We asked whether Oakdale could break up with PG&E. The council put money behind finding out, and while the work was underway the number at the center of the argument moved. Both things belong in the same article, so here they are.
Up to $75,000 for a feasibility study, on a unanimous 5-0 vote.
Bell Burnett & Associates.
Four months from notice to proceed, with a draft at the midpoint.
About 7,000 Oakdale households on PG&E, about 1,000 on MID.
The claim the whole thing rests on.
Interim City Manager Jerry Ramar told the council that PG&E customers in Oakdale pay an average of about $250 a month more than households on MID service — over $3,000 a year per household, and by the city's math up to roughly $21.5 million a year across town.
We are reporting that as what it is: the city's figure, presented by the city, in support of the city's own study. It may be right. It is a large enough number that it deserves an independent check, and the point of hiring a consultant is to get exactly that. Until the study lands, treat $250 as a claim, not a finding.
The number that moved underneath it.
PG&E cut bundled residential electric rates roughly 5% for 2026, about $7 a month for a household using 500 kWh. We wrote about that separately, including the part where the cut only reaches customers who buy both supply and delivery from PG&E.
Seven dollars against a claimed $250 gap does not close anything. But it is directionally relevant, and a feasibility study that was scoped before the cut should account for it. The honest framing is that the gap narrowed slightly and the case is essentially unchanged.
PG&E says it is not selling.
This is the part that turns a spreadsheet question into a decade-long one. PG&E representative Eric Alvarez told the city that the company has no intention of selling its infrastructure, and pointed at South San Joaquin Irrigation District as the example — a roughly $28 million effort that has been running since 2008 to acquire PG&E facilities, and is still running.
That is the real cost line. Not the poles and wires. The years of legal process required to get them from an owner who does not want to sell, paid for out of a general fund that has other jobs.
Ramar's own summary of it was fair to both sides: the company invested money to provide a service, and the community thinks the price is too high.
What actually decides this.
Three things, in order. Whether the study confirms the savings claim with numbers that survive scrutiny. Whether MID wants the additional 7,000 connections and on what terms, which is a question the study cannot answer by itself. And whether a council seated in November is willing to start a process that may outlast its own term.
That last one is why this story and the council race are the same story.
Watch alongside this story
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