Keeping the lights on
Public power gives San Francisco the juice

By Medea Benjamin

San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, November 1, 2001


IMAGINE that you're renting an apartment from an abusive landlord. He's one
of those guys who cruises around in the new Mercedes but keeps crying
poverty and jacking up the rent. When you need repairs, he's nowhere to be
found. Then one day you discover that he has so mismanaged his business that
he's filed for bankruptcy. Just when you're feeling totally despondent, you
discover something else -- you have a chance to buy the apartment, free
yourself from the abusive relationship, build your own equity, take control.
You'd jump at the chance, right?

Well, apply that logic to San Francisco's power system. Right now, our
landlord is PG&E, a company that took in .1 billion in profits in the past
three years and squirreled it away in a newly created and unregulated
"parent company." Then, when the utility company ran into debt, it refused
to dip into the parent company's funds and instead declared bankruptcy on
April 6.

It's a company that provides lousy service and has let its infrastructure go
to pot. It's also a company that recently oversaw the state's stiffest rate
increase ever -- socking us with the highest rates in the nation after
Hawaii.

This is the company that has been spewing pollution from its Hunters Point
plant for decades, severely compromising the environment and health of that
community, while making no significant investments in renewable energy to
replace our reliance on fossil fuels.

But on Nov. 6, we have a chance to move from renters to owners. With
Proposition F and Measure I, San Franciscans have a unique opportunity to
say good riddance to PG&E and set up a public power system. Why two
initiatives? PG&E is bound to try to hold up these efforts in court, as it
did after a similar initiative passed in Sacramento in 1923. As a
protection, we have two possible roads to public power:

Measure I uses a statewide act to create a Municipal Utility District (MUD)
run by an elected five-member board.

Prop. F amends the city charter to convert the city's Public Utility
Commission into a Municipal Water and Power Agency (MWPA) run by an elected
seven-member board.

If both measures pass, the MUD will take precedence unless it gets tied up
in court for more than two years. In that case, the MWPA will deliver public
power.

Public power is not a new, untested concept. It exists in more than 2,000
cities across the United States, cities that at some point in their history
decided that electricity was too important a resource to be left to the
vagaries of the market. Here in California, there are 31 public power
entities, including our state's largest city, Los Angeles, our state
capital, Sacramento, as well as Palo Alto, Alameda, Glendale, Anaheim and
Pasadena.

To scare away potential voters, PG&E is claiming it will cost taxpayers
billion to buy its assets. The state Board of Equalization sets the real
cost as closer to 0 million. PG&E also fails to explain that we would
finance this with revenue bonds that are repaid with income from electricity
bills, not new taxes.

Public power would result in major savings for ratepayers. Historically, U.
S. Department of Energy data show, public power is 31 percent cheaper for
residential customers than investor-owned power. In Los Angeles, rates are
22 percent lower than PG&E rates; in Sacramento, they're 30 percent lower;
in Palo Alto, they're 43 percent lower.

Where do the savings come from? Public power systems can get low-interest
bonds and loans, don't pay federal income tax, don't pay shareholder
dividends, and don't shell out hefty salaries for managers. Last year, PG&E
had 47 executives earning more than 0,000; public power agencies had, at
most, one person at that salary. And PG&E outspent Sacramento's public power
agency 16 to 1 for statewide lobbying.

Public power not only saves ratepayers money, it saves energy. Energy
efficiency and conservation are by far the fastest and cheapest ways to meet
our energy needs. Public utilities are there to serve consumers, not
shareholders, so they can make saving energy a priority. Sacramento, for
example, fulfilled its entire growth needs in the '90s through energy
efficiency. But for PG&E, the more energy it sells, the more it makes for
its stockholders.

Under public power, the mix of energy sources will change as well. Power
from the Hetch Hetchy water and power system, much of which is presently
diverted to Central Valley irrigation districts, could be used to supply up
to 40 percent of San Francisco's demand. We will also reduce our dependence
on gas-fired plants as we transition to solar and wind power.

So, Nov. 6 presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you want power that
is affordable, if you want to move from polluting fossil fuels to clean
energy, if you want your energy system controlled by elected officials
accountable to the public, vote yes on I and F.
-----------------------------
Medea Benjamin, founding director of Global Exchange, is a candidate for the
Municipal Utility District Board, Ward 4.


--------
To subscribe/unsubscribe from the powersurge list, send a message
to powersurge-request@powertothepeople.org with the word 'subscribe' or
'unsubscribe' in the body of the message.