PG&E picks up negative energy at Mill Valley forum

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. representatives who came to Mill Valley on Thursday received a cool reception.

The utility held an open house at the Mill Valley Community Center to discuss its latest projects and hear concerns. Inside, staffers put up easels and posters on topics ranging from safely digging on one’s property to safer power grids.

But in the lobby, residents whose homes overlook a big power station had their own easels and posters to protest PG&E’s local track record.

Gary Batroff pointed to before-and-after photos of PG&E’s Alto substation on a bare hill above Hauke Park. He said the utility turned a green landscape into a barren one.

“They cut down 130 trees in like two days,” Batroff said. “Some of them were redwoods, which are supposed to be protected.”

Batroff pointed to another easel holding an illustration created by the utility five years ago showing what the substation’s landscaping was supposed to look like.

“I don’t need answers. I need action,” he said. “I don’t need anyone to call me, make me feel better, send me another rendering, tell me about a plan, tell me about a budget, what they’re going to do, how it will be better. I need action. I need results.”

Inside the venue, the skeptical reception continued. Hardly anyone was looking at exhibits explaining precautionary power shutoffs, enhanced power line safety settings, wildfire risk modeling and using helicopters to fight fires.

Instead, two dozen people hovered around stations showing four local infrastructure upgrades and the county’s major electric transmission lines. The neighborhood above Hauke Park was next to PG&E’s southern Marin transmission hub.

Tony Wells of PG&E was asked what happened last November when the utility brought two dozen diesel generators to the Alto substation and ran them around the clock for more than a week, generating noise, fumes and ill will.

Wells said system improvements elsewhere in Marin necessitated the generators. He said the episode was “a learning experience” and “they’re working to upgrade that equipment.”

“Is there a plan to make sure there’s an emergency that doesn’t put 25 generators in a residential neighborhood?” asked David Tollen.

Wells said there is a plan but it will take a few years to implement. “We aim to not have it happen again,” he said.

“The truth is you don’t want to do it again, but you may have no choice,” Tollen said.

David Canny, a regional vice president for PG&E, said the utility organized the event to share big-picture updates, answer questions and listen. “Because in this community in particular, we’ve heard from customers and we’re working towards solutions on things we know that are concerns — but that doesn’t mean we know all of the concerns.”

Canny said he expected residents to bring up the Alto substation. He didn’t expect a protest in the lobby. PG&E could improve its outreach, he said. Next week, representatives plan to meet with residents at Hauke Park to create a landscape plan for the substation.

“My expectation after this meeting on Monday is we’ll have a very specific plan with types and number of trees and the timeline,” Canny said. “One of the concerns you’ve heard is, ‘We’ve had meetings before. You said you’re going to do stuff.’ So we need to be specific about what it is we’re going to do, where we’re going to do it, and when.”