Bureaucracy - California Style [RE-wrenches]

[Matt Lafferty]

Wrenches:

Bob-0 wrote:

> If the PGC is, in fact, public works funds, then it should-by
> definition- apply to ALL the public, ie ALL Californians, not just
> those in SCE,  PGE, etc, territories.

One of the issues with that approach is the fact that only the IOU's collect
the PGC which is turned over to the Goobment who, in turn, distributes the
money.  It is this Goobment connection that allowed the Legislators to buy
into the rationale....Oh, and their Labor constituency.

It is of note that Munis were EXTREMELY vocal adversaries to the RPS
development.  If you go back through all the ammended versions of 1078, you
will find "Munis" got themselves deleted from the requirement quite early.

I have pasted some text from an article in the Sacramento Bee below.  It is
not the entire article.  I included the part about contacting the reporter,
just in case.  She LOVES to write about Solar, by the way!  (Don't tell her
I sent you....please)

The CEC did release $8 Million last year under the Buydown for Muni
customers to access.  This was money from the State General Fund.
Unfortunately, due to the current budget crisis, all General Fund monies
were "on the table" for budget cuts and the money remaining in this account
was grabbed last month.

City utilities resist 'green' power


By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg -- Bee Staff Writer

Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Saturday, October 12, 2002



It is municipal power's dirty secret.



Despite vocally supporting renewable energy, city-run electric utilities and
special districts don't want to be forced to follow the same green power
standards as their for-profit counterparts.  "The fact is, they are not
pulling their weight when it comes to promoting renewables, and they benefit
as much as anyone else from the clean air,"

In California, municipal utilities, irrigation districts and rural
electrical cooperatives won exemptions from the 20 percent renewable-power
quota set by a new state law.  From Connecticut to Texas, the story is the
same. Municipal utilities lobby aggressively to be excluded from statewide
quotas for green power purchases. Almost always, they succeed.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District was virtually alone among public
power institutions willing to give even qualified support to a statewide
green-power standard when the Legislature debated it this summer.



Most of California's municipal utilities "went ballistic" when they were
included in an early draft of the state's renewable-portfolio bill, Levin
said. Ultimately, all that survived was a requirement for municipal
utilities to set some kind of renewable standard of their own -- even if
it's zero. Municipal and cooperative utilities say they deserve special
treatment because they are owned by their customers.



By contrast, for-profit utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. long
have been overseen by state regulators who set rules for their behavior and
limits on their rates. When a new program is imposed on them, investor-owned
utilities can pass along the costs, and often an added profit, in the rates
they charge.  That may give them less incentive to fight green-power edicts,
said S. David Freeman, chairman of the state Power Authority, and a longtime
advocate of renewable power.  Freeman, who has headed SMUD, Los Angeles'
city utility and the Tennessee Valley Authority, said many municipal
utilities see lower rates as their main contribution to their communities
and fiercely cling to their independence.  "If you have an almost religious
belief in low-cost energy, to the extent that renewable power is more
costly, it gives you more resistance," he said.  "Is their attitude on this
stuff smart? No. Is it right? No," Freeman said, but "it's inbred."



SMUD has given itself a tough 2011 deadline to buy or produce 20 percent of
its power from non-hydroelectric renewable resources, up from about 10
percent to 12 percent now -- although the goal may be revisited.  But such
utilities are the bright side of what can be a very dark coin.  Nationwide,
municipal utilities and co-ops use vast amounts of coal, which burns dirtier
than natural gas. Such fuel choices are felt beyond any one utility's
borders because polluted air often drifts far from the source.  In addition,
city-run utilities have fallen behind their for-profit counterparts in
promoting some types of conservation, the APPA says.



And the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power -- the nation's biggest
city-run utility -- is also one of the dirtiest electric utilities in
California, relying heavily on coal power it imports from Nevada and Utah.
Half the electricity that Los Angeles buys or generates comes from burning
coal, and only 2 percent comes from small renewable resources, largely
geothermal and biomass.  The city, which promotes its solar-power and
green-energy programs vociferously, is working on setting renewable-power
goals, possibly sometime next year, so it can be "the cleanest utility
possible," spokesman Walter Ziesl said.



How close LADWP comes to 20 percent -- while being exempted from the legal
mandate -- remains to be seen.  Clean-air advocates hope they can lobby the
city to keep pace with new state standards, but others note that Los Angeles
is sharply below the statewide average of about 12 percent renewable power.
"They talk a good game, but it's all about results," said Matt Freedman, a
utility-consumer attorney and green-power advocate. "And that's what we're
waiting to see."



The Bee's Carrie Peyton Dahlberg can be reached at (916) 321-1086 or

cpeytondahlberg at sacbee.com



OK, remember, that's not the article in its entirety.  "Content has been
removed for your reading ease".



I have it saved into Word (it's in that ZIP file I mentioned a couple of
days ago) for those who want it....I'm working on a bunch of other stuff and
will add it to that file within a week if you want it then.



Praying that the Sun comes up tomorrow,



-Matt Lafferty

pvpro at attbi.com

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