By Carolyn Chase
Why are our energy bills so high?
The Energy Industrial Complex is picking your pocket. The EIC in California consists of:
- The three for-profit monopolies: San Diego Gas & Electric, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison
- The CPUC – misnamed as the California Public Utility Commission – has ceased responsible oversight needed by ratepayers
- Politicians and appointees that fail to ask critical questions and go along with unnecessary rate increases. They accept project designs that are the most profitable instead of designs that prioritize affordability and climate progress.
How They Fool Us
1. It’s complicated. Few individuals have the experience to question the way our energy systems are designed, connected and priced. What the heck is a kilowatt-hour anyway?
2. Make it sound reasonable. Doesn’t it sound reasonable that the sun shines more in the desert and therefore we should capture that energy in remote locations and transport that energy into cities where it’s needed? But what’s the test for “reasonable”? And what can you compare it to?
3. Design a system that is most profitable for them instead of a system for ratepayer affordability. Rates have more than doubled over the past seven years. The current SDG&E plan has been approved for an additional 10% rate increases-per-year for the next four years. They plan more after that.
Remote projects being touted by SDG&E require expensive transmission projects with higher environmental damage and wildfire risk. Convenient for the monopolies, since transmission has a guaranteed rate-of-return.
4. Squash energy independence. Local solar installations reduce ratepayer dependence on the for-profit utilities. So they have manipulated the political system and convinced the CPUC to approve unfair fees on local solar. This also slows progress on reducing climate change emissions.
5. Deploy disinformation and character assassination. SDG&E has put $600,000 into a PAC to defeat public power by using scare tactics and biased cost estimates.
What Can Be Done
The energy delivery system is complex, but the political shenanigans are as old as time. Five votes of the San Diego City Council can get us out from under our corporate monopoly overlords by establishing public power through a non-profit municipal electric utility. Or they can put an initiative on the ballot and let the voters decide.
It’s important for the City Council to stand up for ratepayers and adopt public power sooner, rather than later. It will take years to implement but it will be worth it. Billions of ratepayer dollars can be saved by pursuing local rooftop and parking lot microgrids that do not require the expensive importing of remotely generated energy (that also includes about 10% energy losses along the way). San Diego has sufficient sunshine resources locally.
Local control = lower rates, lower emissions, and faster climate reductions.
The only answer to overcome the ratepayer rip-off is for the public to engage.
During Earth Week, on April 18th, the City Council Rules Committee will take up a proposed initiative to create a non-for-profit public power electric distribution utility in the City of San Diego. The meeting begins at 9am and the Power San Diego non-profit utility initiative is Item 2 SubItem D. If you can, attend the hearing in person or via Zoom.
Please submit comments here; at https://www.sandiego.gov/council-committees/rules-committee-public-comment-form
It will be a long, hard “David vs Goliath” battle. Sign up for the Power San Diego email list at powersandiego.us to get action alerts and learn about volunteer opportunities and events. If the council does not act, PSD is still collecting signatures until May 7th to put the measure on the ballot.
Got questions? Find the answers at powersandiego.us and if you can’t find it there, email: to cdc@earthdayweb.org
Carolyn Chase is a founder of San Diego Earth Day and is a former Planning Commissioner for the City of San Diego. She is the current President of Fiesta Island Dog Owners (FIDO).
SDG&E has put $600,000 into a PAC to defeat public power by using scare tactics and biased cost estimates.
Scare tactics itself.
Surprise, an apologist for PowerSD. Giving the city control of our power source to mismanage, is a bad choice, and no matter how much you dislike SDG&E, the lights work.
How can we trust a City Council that allowed Ash Street and a huge deficit budget to adequately address a power production system? The same corrupt policitians will be involved.
Put the “Public” back in the Public Utilities Commission. Lean on our elected Assembly and Senate representatives to legitimize this rubber stamp commission. Putting our gas and electric lifeline in the hands of those who did due diligence on 101 Ash Street, “manage” our Water and Sewer billing, and need a $4.5 Million study to determine how much to charge for trash is absurd. The alternative is to invest in home generators and propane tanks
To the three comments that don’t trust the City to be in charge, please READ the initiative. It sets up a 5 member independent Electric Board of Directors with expertise in critical fields of finance, utilities, law, engineering, public health, environmental and social justice advocacy. This board will make the decisions and be in charge of hiring the Executive Staff. Regular INDEPENDENT audits are required and a Community Oversight Committee of representatives from each of the City Council District areas will be established to ensure the goals and purposes of the Power San Diego utility are carried out. This will not be like any existing department at the City. It will be financed by municipal revenue bonds. Two former Chairpersons of the California Public Utilities Commission have endorsed the initiative because they know the captured regulatory system is broken. (PERIOD). This is about local control and local energy generation. Please go to the website at WEAREPOWERSANDIEGO.COM.
Appointed by the mayor and city council. PowerSD people become city employees. Muni bonds= debt. When you carve out the city, you’re surrounded by SDG&E transmission. The only savings is the elimination of profits. A temporary solution.
Reading the initiative and the failure of Todd’s infrastructure and tax plans tells me no.