San Jose Mercury News Features PG&E Initiative, Local Power Inc.

Journalist Dana Hull of the San Jose Mercury News has published a great article on PG&E's efforts to block Community Choice in San Francisco, Marin, and dozens of other Northern California communities seeking to accelerate and scale up development of local renewable power.

"PG&E is spending millions of dollars on a statewide initiative that would make it tougher for local governments to purchase power from anyone else," the article reads. "The initiative, one of several appearing on the June 8 ballot, would require two-thirds approval from local voters before cities or counties could choose an alternate energy provider. PG&E says it merely wants to guarantee that taxpayers have a voice if their local governments decide to spend public dollars to get into the power business. But critics say the San Francisco-based utility is trying to sabotage communities eager to buy more power from renewable energy sources like wind and solar."

"PG&E has so far spent $6.5 million on the initiative, according to documents on the California Secretary of State's Web site, and has signalled it is prepared to spend millions more. It says money spent on the campaign comes from shareholder dollars but critics charge that customers are essentially footing the bill. "

Former California Energy Commissioner John Geesman is quoted: "There is not a nickel that passes through PG&E's books that doesn't ultimately derive from its customers," said on his "Green Energy War" blog.

To view the San Jose Mercury News article, click here.
To view recent press on Local Power and PG&E click here.

New Report Demonstrates that Renewables are a Cost-Effective Replacement For California’s Aging Power Plants

Local Power Research Director Robert Freehling has completed a new report with San Francisco-based Pacific Environment that provides a detailed cost-benefit analysis of options for phasing out California’s oldest and most inefficient natural gas fired power plants. The report, titled “Green Opportunity: How California Can Reduce Power Plant Emissions, Protect the Marine Environment, and Save Money,” finds that when the costs to public health and the environment are accounted for, replacing the aging power plants with renewable energy and efficiency would save up to 50 percent over replacing the plants with new natural gas power plants - the darling technology of utilities Pacific Gas and Electric that sell both gas and power, and tend therefore to favor gas as a power plant fuel.

The report is released as the California State Water Resource Control Board (SWRCB) is considering options for limiting the environmental damage caused by the state’s 17 natural gas power plants that use Once-Through Cooling Technology (OTC). OTC is a single pass cooling method that withdraws over 15 billion gallons of coastal and estuarine water per day statewide. This process kills billions of fish, larvae and marine mammals every year. Sound like "clean energy" to you? Pacific Environment’s report shows that replacing these aging power plants with renewable energy and efficiency will be more cost-effective and provide greater environmental, climate and public health benefits than replacing them with new natural gas power plants.

The report finds that replacing the power plants with clean energy would cost from 22 to 29 cents per kilowatt-hour, whereas repowering the power plant generators with non-OTC fossil fuel plants would cost 31 to 39 cents per kilowatt-hour, when externalities such as public health and environmental impacts are properly accounted. If California’s efficiency measures are also implemented, the average cost of clean energy is further reduced to about 17 to 21 cents per kilowatt-hour. In addition, California’s efficiency program is expected to yield a net savings, which will bring down the cost of clean energy replacement even further.

“This report puts to rest the myth that it is more expensive to invest in renewable energy than it is to upgrade fossil fuel power plants,” said Rory Cox, California Program Director at Pacific Environment and chief editor of the report. “Replacing these plants with renewable projects and efficiency measures will restore California’s marine ecosystems, while helping avoid the public health impacts of fossil plants, and help meet California’s clean energy goals.”

To Download the Pacific Environment Report, Click Here.

New York Times Features California Local Power Movement, PG&E Attack

California's Community Choice Aggregation Movement has finally hit prime time: a second story in the New York Times within one month features Local Power's vision for bring greener and cheaper power, and green jobs, to Northern California communities. Journalist Debra Kahn of Greenwire writes extensively about PG&E's Proposed "Power Grab" amendment on California's June 2010 ballot as an attempt to prevent San Francisco, Marin and other Northern California cities now moving to offer greener power at lower prices - and to relocalize power to dramatically reduce greenhouse gases. "San Francisco intends to procure at least 51 percent renewable energy by 2017 -- far above California's target of 33 percent renewables by 2020 for all utilities. PG&E is currently at 14 percent and plans to reach 20 percent by 2012," she writes. "Here is how San Francisco officials see the program working: By aggregating, San Francisco would receive the funds for energy efficiency programs that PG&E currently collects. It would use the money -- and its ability to generate revenue through tax-exempt bonds -- to reduce the need for peak-use-only plants by increasing local generation. Of the 360 megawatts that it has issued a request for, 150 MW would be from a local wind farm and 107 MW would be from local, renewable distributed generation."

Click on New York Times Article Here.