Pacific Gas & Electric Company

Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Type	Public
Traded as	: PCG DJUA Component S&P 500 Component
Industry	Electricity Natural gas
Founded	1905
Headquarters	Pacific Gas & Electric Building San Francisco, California, United States
Products	Electricity Natural gas
Revenue	US$ 14.956 Billion (2011)
Operating income	US$ 1.942 Billion (2011)
Net income	US$ 858 Million (2011)
Total assets	US$49.75 Billion (2011)
Number of employees	19,424 (2012)
Website	pge.com

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an investor-owned electric utility (IOU) with publicly traded stock that is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building in San Francisco. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to most of the northern two-thirds of California, from Bakersfield almost to the Oregon border which represents 5.2 million households. PG&E is overseen by the California Public Utilities Commission. It is the leading subsidiary of the holding company PG&E Corporation which has a market capitalization of $29.37 billion. It was founded by George H. Roe during the period after California's Gold Rush and by 1984 was the United States "largest electric utility business". PG&E is one of three regulated, investor-owned utilities (IOU)s in California—the other two being Southern California Edison and Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric.

In the 1850s, manufactured gas was introduced in the United States as a means of lighting. Gasworks were built in the larger eastern American cities, but there was no gas industry in the West, however. In San Francisco, street lighting was available only on Merchant Street, in the form of oil lamps.

Three brothers—Peter, James, and Michael Donahue—became interested in gas manufacturing while running the foundry that later became Union Iron Works, the largest shipbuilding operation on the West Coast. Joseph G. Eastland, an engineer and clerk at the foundry, joined them in gathering as much information on gas making as they could find. In July 1852, James applied for and received from the Common Council of the City of San Francisco a franchise to erect a gasworks, lay pipes in the streets and install street lamps to light the city with "brilliant gas". The council specified that gas should be supplied to households "at such rates as will make it to their interest to use it in preference to any other material". The Donahue brothers and Eastland incorporated the San Francisco Gas Company on August 31, 1852, with $150,000 of authorized capital. The company became the first gas utility in the West. Its official seal bore the inscription "Fiat Lux"—let there be light—the same slogan later adopted by the University of California. There were 11 original stockholders, and the three Donahue brothers subscribed for 610 of the 1,500 shares.