Power Less

POWER LESS… Squid was huddled in Squid’s lair Thursday night, March 9, when – while bingeing on Ted Lasso and shrimp-flavored popcorn – the power went out, leaving Squid in the dark. The outage lasted 48 hours, and it wasn’t just Squid: Approximately 37,000 PG&E customers in Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach and Carmel were impacted, with some homes going without power for over a week.

Recently, Squid opened up the mailbox to find a rare paper check for $25.22 from PG&E. The reason given: “Storm Refund.” Squid’s colleague inquired with PG&E officials about it, and was told it’s from the company’s safety net program, through which homes (not businesses) that go 48 hours or more without power automatically receive checks for amounts between $25-$100, depending on the length of the outage. (Those who were out 120 hours or more got $100.)

Some safety net. Squid’s check barely covers this month’s shrimp-flavored popcorn bill, not to mention the spoiling food Squid had to toss during the outage.

Squid’s colleague asked how many customers on the Peninsula received checks and how much PG&E shelled out in total. No answer was provided. Multiplying 37,000 times $25.22 gets $933,140. Meanwhile, Squid received an email on Sept. 19 from PG&E with the announcement: “Your energy bill is going up.” Exactly how much, PG&E doesn’t yet know, pending approval from the California Public Utilities Commission, but Squid expects the increase to total at least $933,140.

BAIT AND SWITCH… Squid loves a good political party (lowercase p), even if it’s exclusive. But Squid couldn’t float the $3,300 to brunch with Florida Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis on his Sept. 28 visit to Monterey County, the day after a debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. DeSantis came at the invitation of Taylor Farms CEO Bruce Taylor, and the campaign stop-off was met with a huge pushback of anger from local community organizers.

Squid’s no fan of DeSantis who, as far as Squid knows, has not laid out a meaningful policy on cephalopod protections. Squid’s also no fan of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, who has labeled DeSantis “Ron DeSanctimonious” and “Meatball Ron.” Are Taylor and friends looking for the lesser of two evils? Regardless, Squid wanted to hear what issues they would talk about, and planned to ooze over to Corral De Tierra Country Club where the brunch was scheduled to take place. Then came a follow-up message to attendees the night before: “We’ve had a security breach and are needing to move the location,” with instructions to call for the new location.

Sneak attack! The new location was the same as the old location. No word on whether meatballs were served.