St. Paul’s Simpler Living Creation Care Ministry:
As a means of equity for all San Deigns and a response to the need for a carbon-neutral future, Simpler Living will be tabling for Power San Diego, a petition campaign to put an initiative on the 2024 Ballot that can replace SDG&E with a non-profit power utility owned by the City. This is not a new idea: public power is as old as privately owned utilities and is thriving in places like LA and Sacramento. The San Diego campaign is organized by https://wearepowersandiego.com/ and chaired by Bill Powers (past SPC forum speaker). Powers says “The only way for us to be able to craft our own destiny as a city in both controlling our electric rates and coming up with the most cost-effective, smartest, innovative decarbonization clean energy plan is to have local control of the electric power utility. Without that local control, we do not control our destiny.”
Further arguments for public power include:
- SDG&E has the highest rates in the nation and 1 in 4 SD households cannot pay their utility bills
- SDG&E and their parent company Sempra continue to undermine rooftop solar in favor of large solar arrays in the desert which necessitate expensive transmission lines
- SDG&E’s profits directly fund Sempra’s fracked gas (methane) infrastructure projects; methane is about 28X more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2; by paying SDG&E’s charges we are directly funding climate change
To get the initiative on the ballot for Nov. 2024 over 80,00 signatures must be obtained by May 14. Simpler Living will be collecting signatures this Sunday and beyond. For more information email Diane (dianelopezhughes@gmail.com).
Great post and I’m definitely an advocate for transition to a public electrical utility. One of the most important reasons for doing so is because bringing power generation “in house” will improve the resiliency of the electric grid due to decentralizing power generation and reducing reliance on long haul transmission lines. SDG&E has invested heavily in this infrastructure, which is costly to maintain and modernize, hence the high electricity rates here. It is an outdated power distribution and business model, and transitioning to a public utility gives us an opportunity not only to reduce ratepayer costs, but also modernize our approach to providing reliable electricity to the city.
So…. My reading of the proposed ballot initiative leads me to believe that this project will only be applicable to the residents and businesses within the San Diego city limits, correct? If so, the I probably can’t put my name on the petition because I don’t live in the city of San Diego, and therefore cannot vote on this initiative. Please let me know if this is correct.
Also, just to clarify, your third point about SDG&E/Sempra subsidizing fracked natural gas may be a bit misleading. While CH4 is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2, they aren’t exactly releasing the CH4 into the atmosphere — they are fueling their power generation plants with it, so the gas being released into the atmosphere is CO2, not CH4.
While not being able to sign the petition, I would certainly be willing to help advocate for this proposal.
Thanks for the post!