To: The California State House, The California State Senate, and Governor Gavin Newsom
California needs competition for the profit-centered utility monopolies
Stop the Monopoly Utility Companies’ Power Grab and vote for the People – vote NO on AB 2145.
Why is this important?
Here are many reasons for you to sign this petition:
We the people spoke in 2010 and defeated Proposition 16 that PG&E spent $46 million on in an attempt to kill their small but growing competition.
Now they’re back, with another stealth attempt to kill the competition with a bill in the legislature called AB 2145, which was introduced by Steve Bradford, a former executive of Southern California Edison, one of the profit-centered utility monopolies.
The legislature passed a law in 2002 authorizing Community Choice Energy programs, which provide competition to California’s three profit-centered utility monopolies: Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric.
Marin County has had one of these competitive programs up and running since 2010, saving their homes and businesses nearly $6 million just in 2014. Sonoma County is just coming on line with one of these Community Choice Energy programs, and citizens of other cities and counties are working toward one, including the cities of San Francisco, Lancaster and San Diego, and Alameda County and several others.
Besides providing competition–which, after all, is the American Way–the Community Choice Energy programs benefit consumers in many ways:
> reduce global warming generated by fossil fuel power plants
> give control to their communities, rather than the profit-centered monopolies
> encourage sourcing of power from renewable resources such as wind and sun
> enable a new local cottage industry of rooftop solar generation by actually paying homeowners and small businesses who generate more electricity than they use. PG&E has rarely if ever paid for such excess generation
> provide more dependable electricity because it comes from numerous local installations rather than via wasteful high-voltage lines carrying power from huge distant fossil fuel plants
> provide a vehicle which allows many homeowners and small businesses to join together to get a better deal on rooftop solar installations
> by providing the vehicle for homeowners and small businesses to join together, Community Choice programs can stipulate that solar installations will be by workers who are unionized and local
> homeowners and small businesses who want to stay with the profit-centered monopoly receive numerous notices telling them how to do that by “opting out”
> generally save homeowners and small businesses money on their electric bills
We the people spoke in 2010 and defeated Proposition 16 that PG&E spent $46 million on in an attempt to kill their small but growing competition.
Now they’re back, with another stealth attempt to kill the competition with a bill in the legislature called AB 2145, which was introduced by Steve Bradford, a former executive of Southern California Edison, one of the profit-centered utility monopolies.
The legislature passed a law in 2002 authorizing Community Choice Energy programs, which provide competition to California’s three profit-centered utility monopolies: Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric.
Marin County has had one of these competitive programs up and running since 2010, saving their homes and businesses nearly $6 million just in 2014. Sonoma County is just coming on line with one of these Community Choice Energy programs, and citizens of other cities and counties are working toward one, including the cities of San Francisco, Lancaster and San Diego, and Alameda County and several others.
Besides providing competition–which, after all, is the American Way–the Community Choice Energy programs benefit consumers in many ways:
> reduce global warming generated by fossil fuel power plants
> give control to their communities, rather than the profit-centered monopolies
> encourage sourcing of power from renewable resources such as wind and sun
> enable a new local cottage industry of rooftop solar generation by actually paying homeowners and small businesses who generate more electricity than they use. PG&E has rarely if ever paid for such excess generation
> provide more dependable electricity because it comes from numerous local installations rather than via wasteful high-voltage lines carrying power from huge distant fossil fuel plants
> provide a vehicle which allows many homeowners and small businesses to join together to get a better deal on rooftop solar installations
> by providing the vehicle for homeowners and small businesses to join together, Community Choice programs can stipulate that solar installations will be by workers who are unionized and local
> homeowners and small businesses who want to stay with the profit-centered monopoly receive numerous notices telling them how to do that by “opting out”
> generally save homeowners and small businesses money on their electric bills