Editorial: PG&E’s biggest power grab ever

Pub date October 9, 2009
SectionBruce Blog

Wake up, City Hall — and get moving on community choice aggregation power

(B3 note: I made a mistake in this story. See the correction below.)

EDITORIAL San Francisco’s chance to create a semblance of public power, through community choice aggregation, faces a devastating threat from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. — and the city needs to move with a sense of real urgency to get this program off the ground.

CCA would allow San Francisco to buy electric power in bulk and sell it to customers at a reduced cost. It wouldn’t create a true public-power system — PG&E would still own the transmission facilities. And while customers would see price breaks, the city wouldn’t make much money off the deal. But it would be a major step toward breaking PG&E’s illegal monopoly.