DARBEE RESIGNS POST AT PG&E
PG&E Chairman Peter Darbee, a leader praised for his efforts to promote green energy but heavily criticized in the wake of the fatal San Bruno pipeline explosion, is leaving the company at the end of the month.
Peter Darbee was a leader among utility executives in promoting green energy for climate protection.
Darbee told employees that stepping down would help the San Francisco company regain the public’s trust.
“Over the past year, our company has faced difficult challenges that have diminished confidence in PG&E among some of our customers, regulators and others,” Darbee wrote in an e-mail to PG&E employees on April 21. “By creating the opportunity for a new CEO to address these challenges from a fresh starting point, my decision to retire is aimed at helping PG&E turn the page and carry on with the work we are doing to become a safer, stronger company.”
Although Darbee’s critics were many, Tom Dalzell, business manager of IBEW Local 1245 which represents the vast majority of PG&E’s unionized workforce, said labor relations had been “excellent” under Darbee’s leadership.
Lee Cox, a member of PG&E’s board of directors and former chief executive of AirTouch Cellular, will become the company’s interim chairman, chief executive officer and president. A search for a permanent successor is underway, according to a company news release.