By Bruce B. Brugmann
Joe Neilands flashed the news late Friday afternoon. The City of Stockton may be moving to kick PG@E out of town.
Neilands broke the PG@E/Raker Act scandal wide open with an expose in the Guardian in l969 and started the long battle to kick PG@E out of City Hall and out of San Francisco.
Sure enough, Joe was on target again. The Stockton Record carried the story on Wednesday (April 30) with a strong headline: “PG@E Sued by Stockton, City Pursues Ruling to Aid Possible Power Takeover.” The story, by David Siders,
reported that the city sued “its century-old power provider Tuesday and requested “that a court rule Stockton has the right to oust Pacific Gas & Electric Company and to take over the local electricity market–even before the city decides if it ought to.
“A ruling in the city’s favor would reinforce its position that PG@E is contractually obligated to sell–agreeing to do so in its franchise agreement in l954–and would undermine PG@E’s claim that a takeover would be hostile and that its assets are not for sale.”
Mayor Ed Chavez had called for a takeover bid in his State of the City address in February. The story quoted him as saying that a takeover would cut rates and generate millions of dollars in revenue. A preliminary estimate found that it could cost Stockton $368 million to buy PG@E’s assets but that the market is so profitable the city could recover that cost and save $8 million more annually, according to the Record.
Hey, Mayor Newsom and all the PUC and other City Hall officials are scared to death of PG@E. Listen up. If Stockton can take on PG@E, why can’t San Francisco take on PG@E? After all, San Francisco is the only city in the U.S. that is required by federal law to have a public power system (because the Raker Act of l913 allowed the city to build the Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite National Park for its water supply, on condition the city residents get cheap Hetch Hetchy public power.) The city got the water but it never got the electricity because of PG@E muscle and City Hall cowardice and so PG@E stands to this day as an illegal private utility in San Francisco. (See Guardian stories and editorials since l969 and the Neilands story.)
Well, it’s good to see Joe still on the story after all these years. But, as I always tell him jokingly, “Joe, with a little more seasoning, you may be ready to cover City Hall in San Francisco.”
Click here to read the Recordnet.com story PG&E sued by Stockton: City pursues ruling to aid possible power takeover and check out the story links for the background.