Manatt’s George Soneff, leader of the real estate litigation practice, spoke to the Daily Journal about the city of San Francisco’s proposal to buy its local power grid from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).
The city would like to buy the grid in order to create an independent municipal utility, but the path to “municipalizing” the city’s power could face many obstacles.
Soneff is not involved in this matter, but said that the city would be able to gain control of PG&E’s grid only if it negotiated a sale or if it claimed the grid through eminent domain.
He said this is unlikely, because the power grid is one of PG&E’s largest assets.
“Based on my experience, [PG&E] is not for sale,” Soneff said. “So the likelihood is high that they would reject the offer.”