Southern California Edison

If no one ever explained this, Californians might want to know that the California Public Utilities Commission has constitutional status. The PUC is where the buck stops on regulation of investor-owned utilities, so what it says goes—even when the billion-dollar projects it approves are needless and destructive of the environment. 

Over near Porter Ranch, SoCal Gas’s catastrophic natural gas leak continually belches a noxious black cloud.  Besides emitting enough planet warming methane to fill the Empire State Building every day, it’s giving residents headaches, dizziness, nausea, and nosebleeds. They’re breathing methyl mercaptan that, at very high levels, can cause anemia and internal bleeding; benzene, a known carcinogen; and radon, a radioactive gas.