By Bruce Wolfe, HANC Board
This month, at our general meeting on October 9, in the Community Room at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street, beginning at 7 pm, HANC will sponsor an in-depth discussion of Clean Power SF. A panel of folks knowledgeable on the subject will guide us through the ins and outs of recently defeated State legislation that would have killed Clean Power SF.
On Saturday, August 30, 2014, in an extraordinary legislative upset, David beat Goliath in Sacramento. Senator Darrell Steinberg brought down the gavel at 3:00 a.m. to close the 2013-14 legislative session, with no vote on Assembly Bill 2145. AB 2145, a monopoly utility driven bill aimed at crushing locally based clean energy efforts known as Community Choice energy programs in California, is officially dead.
Previously, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) spent over $46 million in 2010 pushing Proposition 16, a ballot measure that would have ended Community Choice in California. Voters soundly defeated the measure. Organizers who fought against Prop 16, joined with scores of new activists to help form the new coalition.
The newly emerged statewide coalition, Californians for Energy Choice (CfEC), of which HANC is a member through SF Clean Energy Advocates (SFCEA), pushed back the monopoly electrical utilities’ latest attempt to deeply undermine competition from these emerging local programs by reversing government rights to allow automatic enrollment into state-approved public services and programs and utilities like water and sewer.
Mayor Ed Lee was an early catalyst for AB 2145. His statements of 09/10/2013 before the SF Board of Supervisors' Mayor Q&A period appears to have proven true. “I believe that any public power program would need to be (voluntary) opt-in, allowing residents to make an informed choice about their power bills,” he said. “I'm committed to pursuing state legislation to allow CCA to be opt-in and I hope you, Supervisor Campos, and all the other members of the board, will partner with us to go to Sacramento and demand that our residents be allowed to control their own choices. I would be eager to work with you to make this happen at the state legislature as soon as possible.”
Unfortunately for Mayor Lee, the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee says otherwise. From the Committee's analysis: “Under current law the formation of a CCA is triggered by the adoption of an ordinance of a municipality, filings with the CPUC, establishing an operating agreement with the incumbent IOU, and notice to customers of automatic enrollment. All IOU customers within the boundaries of the municipality which establishes the CCA are automatically enrolled in the CCA but are informed of their right to opt out of the program. The primary purpose of this bill (AB 2145) is to reverse the enrollment and require a positive, written declaration of each customer to enroll in the program – (voluntary) "opt-in."” and “In any other consumer service area the automatic enrollment of a consumer for a service to which they did not take a positive action to subscribe would be considered slamming and most customers would be appalled at automatic enrollment. However, it is longstanding state policy and the fundamental role of local governments is to make service delivery decisions on behalf of its constituents. Those include garbage, water, sewer and electric service. Those municipal decisions do not require ratification of their constituents. For electric service most municipalities made the decision decades ago to franchise for electricity through a regulated utility to provide the service as a locally owned public utility. Arguably, the decision of a municipality to form a CCA to modify the provision of electric service to their constituents by adoption of an ordinance is consistent with that longstanding authority.”
By the way, who was Mayor Lee referring to as “us”? At end of this struggle, it was clear PG&E, SoCal Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric (investor-owned utilities (IOU)) were behind the bill despite front groups representing organized labor as the sponsor of record claiming CCA in its current form doesn't create but reduces jobs. This was just pure spin and absolutely untrue. Additionally, CfEC meetings with other unions and rank-and-file proved they were definitely not in support of AB 2145.
HANC and SFCEA's involvement was essential to this defeat in leading the charge to hire lobbyist, David Balla-Hawkins of ART Consulting, to help. Balla-Hawkins was the key element in making the breakthrough after the coalition was being stonewalled by legislators conflicted with IOUs. HANC's contribution and board member Bruce Wolfe's assertion plus the support of SFCEA helped convince CfEC members this strategy was imminent at the time in order to defeat AB 2145. It proved worthy.
The defeat of AB 2145 protects the ability of local communities to take control of decision-making about their electricity sources. It also empowers them to access lower rates by leveraging the joint customer buying power and energy market competition that Community Choice makes possible. Local governments throughout the State now have a green light to create successful clean energy-based Community Choice programs.
CfEC, SFCEA and HANC thanked the Senate President Pro Tem Darryl Steinberg, Minority Leader Bob Huff, the entire Senate and its hard-working aides, residents and officials from local communities all over the state, and labor unions which joined with the opposition, for seeing through the misinformation put out by AB 2145 operatives, and helping to defeat the bill.
Onward to finally implement Clean Power SF, our CCA program.