THIS IS ALMOST too good to be true. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle's David Lazarus, published Jan. 14, the new chief executive officer of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Peter Darbee, proclaimed that he will restore PG&E's corporate integrity by following the Ten Commandments.

"You don't lie. You don't cheat. You don't steal. You don't commit adultery. It's the Ten Commandments that drive my world view," Darbee told Lazarus.

Wow. This from a guy who was the chief financial officer when PG&E went into bankruptcy and then picked up a $6.4 million bonus for sticking around (on top of his base pay of more than $1 million a year). A guy who was handling the books when PG&E paid out $83 million to top execs at a time when the company was stiffing creditors and screwing ratepayers. A guy who apparently saw no problem in spending millions of the bankrupt company's money to buy an election and stop a public power measure and preserve the company's illegal monopoly in San Francisco.

The last time I checked, greed was still one of the seven deadly sins. Oh, and then there's pride, right? In some parts of the world, when top execs drive their company into bankruptcy, they have the humility to admit they messed up and resign.

Oh, wait: Darbee does admit he screwed up. He told Lazarus later in the column that the entire electricity deregulation plan – hatched by PG&E and its friends – may have been a terrible mistake. Gee, in retrospect maybe they should have kept electricity a regulated commodity. Damn, too bad about that. It cost PG&E's customers $7 billion or so, cost the governor his job, caused widespread rolling blackouts ... sorry, folks. Little miscalculation.

But it won't stand in the way of his new gig, which will pay him $1.7 million a year if he makes his performance targets (and who do you imagine actually wrote those targets?)

Sorry, Mr. Darbee: it may take more than prayer to save PG&E's corporate reputation at this point.

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Speaking of greed and corruption, check out Matthew Hirsch's story. Mirant Corp., which has already paid $15.7 million to settle charges that it manipulated the California energy market, wants a nice whopping tax break from San Francisco. The company claims its power plant at the foot of Potrero Hill, which the city assessed at $210 million five years ago, is really only worth $40 million. Amazing.

Tim Redmond