah.

I mean, that happens. Sure. How can you not... It's an easy mistake to make. Dave, it's just... What's the big deal? Yeah. Do you need the thing that's called the reactor?

Yeah. No. I mean, it's backwards. It's not a big deal. Now it's a non-actor. That's fine. So now you just flip the rest of it around. Absolutely.

Yep. Pull the mirror up. Yeah. In 1981, a PG&E engineer discovered design drawings of the components of the two reactors were reversed, which led to a rash of studies and changes. The plant basically ended up being built three times and cost almost five billion more than expected. So the second time they built it, they're like, oh, okay.

Did you double-reverse this? Yeah. I thought that... No. Then it goes back to the other way. No. Oh, fuck you. What?

Now we're ready. Let's do the nuclear. Did you build it upside down? Yeah. No. Oh, it does. It's reading it out of my head. What the fuck is wrong with you?

Oh, it's reading it out of my head. Can anybody tell me why we just had this one guy do this, and he's clearly an idiot? Yeah. We're not going to leave here until we find out who did it. No. I'm talking to Jane. Frankie. We're not going to leave here until we find out who did this.

You're the guy. Yeah. I'm in charge. Let's build it again. This time, we're putting bubble ball. So all of these, there's also another nuclear power plant they built and then found out it was on an earthquake fault. They had to shut it down.

So all of these things are just being passed on to the consumer. All of their total and complete insane fuck ups. Well, to be fair, I mean, that's on the general public for the fault. That's whose fault it is. Nonetheless, Wen Chen of Credit Swiss said, quote, PG&E has been well run relative to other utilities around the country. Sure. Great news.

So investors like it. Right. Great. But an attorney for the utility reform network said, quote, there has been this almost endless stream of fiascos, Humboldt, Diablo Helms, the train trimming controversies. So. Right. So when they're making money, some investors are like, oh, awesome, but they're clearly

horrible. Idiots. Yeah. Like just spectacular idiots. They're making money. They're making money. So with deregulation, PG&E splits into two companies. And they were allowed to do that because in 1987, the California Public Utilities Commission

was dominated by Republicans and they voted to allow a company to split and create like a holding company and keep the money here and the other functioning company. So PG&E now has one regulated company and one unregulated company. Which is fine because if you think about it, they're probably going to do most of their stuff through the regulated one. Yes. And the unregulated one is just kind of like. Maybe.

Yeah. Like a maybe. We might do stuff with this. Probably won't use it a bunch. Not very much at all. Because we got the regulated one. Right. And then we got the one...

So. Yeah. It's like a dude with two cell phones. Yeah. It's like I got the one everyone knows about and don't worry about anything because I got the one you don't know about. I'm not cheating on you. I'm not cheating on you.

I just got two cell phones. What's the big... Maybe. You know the number to this one and you're welcome to go through it. What's in the other one? Oh, it's just I'm not going to be able to let you see that one. I like it for the look. Yeah.

I like the way it looks and feels. But I'm not going to go through that one because you're going to see some high heels up my ass. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. Well, now you're scared. No, I'm excited. Stay away from that phone.

So PG&E sells off most of its large gas plants and all of its geothermal facilities. So this meant the company would buy power from the energy generators at fluctuating prices. So they're no longer controlling their own energy. And they're also because of the part of the deregulation was that they're being controlled by the government and forced to sell power to consumers at a fixed cost. And then profits from that subsidiary that's selling doesn't have to be used to save costs for the consumers if there's any issues, right? So it's like they're splitting it off.

And so normally they might have a big chunk of money. And if there's some sort of problem, they can keep it from passing on to the consumers. Right. Well, now they're taking a bunch of money out and moving it over here. So now the consumers will, right, there's less wiggle room. Customer advocates noted splitting it up and deregulation was an insane risk. The CEO, quote, if this were a guarantee, I'd sleep better at night. We take the risk if our costs go up.

For sure. Yeah. That's all on them. If the costs go up, they're going to take the hit. Great. Because they split the company in two. It's going to be fine. The thinking was with deregulations, PG&E could pay off all the debts from plants like Diablo

Canyon. And with the rate freeze, the company could take in more than it was paying for energy because they're buying it from cheaply out of state now. So it's a win-win. I don't know what... You're looking at me weird, but you have rates that they're stuck on and then they're going to buy stuff cheap. You can buy it cheap.

Always going to buy it cheap. And then they're just making money. It's like printing money. No. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

More money means more paying off the debt. So it's a win-win. But here's something. One of the biggest companies, because the deregulation is happening at state levels, one of the biggest companies pushing that is a little company called Enron. And now... Enron? Yeah.

That name is a bell. Yeah. Yeah. Enron. Right. Good folks. Good guys. Good folks.

Up and up. Up and commerce. Everything was fine. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Didn't create any bullshit. No, sir. Completely outside of politics.

Yep. Never fudged a number. Not once. Clean as it is. Still alive or not in jail. Maybe. Somewhere. Yeah.

Yeah. So, because they're now relying on, you know, the free market... It's like when two Batman villains get together, it's like, hey, cool. Oh, cool. I've always wanted to see how the Joker and the Peng would kick it. Basically Enron has PG&E by the balls. Okay. Naturally, deregulation did not lead to cheaper out-of-state energy because that's a scam.

So the California Public Utility Commission, they are called the PUC, is the one who sets PG&E's rates. And the PUC had told PG&E when deregulation happened to only sell half their gas plants, not all of them. Right. Just in case. Right. There was an issue.

You need them. And they could... Then you could still... Make their own electricity. Right. Well, they didn't, obviously. They sold them all. Disney also did not lock in any long-term contracts to buy electricity when the plants

were sold. That's okay. But that's okay. Because they were like, we're going to buy it cheap. But you're forgetting that they got rid of the half they were told to keep. Right. Yes. So what we have here is a Plan A.

Yeah. And... I'm sure enough a drought. A drought came. Uh-huh. Well, that's fine. Remember, they had kept... The only thing they had kept all of was the hydroelectric power plants.

But that's fine. Because for that, you... Oh, dear. Oh, my. Oopsie, oopsie. So PG&E now has to buy... Just spit on them. Everyone, come on.

We're going outside and we're going to spit on them. Now they have to go buy most of their electricity from out of state. Which was the plan. It's going to be cheaper. And it's going to save consumers money either way. It's going to save consumers a lot of money. Is that the regulation? That's absolutely right.

Harry Snyder, lawyer for Consumers Union, quote, So Duke Power, Enron, and the other independents came in and ate PG&E's lunch. Yeah. Because they're just like, hey, we need some electricity if that's... We're after a little... We're kind of in the business of... Yeah. We...

How did we get this before? Yeah. I don't remember. We made it, but that was so hard. Anyway, we're looking for like a two for one. Now, those companies were the ones that PG&E had sold the power plants to. So this is a good... This is how business should be done.

Hey, hey, look at this old place. Yeah. And PG&E had sold the plants for what they thought was overvalued. So they thought they were taking them to the cleaners. And then these companies are like, let me show you what the cleaners are. Have you heard of the long game? Yeah. The Enron's and Duke's created artificial shortages to jack up rates.

So the unicorn of cheap deregulated energy never came. But PUC now refuses to change PG&E rates because they were like, don't sell all the plants. Right. And this is all PG&E's doing. Right. So PG&E is hemorrhaging cash, like $10 million a day. And in April, 2001, PG&E files for Chapter 11, claiming $9 billion in debt. Cool.

Well, it's been fun to hear about them, and I'm glad they're gone. When PG&E files bankruptcy or is faced with a major incident, customers are forced to pay. After former governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 901, it was made easier for public utility companies like PG&E to pass along the cost to rate players as long it was it was just and reasonable. Well, what does that even mean? Who's determining that? That means. Yeah.

That means that Jerry Brown basically was. Yeah, totally fucked us. But just and reasonable is like, so we're working with the honor system, huge company that likes to suck money up and then shit in the water. So the state bails out PG&E. PG&E had spent about $25 million lobbying for deregulation and then received a $10 billion bailout from the state of California. Man, oh man.

So they're obviously after that. They're gone, right? No. So when you bail out a public utility, you. It becomes a national. Public utility. Yeah. No, you just let them keep doing what they're doing.

Oh, cool. Well, I'm sure they learned a bunch of lessons knowing them. That really is so fucked. I guess that's one of the things not to go off topic, but one of the things that's happening in East Palestine is that it's so close in the proximity of time to the shutting down of the strike to the catastrophe. Not that they didn't, not that you were not having these bills, but like this one is like, it's not like, I mean, Trump obviously, I mean, you can trace back a lot of the issues

to what's going on there, but it's just, just happened where they're like, shut up, rail workers. Nobody needs to hear from you. And then it's like, fuck. Well, I wish someone had said that was like two months ago. All the rail workers said this is going to happen. Yeah. Yeah.

So October 16th, 1999, the Pandola fire burns 11,725 acres. The fire was caused by a rotten pine tree that fell onto a power line. Oh boy. PGD was responsible for removing debris along power lines, which had completely neglected to do. Yes, Dave, they saved so much money. Don't you understand? How much money they saved?

A lot of money. PGD settles the case for 14.7 million. Oh, insane. And then rolling blackouts begin. Oh, weird. So weird. PGD sends out a notice about energy prices to customers, quote, Pacific gas and electric no longer proves is the electricity we bring to your home.

We don't make a nickel on the power we buy for our customers. What kind of weird letter is that? You're like, OK. So look, hey, we don't really do it anymore, and we're not profiting. So this is going to be pretty bad. So here's the thing. You guys have heard of companies that don't make money, right? Yeah.

That's us. Yeah. We don't make any money. So look, so then why am I paying you for a service? I do it for love? Yeah, but why am I paying you for a service? What's that? Why am I paying you for a service?

I buy from that guy. So then why aren't I paying that guy? Well, I just give it to you. But you don't. No money. You don't provide a service. I'm a company that doesn't make money. But what is the point of that?

Hi. Hi. Shouldn't someone who has had the look? I like being a middle guy. I don't think we need that at this. What's the point of you? Like, I'm like a guy. I'm like a guy that's a flood.

I'm a guy on a line taking a sandbag and I pass it to the next guy. OK. But what if that next guy just, no, I'm not even going to use that analogy or take that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. I'm not going to get rid of you and I'll just go directly to that company. And then they're on the hook for what they're actually doing. Well, I take the stuff from him.

By the way, why is this letter written in clipped out magazine letters? Don't worry about that. That's a special font we're using. It's like a ransom letter. We're not going to kill you. Is this someone's hair? Whose hair is this? It's fine.

It's everybody's hair kind of. Why is there a thumbprint and blood at the bottom? That's just how we sign things now. What are you doing? Who are you? Don't worry about it. What the fuck do you mean? Suck on the hose.

Oh my God. That's a living snake. It's really. That is crazy though. Like what are they? That year, after they sent out that notice, PGD's profits increased by 26% in the third quarter alone. It's just it's.

They're paying off their debt. They're buying back their stock and they're telling customers they're not making any money. It really has just fully become the American dream. Oh, it's just insane. The American dream is to just be a part of a company that's just like, sorry, we made so much money off of that. And then we're all like, wait, what? Yeah.

But our lives suck. They're like, well, yeah, but ours are great. Maybe you guys should buy a politician. Maybe you guys should get in the gas business, not that we're in it. On August 31st, 2001, the Chromate Toxicity Review Committee panel. This is a panel that's been put together to look at Chromium 6 because of course. It's not poisonous. That new report came out.

Yeah. So they're re-evaluating. It's actually kids are getting it at lunch. Yeah. It's supposed to be pretty good for their silver bones. So they submit their official report on Chromium 6. No link between cancer and ingesting Chromium 6, even though Chromium concentrations were described as quote, alarmist and spuriously high.

Would it be better if we just had no government or any agent? I'm serious. Is that better? Yeah. Because in a way, I think you think, well, there's certain things that are, but obviously getting rid of all of it would create like crazy, I mean, it would be crazy. But it seems like you would just some lunatic with an eye patch would just come over at some point and just be like, here's what we're doing and he'd be like smoking near it and

you'd be like, it's better. It's just better. Like Dennis Hopper from Waterworld would be in charge of it and he would be in charge of it. You'd be like, yeah, it's like crazy. And I mean, look, a lot of us are dying, but I think when you look at the average of everything, most of us are actually happier and dying less. I mean, I can't really argue with that.

So the report relied on the Kemerisk 1997 bullshit study. Yeah. So and by the way, what is the point of having them investigate a study that's already like, why not do some, again, it's literally, we need to just start throwing them in these bodies of water and being like, drink it. Yeah. So good, drink it. Yeah.

Go ahead. Have some. The Environmental Health Hazard Assessment Office then withdrew its public health goal for chromium amounts allowed in American water. Which is, was it hopefully zero? Well now it's. Now it's like whatever. Let's go.

Whatever. Yeah. Welcome to Lake Chromium. Another law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of 900 people for chromium six related illnesses. Two years later, Senator Deborah Ortiz held a Senate hearing to investigate interference in the chromium committees fine, the committee's findings. There Aaron Brockovich denounced the panel, quote, the panel was conceived with noble purpose, but it became corrupt, skewed and biased due to the undue influence from companies

with a financial stake in its conclusions. Did I mention Dennis, uh, passing back was on the panel? Oh, that's fine. That's cool. And another PGD employee also. Sure. But they were probably there in like some different. Yeah.

They were just hanging out. Yeah. Yeah. They were there in a much more straight forward position PGD and cameras were not legally obligated to disclose their involvement with the panel. So Dennis. What are we doing? What are we doing?

And this was like back when I would be like, things were pretty good. Like, what the fuck are we do now we're just, it is just beyond. So he was able to stay on the panel, even though some people knew about it and couldn't draw any attention to it, you know, like consumer groups or whatever, because there's no legal reason to kick them off. Like you can't do anything. But then this is all revealed during the Senate hearing, so Dennis resigns from the panel with great honor.

Quote, nonetheless, the panel's report still relied heavily on his work, lifting entire passages word for word from an earlier report he had helped prepare for his industry clients. Nice. Around the time of this panel, Dennis drank a glass of water containing chromium six and soaked in a hot tub filled with the supposedly contaminated water to prove it was harmless. There's no way. But he said he did it to prove it was harmless. Did he do it in front of anyone?

I don't know. No, he was just like, I did it the other night. I do it every Sunday. He then earned the nickname Dr. Evil. Wow, that's good. Yeah. I like that. Well, we finally found who Dr. Evil is.

Yeah. Dennis continued to cut run cameras and was the editor-in-chief for the Journal of Children's Health. I just don't understand. I don't understand. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. It's so bad. Even beyond, even beyond it being allowed to happen, how does he, how does he do it? He just, how does he do it? You mean how does he do it? Yes. Yes.

He has no soul. Yes. But how is it possible? He has a dark black cloud inside. Yes. But that's not okay. Well, how? But that's who these people are.

But how? They're all fucking trained people, they're all fucking evil inside. They're no different than serial killers. But I- They are no different than serial killers. I think, I think they have, there's some, there's some way where they convince themselves that it's not true. I don't.

You don't? I think that they revel in causing suffering. No. Are you serious? Yes. It's just insane. How else could they do it? I don't, that's my question.

That's my question. They are like serial killers. They get off on causing the pain and suffering. They get off on it. Remember the dong guys we were talking about? Sorry. Sorry. So these are-

Sorry. These are different types of- Shut the fuck up. Oh yeah. You ever jacked it with a bit of chromium? Oh, talk about silver and loom. Oh, the skin came off. Oh, that's fine, look at that.

Oh. It really is like- Dennis was also appointed to a CDC prevention committee- Chromium disease- That assessed the health effects of environmental chemicals by the Bush administration. Oh my god. Oh my god. CDC's fine, you guys.

It's not corrupt at all. David Michael. Center for Dung and Chromium. David Michael's professor, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. So we can only continue to think that PG&E paid cameras to manufacture a study that would bolster its assertion that ingested chromium has not been shown to increase cancer risk. So they just straight up paid for it and they got it.

Yeah. They got it. That's that easy. In 2004, two fires, the Sim and Fred Fires, Fred Fires. Fred Fires? I mean, what are we gonna do with Fred Fires? That is a serious name? Yeah, that's what it was, the Fred Fires.

The guy, they're like, listen, Andy, we're gonna actually take you off the naming committee. All right. No, Fred. I got Larry coming up. No, no, no. I got Larry coming up. No, no. It's just kind of like...

Oh, there's the dog. It's weird to just give him kind of like, like dude names is just sort of strange for us. Bernie. No. Yeah, you like it? No, I don't. Bernie's burning.

No. What I'm saying is like, I'm not saying that we, it's really helpful if you kind of name it after the region and not just some like guy who maybe works in an office. Do you know what I'm saying? This town is Fred. No, it's not. That's not what this town's called. Yeah.

No, this is Arrowhead. Arrowhead. No, get out. Now get out now. Get out now. Leave the paper you took and get out now. We know you've been taking copy paper. Get out now.

The fact that your lips are moving and your eyes have that look of the wheels are sort of turning and then another word is going to come out of your head is not okay. Now get out now. Don't, don't, don't, but I heard you say something, but I don't want to know what it is. Get out. Bridget. Bridget. We like the diversity.

We're actually loving that a little bit. So the Sim and Fred fires burned about 8,000 acres of federal forest and the fires were caused by PG&E power lines, which still lacked necessary safety features. This is eight years later, two PG&E contractors, Western Environmental Consultants and Davy Tree Expert Company were blamed for the fires for not clearing the vegetation. See I think it's partially that they all do it. So there's like strength in numbers of all the lunacy. I'm not saying they have souls, but it's, it's like they all just get so used to like,

you know, drinking virgin blood out of bathtubs at their little masked orgies that they're just like, yeah, it's cool. We're like the upper crust. I mean, you know, it's just, these guys want to save money. They want to make money. Yeah. And they're going to do it on the back of. By cutting back on what they should be doing.

PG&E would eventually pay 6.1 million. The fact that every time you say M shocks me. Like a B better be forming on those lips. So PG&E emerges from bankruptcy in 2004 after paying 10.2 billion to its hundreds of creditors. But which was basically paid for by a bailout. I mean, yeah, they, yeah. During that period, sadly, they could not pay dividends to their investors. So people took a hit.

Some people took a hit, buddy. You know what I mean? Sometimes. Yeah. You just let it off. You start to think that. Yeah. There's no justice in this world.

Let it out, man. They're buying back the stock as best they can. God dammit. How are they going to afford their zipline ride? They were so, they tried so hard. Here's the thing though. Now they can pay dividends again after 2004. It's not good enough.

They better be huge. So make it up. So PG&E had wanted to split the company into four parts with three under federal control, but the judge would not allow it, the bankruptcy judge. It's always amazing when a good judge pops up. Yeah. So PG&E would go forward as an intact company under PUC regulation. The day of the bankruptcy announcement that they came out in their, you know, back to

business, PGA's corporate shares were at $29, triple their price of $11 almost on the eve of bankruptcy filing. Wall Street loves a winner. So they went into bankruptcy and their stock almost tripled. Right. Customers would now get higher rates expected to be $6.2 billion to $8.2 billion above market prices through 2012, an average of $1,300 to $1,700 per customer. It's just, I don't, they, a side effect of chromium must be malaise.

I don't get it. They don't care. But not them, us. Oh, us. Oh, us. I don't get it. I don't get it. I think that people are, people know there's nothing, there's nothing you can do.

There's nothing you can do to get politicians to do anything. Everybody knows that. But beyond that, it's, what do you mean, like burn it down? No, or like sunburn. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like go to one of their parties and just be like, I'm going to cut like their stomachs. Yeah.

Or like, why don't we burn down PG&E's on? Yeah. Like, yeah. No, I get it. I mean, France would not put up with this. Oh my God. Yeah. So in 1996, there was a fire.

We have either knows the board members. That's weird. Yes. Yeah. They made a statue out of our turds. Out of what? Our turds. Why?

Because fuck them. Fuck them? What took so long? What are you doing? Smoking the power lines. In 1996, there was a fire at a Mission Street substation and the fire department had a hard time locating where the fire was. That's bad.

Afterwards, a report was issued on actions that should be taken to stop the fires at the substation and improve fire detection. And PG&E did nothing. PG&E's insurance department completed surveys in 1997, in 1998, in 2000, and in 2002. Four to six years after the 1996 fire and report, the same issues remained. None were resolved. Is that a problem? It's good.

This is good. Towards fixing something, I've often found that no adjustments is good a step in the right direction. Yes. Right. In December, on December 20th, 2003, a fire had occurred at PG&E's Mission substation. It resulted in a. Whoa.

Whoa. What? What? What? So much nothing. Can't forgot. We did all the nothings. We did everything we weren't doing.

We got the whole report. We didn't do any of it. How much more can we not do? What are we supposed to do? Good Lord. Less? More? Oh, my Lord.

It resulted in a complete shutdown of the substation and left more than 100,000 customers in San Francisco without power, including many downtown retail stores filled with shoppers on the peak holiday shopping weekend. There was substantial smoke at the substation, but the fire that was the source of the smoke could not be located. You know, it would be interesting to see if they maybe did something towards being able to locate that for the future. Just a wild idea.

So the fire department left. They couldn't find the fire. That's a good sign, right? When you're like, did you put it out? No. Just a lot of smoke. We're going to go to Jersey Mike's. What?

It was done. Five hours later, PG&E located the fire and called the fire department back and they put it out. Service would not be restored until the next night. Total damages to retailers and businesses was $4 million. The city launched an investigation and discovered it was exactly the same as the 1996 fire and PG&E had done nothing to fix the problem. The city demanded PG&E, they wanted a fire of $4.6 million.

The PUC wanted a fire of $10 million and PG&E settled for $6.5 million. And surely they've changed. They learned their lesson. Yes. Well, that's never going to happen again. I'm going to show you. In 2005, Lisa Nash, a 47-year-old mother of two, was walking to her new job on Kearney Street in San Francisco when an underground transformer exploded.

Fire shot up through the sidewalk. The explosion lifted two six-ton cement and steel vault covers. It also threw a manhole cover 30 feet into the air. A nearby storefront was set on fire. Lisa, quote, I remember opening my eyes. I can't believe we're hearing a quote from her. Seeing a cloud of black smoke and thinking to myself, thank God I can still see. Lisa suffered third-degree burns on her hands, arms, and feet, second-degree burns on her

face, chin, neck, and ears. She had major fractures on her arm and a shattered elbow. Burns covered 40% of her body. She was put into a five-week medically-induced coma, a PG&E spokesman. We want to credit Lisa for a great nap. I cannot wait for this. Quote, we're very sorry she was injured by our equipment in this explosion. We want her to know that PG&E is going to do the right thing for the family we've offered

to pick up the cost of all of her medical treatment. I don't, I, see this is- How generous are they, Gareth? They are going to pay for her medical treatment. Like the idea that there's a world where you wouldn't in their heads, that that's the gift? Like imagine like hitting someone's car and being like, you know, I want to do the right thing and help you take care of this. I'll help you take care of that.

Jesus Christ. Lisa Nash survived after two months of intensive care in the hospital and she would win a $20 million lawsuit against PG&E. And we just want to thank her for suing us. We did the right thing and did what the court said. Really good work by her. We feel like we're donating $20 million to the Lisa Nash Foundation because the judge said that the jury said we had to because it was a lawsuit.

In 2006, PG&E paid $295 million to 1,100 more people for chromium-related illnesses. The very last Hinkley claim was settled in 2008 for $20 million. That year, the National Institute of Health found that chromium-6 did indeed cause cancer in mice when ingested and the- In mice. Mice. Mice ain't people, Jack. Shut up.

Shut up. That's fair. Yeah. The EPA began a review of quote, chromium-related effects based on new science. I love the idea that they were like letting, they were just like, well, it was settled a while ago. Like you need like an update. You're telling me this chemical is bad?

But look at this fake report that was funded by people who work for the company. That's the thing. Everybody knows the fake fucking report. Yeah. Everybody knows the fake fucking report. That's what it means. We should go back and take a look at this. I think we should take a look at this now.

Imagine how many people got fucked by chromium in that time because they're like, yeah, just go ahead and put it anywhere. Yeah. What are you going to do? It's good for you. It's based on the fake report. The fish love it. It's like silver bait.

The plume in Hinkley had continued to spread despite requirements for a cleanup. In 2010, it was discovered contaminated water had infiltrated the deeper lower aquifer. PG&E began selling bottled water to Hinkley residents. We're going to do the right thing and sell water to the residents. We, boy, we feel terrible about poisoning your aquifers. So we're going to do the right thing and we're going to sell you a bottle of this. It's heavily plastic water for 350 a bottle. No, no, no, no, no, no.

I see the pitchforks and the torches. We insist. We want to do what's right. We want it. This was an act of God. We want to do what's right. We feel terrible and luckily we'll be able to make a little money off the water business. God, we feel bad.

And they also started buying up property of people who started leaving. Oh my God. It is a good business model in every metric. Yeah, they're making money. And they're buying property and they're selling water. By 2013, the Hinkley Chromium plume had expanded from two miles long and one mile wide to six miles long and four miles wide. PG&E had spent $700 million trying to fix the situation.

A PBS journalist asked PG&E's lead on the cleanup why it was taking so long quote, it's a very complex project. We are highly regulated. There's a lot of interested parties. The other thing is it's very important to us that we get it right. I mean, it's so great. I am, I'll tell you what, I'm coming around the other way now. I'm starting to like them.

I'm starting to like them a little bit. Oh man, the absolute cahones. PG&E said it had already cleaned 54 acres of contaminated water and built a half mile concrete barrier to contain the plume. They also pumped ethanol into the ground to convert Chromium 6 into the more benign Chromium 3. That's also... That's very common now.

That's what they're doing to everything. They're pumping in... Another... There's a lot of deep aquifers in California that are full toxins and so they're going to pump in other stuff to break up the... That's what they do with oil spills too, where they do corrections. Yeah. That turned out great.

Yeah, totally. Gave you little fun black balls to play with when you're on the base of the ocean. Hey, look, it's a seven-eyed shrimp. Yeah, all right. Oh, look at that. G.R. You like jumbo shrimp? Heard a man-sized shrimp?

That seems like a dong. Yeah. Sorry. Huh? Water-dong. Underwater-dong. PG&E said it began planting acres of alfalfa to irrigate the tainted water. Hey, PG&E, fuck you.

And then they're feeding the alfalfa to chickens at the chicken farm that they... So they're like, look, here at PG&E Farms, we're a utopia. It's just outside of the land. It's a cycle of life. Yeah. You grow off alfalfa, the chickens eat it, the chickens drink, the chickens die. It's a lot like when we feed people chromium through water. But Hinkley residents now started reporting high levels of arsenic and manganese in their

wells. Jesus Christ. Is it just me or does Hinkley seem like a bunch of winers? PG&E... Stop. PG&E insisted those chemicals occurred naturally, and it always been there. Those have always been there. Just check.

Oh, that's part one. Next time is part two, or as I call it, the fires. Oh, fuck me. Oh, does it get worse? Oh, my God. It's so bad. It's just like... We are...

If you... The idea... Let me just say this, and then you can do your thing. The idea that we're an actual country, that we walk around, that we put the flag at half mass... The flag should no longer be raised. It should always be at half mass. Just on the ground.

Yeah. It should... The fact that we have the 4th of July, the State of the Union, that we have flagpins, we're just not a country. We're just not. It's just... We're not. It's just a joke.

We're... We are a product for companies to harvest. Yeah. We are like a zombied body. And now whatever the thing is that's in the brain that ate it and is controlling us to just go around and find other brains to eat, we're that. And meanwhile, people are like, that's the best guy on earth. Now you can check.

If you... if we don't burn down the Norfolk headquarters, this keeps happening. Like, I mean, that's... The response has to be crazy. Those people in Ohio are not going to go through everything the Hinckley people went through and there will be no help. I don't care what anybody says. They're going to fuck. There was a woman... oh, god damn it, I forgot the name of the journalist, but Jordan...

Anyway. Peterson. You like that. Jordan Peterson. He is a guy out there on the ground and he's talking to people. Oh, yeah. And... So you got arrested?

No. No. They're out there right now talking to people and there's a woman and she... She was like four kids, I think. And she was gone for a few days because of the spill and then they said it was safe to come back and she came back and her one-year-old was lethargic and just coming out of his nose and looks like he has a terrible cold but really bad off and she's taken to the hospital.

What do you think they did right when they got to the hospital? That's right. A chemical shower. Oh, my god. So that's what's going on there. And they're not going to get help unless we all fucking scream and do, you know... They've already gone around and tried to get people to sign things that basically wave their liability.

Yeah. They've offered everyone their 1,000... They did the bottled water thing where they offered everyone $1,000. Yeah. They're trying... They're apologizing. They're trying to do it. They're trying to get away with it because it's blown up out of the pond into an actual

story because it's... Thank god for David Srotta at the lever because they've been putting the most pressure on. StatusCoop. Go to StatusCoop and watch the videos. It's unbelievable. But they... Again, the whole model is that damage, destroy, kill, get away with it if it makes you profit. And that's just like the...

There's just... There's no humanity to the business in this country anymore. Not that we've had that for a long time, but it is now... It's sweet. It's a joke. It's peak. It's the end of capitalism. That's what Marx predicted.

And then when it comes to this thing, to me, it doesn't... I don't understand why... So there are a lot of problems that lead to shit like this and there's a lot more problems going on outside of this. But with this in particular, it was right if I have this correct, it was Obama wanted to change the way the braking system worked. That kind of got... the brakes kind of got put on that because of corporate influence. Whatever changes were going to be made or were made, Trump basically reversed or stopped.

And then Biden didn't do anything to change that. And then when it came to the railway strike, the Democrats who were in power at the time fully sort of shut that all down and now what you have is you have people saying, this was Trump's doing and you have people saying, this is Biden and Buttigieg. This is their doing. And you have these two camps sort of arguing over whose fault it is without just recognizing the clear unification between the moment, which is that fuck Trump and fuck who's in power now because the idea that they couldn't reverse what Trump did is totally crazy.

People need to stop being brainwashed by one of the two political parties in this country. You are capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. You can think that Trump is a disgusting, lying, traitorous shitbag as well as agreeing that the Democrats did nothing to undo the traitorous shitbags doing because they're also completely corrupted and corporately influenced. And so when you live under a duopoly, the whole reason why they're able to get away with the rigged game is because we look at it like we're NFC, AFC teams, and we just want our side to take home the trophy.

And it's how they get away with it. The pendulum swing between these two, we're going to make your lives better. No, we're going to make your lives better. And nothing gets better. I just, I can't fucking, and I mean, you and I both take so much shit for talking like this because it- Well, look, and this was partially for the brakes, but there's other bigger problems with the trains.

The brake system we have on our trains are Civil War era technology. In England, the brakes we should have started being introduced in the 1920s and became standard in the 1950s. So you don't get to blame one president. You get to blame 50 fucking years of them, 70 years of them. They all could have fucking done it. They're all corrupt and they don't. That's it.

That's the bottom line. That's the bottom line of safety because to what you're talking about in this story, you have, they whittled it down to you have two or three people on these trains. And then it went down to one person and now we're like, we need two people back on the train. It's like, you can't live under a system that has to, every quarter, make more money. You just can't. No, it doesn't work.

It's going to, at some point, they're going to like, it's going to be like the Penguin episode. At some point, they're going to be throwing us in fiery vats to turn us into oil and we're going to be like, oh gosh. You know what I can see happening? I can see like the Congress going, okay, let's give them money to fix everything. Or investigate themselves. And then they don't fix it.

Yeah, no. I mean, that's, that's what we always do. And you're right. Investigate themselves. That's what's happening. Yeah. Norfolk is supposed to clean up. There's no other companies that can clean up environmental spills.

Well, when they said that the water was safe to drink then. With all the dead fish in it. With all the dead, with all the clear like chem, chemical ripples in the water. When they were saying that water was safe to drink, that was like, that was government agencies saying, yeah, well, they basically said that. Yeah. The water is safe to drink, but one year olds are getting chemical showers when they go to the ER.

Yeah. But can we just say quickly, it is great to live in a country where you can actually light your tap water on fire. That's pretty cool. Research was done by Todd Knack, a million sources. So I'm going to read some of the books, the sketch, you're going to read the books out loud. Yeah, the whole book.

Jesus Christ. A sketch of the life of Peter Donnie of San Francisco by Crocker and Company, a history of California, Hubert Bancroft, Concise Encyclopedia of the History of Energy by Cutler Cleveland. The Centennial Story of Pacific Gas and Electric Company by Charles Coleman, Forgotten Pioneers, Irish Leaders in Early California by Thomas Penagrast. The American Irish, A Political Social Portrait by William Shannon. And then there's just a ton of, there's so many different articles. So I'll just, I'll post it all up in the sources, but you know, it's...

Knowing what I know about the part two that's coming, it's going to be great. These are my favorite. There's so many good little... My favorite are when you can hear the footsteps coming to your doorstep. Yeah, there's so many good little moments of coming up in the next one of what they said and what they did and their emails and like just how fucking... How these people aren't communicating through carrier pigeon anymore. Well, the corruption is off the charts.

And again, I call them serial killers. They're serial killers. Yeah, they kill. Why give one, give one CEO the death penalty? Yeah. One. No, process, process totally. If you...

Yeah, it's... One. That's it. Give one the death penalty. Yeah. One. And it's all over. Yeah.

Give one. God. And just brought... You know what? And to the point of like selling bottled water, make it an event. Make it... Let's... It should be on like Fox Shedare.

Yeah. And you can sell... Like little Caesars can do like bumper ads and you can have him in like, you know, like a Mountain Dew, like guillotine or whatever. Yeah. You know, you could really... I'm saying you can do it the American way. We could find advertisers.

We need one DA in one town. Just to fucking go apeshit. Go apeshit. We... We... This is the greatest idea ever. We need to just stack it down with people who are like, we're going to behead the CEO. And then it's just like, they'll be like, what the fuck?

These lunatics would be like, sorry. Take over, become the DA of Hinckley. Yeah. And just, you know, whatever that... In that county, whoever it is, take it over and just fucking go, okay, death penalty's on the board. We should just move there and just start doing this. Oh.

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What did you and your mommy cook last? We had a ricotta flatbread and then a veggie shepherd's pie. So me and your mom, we made balsamic tomato and herb chicken over a little bit of spaghetti. I don't think you did. I'll tell you what, your mom loved that. She's pescatarian. Get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hellofresh.ca slash dollop 20 with code dollop 20, that's 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping

on your first box at hellofresh.ca slash dollop 20 with code dollop 20. What's up, everybody? This is Gareth, not Gary from The Dollop Podcast, the show you're about to listen to. Listen, I would love to invite you to see some stand-up comedy I'm doing on the road. I'm all over this great nation of ours. Be part of the Gareth Army or the Garmy, as everyone's calling it. Everyone's calling it that. Don't look it up, but everyone's calling it that.

Today March 13th, I'll be in Fort Wayne, Indiana. March 14th, I'll be in Indianapolis. March 15th, Louisville, Kentucky. March 16th, Columbus, Ohio. March 17th, Dayton, Ohio. March 18th, I have two shows in Perrysburg, Ohio. March 19th, I'll be in Cleveland, Ohio. March 21st, Lexington, Kentucky.

March 22nd, I will be in St. Louis. March 23rd, I'll be in Kansas City. March 24th and 25th, I'll be in Des Moines, Iowa. March 26th, I'll be in Omaha. Then April 12th, I'm very excited to say I'll be in Tacoma, but I will be doing a crowd work show. I'll be filming it, so I really want people to come out to that. That's April 12th, which is a Wednesday, Tacoma Comedy Club, Washington.

Come on out. Then April 13th, back to regular stand up at the Spokane Comedy Club. And then April 14th and April 15th, I'll be in Bozeman, Montana at Last Best Comedy. Also Los Angeles, my home city kind of, whatever. May 5th, Friday, I'll be at the Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles. Then May 18th, I'll be at Stand Up Live in Phoenix, Arizona. More shows coming like July 12th and July 13th, I'll be at the New York Comedy Club. One's in New York.

One's in Connecticut. It's wild. Then I'll be in Pittsburgh, July 15th. And that's all for now. Go to Gareth Reynolds dot com to get tickets and information and join me. Be part of the Garmy. Everyone's calling it that. Good to push it back.