California Prop 16 would firmly cement PG&E monopoly. Vote NO.

[crikkett]

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/?q=node/7741

PG&E wrote Prop 16 and contributed $34.6 million to win its passage.

The flood of Prop 16 TV ads don’t mention that the initiative was written to guarantee that PG&E’s high priced electricity monopoly will never be challenged.

Prop 16 makes it nearly impossible for locally elected officials to bypass PG&E and use the purchasing power of hundreds of thousands of local residents to negotiate discounts from independent power generation companies.

Prop 16 rewrites a 2002 law that PG&E supported at the time. The law allowed municipalities to contract for direct purchases of electricity (known as "community choice aggregation") at a future time, much as large business purchasers of electricity (factories, hospitals and the like) had been allowed to negotiate bulk purchase discounts before the energy deregulation debacle of 2000- 2001 brought direct access purchasing to a temporary halt.

That moratorium is nearing an end. San Francisco and a group of cities in Marin County are gearing up to negotiate bulk electric discounts for their residents.

PG&E decided it better stop municipal purchasing in its tracks before its customers acquire a taste for lower electric rates.

[Auggie]

1. Already have

Sent the mail-in ballot today. But the ads have me believing it will pass. Whoever is behind them has crafted one of the most deceitful political campaigns I've ever seen.

[crikkett]

3. Thank you. But have hope: remember the Gov's complete loss in 2005?

I know PG&E's prop 16 isn't the Gov's initiative, but he seemed unstoppable at the time, and that special election was a faceplant.

CA voters shouldn't be underestimated when it comes to protecting our money.

(Protecting each other is a different story, but I still think we're better at it than most)

[roody]

2. +1