IS THE MAYOR PLANNING A BALLOT INITIATIVE AGAINST CCA?

Thank you all for your phonecalls to the mayor to sign the Community Choice Aggregation Legislation. Although the Guerrillas, the CCA Alliance and our allies are excited about the legislation going through - we are suspicious about what the Mayor and PG&E are up to since there was no press coverage of the signing - we couldn't even find info about it up on the  Mayor's site. We have reason to believe that he will be putting up a ballot initiative against CCA, and it seems like the mayor  and are trying to let him know that the public is watching. The pressure is on! Here's the letter we sent to their office while CC-ing media contacts:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Dear Mayor Newsom,

As concerned citizens of San Francisco we are wary of the possibility that you will introduce a ballot measure on PG&E's behalf to override the Board of Supervisors' decision to implement Community Choice Aggregation. We recently discovered that you, the Mayor, have until August 3rd to submit a ballot measure, so this leaves you 10 days to fulfill PG&E's desire to kill the robust and safe policy that directly addresses climate change and could possibly spark a state-wide trend. Hopefully we are wrong, but here are a few of the reasons we have to be concerned:

1. You intended to veto Community Choice - or so you told your legislative aide to tell the alliance supporting this policy. Only after we showed up at your office in gorilla/guerrilla and Gavin masks, and only after an alliance of environmentally-concerned citizens bombarded your office with calls did you, at 3:30 pm on Friday, reluctantly sign the policy. Your usually prolific press office never got around to releasing a press release about signing this landmark policy that will attain 51% of the entire city's energy.

2. There was a PG&E-sponsored push poll (see it here) asking SF residents their opinion on a variety of phrases relating to restricting the SFPUC's authority to run electricity to residents. Some of the questions in this poll include:

• "If the election were held today, would you vote to reelect Mayor Gavin Newsom?"
• "Would you favor/oppose requiring the approval of 2/3 of voters before the SFPUC can replace PG&E as the City's electricity provider?"
• "Shall the SFPUC use funds solely to operate/maintain/repair city's existing water/sewer/electrical system until that current water system project is completed?"

These questions are clearly worded to confuse the public and prevent an honest understanding of how PG&E's rates are guaranteed to increase and guaranteed to continue coming from gas and nuclear power. (The full set of push poll questions were typed up a concerned citizen on 2/6/07 who gave them to a Supervisor who then gave them to us. If any of the media copied on this email are interested in viewing the complete push poll notes -- please contact us in the short-term, and we'll likely publish in on our website in the near future.)

3. You are undermining this policy's implementation in numerous ways. First, you showed up at PG&E's press stunt to re-announce R&D for token tidal power at the exact same time (noon on 6/10/07) that the Supervisors voted to IMPLEMENT existing technologies with Community Choice. Second, when you reluctantly signed it, you included a Bush-esque signing statement listing all your problems with the policy (7/17/07 petition #6 under 071041) - despite the fact that you've had nine years to address these concerns in the formal policy development process. That's right, nine years. This is probably the most carefully designed policy ever put in front of City Hall. But since you never attended any of the meetings, you probably forgot. Please review the countless opportunities you've had to address those concerns here:
www.communitychoiceenergy.org/b-timline.htm.

Third, your Clean Air Clean Energy policy paper does not make a single reference to Community Choice. The largest renewable energy project that it mentions is for 50 megawatts - but Community Choice will create 360 megawatts - which is 600 % more renewable energy.

4. PG&E spent $11 million on a campaign to kill Yolo County 's effort to leave PG&E and join the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. That was a national record spending for a local ballot initiative. And then, of course, there is the unprecedented $2.7 million and ballot box dumping into the Bay - that they funded to beat public power in SF in 2002. Are we really supposed to think they are going to let CCA implementation plan move forward here in SF without a similar fight?

5. PG&E is placing a huge ad buy for October 2007. Someone who works at the environmental website treehugger.com told us back in April that PG&E had purchased a huge amount of ad space for October 2007. There is only one reason to buy ad space in October. It is the month before elections. Furthermore, PG&E's has been bombarding our city with its massive Lets Green This City PR campaign over the past few months. Why does a company with a virtual monopoly have to spend so much on ads. We find it worrisome that PG&E is about to begin to spend an additional $17 million to launch its new program, ClimateSmart (or as we critique it on our website 'ClimateCopOut'). PG&E began planning this program as far back as 2004 (see it's own press releases and CSR reports) but it chose to launch this massive PR campaign (which is entirely paid for by us ratepayers, thanks to the CPUC) - this very month of the CCA Implementation vote and the month before the ballot deadline.

In conclusion, it seems clear to us that PG&E will ask you, Mayor Newsom, to place a measure on the ballot that will slyly pre-empt the implementation of Community Choice by confusing the public from understanding that this policy is the best shot we have to transition our city to a safe, affordable and climate secure future. We ask you, Mayor Newsom, to defend our public good, and allow the process to go unhindered.

Do you intend to sponsor PG&E's ballot measure to prevent Community Choice?
Please reply to us. We intend to contact you and the media every day until August 3rd or until you reply to us.

Most sincerely,
Steve & the Green Guerrillas Against Greenwash
www.LetsGreenWashThisCity.org