PG&E "Taxpayer Rights" Initiative Would Suppress Green City Movement

Bill, Initiative Would Block Climate Action Plans: “Taxpayers for The Right to Vote” Would Override City Governments' Authority to Negotiate With Green Power Suppliers

Facing energy mutinies by San Francisco, Marin County and potentially Sonoma County, Northern California energy monopoly Pacific Gas & Electric PG&E has filed a voter initiative posing as Prop 13 style taxpayer populism to require voter approval for San Francisco, Marin and other communities seeking to escape the mostly gas-fired utility utility by switching to and developing green power facilities. An opposition campaign has been formed by consumer and environmental organizations.

Shock Doctrine Populists: Orwellian “Right to Vote” PG&E Initiative Would Block Northern California Communities From Green Power & Climate Plans

PG&E has formed a committee and is now actively seeking to block the most bold, far reaching efforts of any entities in California or the U.S. to ramp up green power development and implement substantial greenhouse gas reduction plans. Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) has facilitiated visionary new projects in the Bay Area over the past decade, championed by the Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA and local groups. From the Morning Report, “Californians to Protect Our Right to Vote,” has major funding From Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), calling itself "a coalition of taxpayers, environmentalists, renewable energy, business and labor." Sound populist to you?

David Room of the East Bay energy relocalization movement, said believes even East Bay Cities like Oakland and Berkeley might act to oppose threats to their rights to green their power under the state’s 2002 Community Choice law (Migden, 2002). Companies like Continental Wind Power have an interest in CCA so may support counter-campaign, but cities and counties like Marin and San Francisco will be approached for funding, according to CCA Advocate Tam Hunt in Santa Barbara.

For Inquiries about PG&E's initiative, contact “Taxpayers Right to Vote Act,” Robert Pence, Steven S. Lucas, 2350 Kerner Blvd. Suite 250, San Rafael, CA 94901, or Nance McFadden of PG&E – Board member, 77 Beale St, Mail Code B32, San Francisco, CA 94015.

To get involved, visit local.org/coalition.html and hook up.