Thursday 20 January 2011

High energy

California has a bad history with energy.  A company you may know called Enron manufactured a power crisis here a few years ago, sending electricity costs soaring by switching off their own power stations and then claiming that demand outstripped supply.  It's what the free market was invented for!  This was before they started swapping the 'profit' and 'loss' columns in their financial reports, but at least they eventually got into trouble (and someone made an excellent film about it).

Now Pacific Gas & Electric is the big kid in town, and light bulbs have remained on.  Unfortunately, they too had a year to forget, with a fatal gas explosion, a failed attempt to buy the legislature, and missed renewable energy targets.  So, as I walked up our street to find a large crew of PG&E men digging up the road, I sighed at the prospect of weeks of disruption and chaos.  I grumpily crossed over because they had closed the sidewalk.

Imagine, then, my surprise at getting to the end of the roadworks to be greeted by a man dressed up as a PG&E hat!  What stroke of public relations genius was this?  Standing amongst the surly, orange-clad workers was (I have to say it again) a man dressed as a hard hat.

As is always the case when such things happen, I was lacking my camera.  To be honest, I am also not intrepid enough to walk up to a bunch of workmen and ask if I can have my photo taken with one of their number who is probably sweating uncomfortably under this heavy latex contraption.  PG&E Hard Hat Man is also tough to track down online, but I have found this rare shot:


Yes, officer, that's definitely the man I saw.

And a far more appropriate, toy-sized version:


Well...perhaps I'm breaking an exclusive on a new PR strategy from the energy company.  Perhaps their marketing gurus figured that having a mascot to distract you when driving through road works would lessen any annoyance you feel.  I mean, who's going to get angry and shout abuse at a huge squidgy hard hat?  Perhaps I have glimpsed into the murky world of energy labourer initiation ceremonies, or witnessed a punishment.  Why, frankly, didn't BP have a person in fluffy fancy dress at all their Gulf Coast disaster press conferences?

If I pluck up the courage to return and snap a photo I may have to ask these questions directly.  In the meantime, it's good to know that we have an energy company utilising every available resource at their disposal...