This was the scene the other day at the LGBT Center at a Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Club meeting in support of Community Choice Aggregation.
Here’s a report from KPIX Channel 5 (if you can handle a commercial beforehand.)
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, Supervisor David Campos, Carole Migden, Paul Fenn, John Rizzo, Chris Jackson, and Eric Brooks, among others, were all there:
The fight over Proposition 16 is hotting up, certainly.
San Francisco’s Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Club is hosting a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) Town Hall tonight at the LGBT Center on the corner of Market and Octavia. CCA is:
“a system adopted into law in the states of Massachusetts, Ohio, California, New Jersey and Rhode Island which allows cities and counties to aggregate the buying power of individual customerswithin a defined jurisdiction in order to secure alternative energy supply contracts. Currently, nearly 1 million Americans receive service from CCAs.”
The special guests will be Assembly Bill 117 (2002) author Carole Migden, District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, District 9 Supervisor David Campos and San Francisco Bay Guardian Executive Editor Tim Redmond.
The whole shebang starts at 6:45 PM:
STOP the PG$E Power GRAB!
That’s okay! Former State Senator Carole Migden, author of the Community Choice Aggregation legislation, and many others will be at this special Milk Club PAC Forum to help explain these issues and show you how to educate our communities and take DIRECT POLITICAL ACTION!
This event is OPEN to the PUBLIC!
Please invite EVERYONE YOU KNOW to attend this SPECIAL FORUM and STOP PG&E!
Special Guests Include:
Former State Senator Carole Migden, San Francisco
Supervisors David Campos & Ross Mirkarimi, San Francisco
Featured Presenters:
Paul Fenn, John Rizzo, Chris Jackson and Eric Brooks
Moderators:
MILK Club Political VP Linette Peralta Haynes
SF BAY GUARDIAN Editor-in-Chief Tim Redmond
Convener:
Tom Taylor, Milk Club Environmental Caucus Chair
HISTORY + ACTION = PROGRESS
Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Club
Celebrating 35 Years of Progressive Political Action and Fighting for our Communities
I’m seem to recall addressing a public meeting to speak out in favor of Community Choice Aggregation (to the chagrin of a mayoral representative, who tried to block me from saying anything) - can’t remember if I was doing that was as a volunteer or not. Oh well.
Irregardless, this one speaks for itself. There are pros and cons to CCA, needless to say.
The latest:
“City Attorney Dennis Herrera has petitioned the California Public Utilities Commission for tougher regulations to prohibit electric utilities from engaging in marketing campaigns and other abuses of their monopoly position to undermine Community Choice Aggregation, a program intended to enable local governments to develop cleaner, renewable energy sources and ultimately stabilize consumers’ electricity costs. The move comes in reaction to recent efforts by PG&E to kill consumer choice, contrary to promises the company repeatedly voiced to state regulators.
“We cannot let Californians be denied the benefits of cleaner, cost-effective energy alternatives — consumer choice is simply too important to ratepayers and the environment,” Herrera said. “The California Public Utilities Commission exists to police giant utilities, to assure that their monopoly advantages aren’t abused to exploit consumers or frustrate the policy objectives of our state lawmakers. Yet that is exactly what has happened since PG&E locked CCA into its crosshairs. It is critical for state regulators to move quickly and decisively to tighten regulations, and restore teeth to the law as the legislature intended. I am enormously grateful to Sup. Ross Mirkarimi for his longstanding leadership on CCA as LAFCo chair, and to SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington and his staff for their expertise and hard work to fulfill the promise of consumer choice.”
Herrera seeks rule change to block PG&E efforts to kill consumer choice
Utility’s deceptive campaign, broken promises on Community Choice Aggregation demand expedited action by regulators, City argues
SAN FRANCISCO (Jan. 11, 2010) — City Attorney Dennis Herrera today petitioned the California Public Utilities Commission for tougher regulations to prohibit electric utilities from engaging in marketing campaigns and other abuses of their monopoly position to undermine Community Choice Aggregation, a program intended to enable local governments to develop cleaner, renewable energy sources and ultimately stabilize consumers’ electricity costs. The move comes in reaction to efforts by Pacific Gas & Electric Company to kill consumer choice, contrary to promises it made to state regulators to support CCA, the consumer energy alternative made possible by state legislation in 2002.
Despite the company’s public commitments to CPUC as late as Nov. 2005 that “PG&E has stated before and states again that CCA is a consumer choice alternative that should be enabled,” a PG&E-controlled political committee last month targeted San Franciscans in a direct mail campaign that savaged the City’s consumer choice plan as a “risky scheme” that “will establish new bureaucracy,” and enroll unwilling customers “whether you like it or not.” Last October, a PG&E Corp. executive vowed to shareholders that the company would “stand up and resist efforts to take over our customers, and those efforts by municipal government.” The San Francisco-based utility also emerged last year as the primary financial backer of a proposed statewide ballot measure to impose a two-thirds majority vote requirement to authorize a wide variety of energy services programs, including CCA — an all-but insurmountable electoral burden.
“We cannot let Californians be denied the benefits of cleaner, cost-effective energy alternatives — consumer choice is simply too important to ratepayers and the environment,” Herrera said. “The California Public Utilities Commission exists to police giant utilities, to assure that their monopoly advantages aren’t abused to exploit consumers or frustrate the policy objectives of our state lawmakers. Yet that is exactly what has happened since PG&E locked CCA into its crosshairs. It is critical for state regulators to move quickly and decisively to tighten regulations, and restore teeth to the law as the legislature intended. I am enormously grateful to Sup. Ross Mirkarimi for his longstanding leadership on CCA as LAFCo chair, and to SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington and his staff for their expertise and hard work to fulfill the promise of consumer choice.”
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who as chair the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCo, led the successful effort to adopt a Community Choice Aggregation plan for San Francisco aimed at developing a significantly greater share of energy from clean and renewable sources, said: “We know from its long history that PG&E will act ruthlessly to protect its monopoly, which already charges some the highest rates for electricity in the nation. But this time, it’s not just consumers who will pay the price for PG&E’s tactics — it’s also our environment. PG&E’s misleading direct mail campaign in San Francisco and its statewide push for a self-serving constitutional amendment make clear that regulators must act quickly to defend a state law that has frankly been undermined by CPUC’s lax regulations. Today’s petition by City Attorney Herrera, which is supported by San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Ed Harrington, demonstrates that City leaders are united to demand that regulators restore the promise of Community Choice Aggregation — to protect consumers as well as the environment.”
“Consumer choice is one of the most important goals of CleanPowerSF,” said SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington. “San Franciscans deserve the opportunity to clearly choose and compare their energy providers based on facts like transparency, price stability, and renewable power generation.”
The California law that enables local governments to offer an electric supply alternative already provides that monopoly utilities must cooperate with Community Choice Aggregation. But regulatory rules intact since PG&E’s previous professions of support for CCA are now widely exploited by the state’s largest utility, according to Herrera’s petition, “rendering the Legislature’s carefully crafted CCA law a meaningless piece of paper.” Given the urgency created by PG&E’s multi-million dollar bid to kill consumer choice alternatives statewide, the City is requesting the CPUC to give expedited consideration of its petition to tighten regulations and protect consumers as soon as possible.
A copy of Petition of the City and County of San Francisco to modify decision 05-12-041 and request for expedited consideration (Rulemaking 03-10-033, To Implement Portions of AB 117 Concerning Community Choice Aggregation); California Public Utilities Commission, January 11, 2010, is available on the City Attorney’s Web site at http://www.sfcityattorney.org/.
As here, on Grove betwixt Divisidero and Scott.
Would you call this block a part of Alamo Square (after all, you can see the wide, wide steps of A.S. right there), or the Western Addition(literally, this block was added as part of the western addtion to San Francisco, which used to have its north-south border on Larkin in the Tenderloin) or the North of Panhandle (NOPA) District (the grass-fed burgers of NOPA restaurant are just a block away!), or something else? No matter.
The point is that this block is right near where conspiracy theorist Crazy Rob Anderson (go ahead, ask him about the truth behind the death of JFK) lives. Check it:
Click to expand
(Man, I’ve seen people freak out over just one truck working a block. Can you imagine how the NIMBYs felt about this disruption to their day?)
I was going to try to get on my HAM radio to see if I could warn Rob about this overt operation, tell him about how undercover agents from the FBI, CIA, NSA, ETC could be laying in their own cables right along with friendly PGE.
But then I thought, well, that’s just what THEY would want me to do, probably triangulate on my broadcast equipment in a New York minute. Then they’d find my chemtrails videos and everything. So, I didn’t do nothing.
But remember, The Truth Is Out There. We’re through the looking glass, people!
Remember the past summer, when we had lighted Christmas holiday snowflake decorations on Market Street burning the midnight oil for weeks on end? Well, they’re back on, baby, or at least four of them anyway, confusing tourists once again. Thusly:
“Why do they have Christmas lights on in October?”
Good question. They’re still testing these thing? Well that’s a lot of testing:
And you know what, they’ve installed ’em exactly the way I would have and I’m not even an electrician or nothing. You know, extension cords and plastic handcuffs to tie everything down. Let’s hope these things handle the wind and rain better than our Bay Bridge:
But couldn’t our decorations be more overtly Christian? You know, like the giant Christmas Tree of Civic Center, the one with the Star of Bethleham on top, the way we had it in 2007…
…and 2008?
The World Wonders.
Check out this wintry scene on San Francisco’s Market Street the way it looked last night. But hey, aren’t we still in the Season of Summer?
Yes, but don’t pay no nevermind to that:
Click to expand
Perhaps we could turns these lights off until the Winter Holiday Which Shant Be Named (you know, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, one of those) rolls around in a season or two? That way, we could save enough juice to power one of Al Gore’s houses for a week or two.
Get all the deets from the fiercely smart Leah Garchik, and here’s a close-up from the talented (and gorgeous) Ingrid Taylar.
Oh well.
Better to light a snowflake than to curse the darkness. ~Chinese Proverb
Were you “jolted awake by a blinding white fireball that engulfed” your building this morning around 8:36 AM, Saturday 12, 2009? If so, you were not alone. And if you miss that kind of stuff, as world-famous Xeni Jardin does, then you’re not alone, again!
It sounded like an airplane crashing into the Fillmore Center, if you happened to be at the intersection of Geary and Divisidero as I happened to be. Was it a groundstrike into Hayes Valley or the Western Addition or (or the NoPA, oh no, not the NoPA!) or Pacific Heights?
Of course the Pigs Giraffes & Elephants at our local PG&E power monopoly were dealing with power outages earlier this morning, but some additional service was lost by this big strike. (“Saint Francis Woods,” like there’s more than one? Where do these writers live, freaking Walnut Creek?) Utility workers should focus their attention on soggy Golden Gate Park to make sure that Alanis Morrissette can put on her show this afternoon at Power to the Peaceful.
Did a transformer get hit? We’ll find out soon enough. Power at Post and Webster was out this morning just after the Big Boom of 9-12-9, so the strike couldn’t have been too far away.
Courage people, courage.
[UPDATE: Jay Barmann at SFist has the scoop. Here's the clap of thunder (craaaaaack!) and here's the result via PDX503. That's one less Audi, Chariot of the Yuppie, on the Streets of San Francisco.]
If only Megan Fox were here, to fix our transformer.
Oh, here she is, fixing the transformer of a 1969 Camaro in the movie Transformers:
Or maybe PG&E, perhaps they could help….
It was Miller Time at the scene of yesterday’s lightening strike after workers towed away the cars and patched things back up. Actually, strike that, the bolt darkened the ground so let’s call it a darkening strike.
For all you do, this Miller Time is for you.
Repair California, the Bay Area Council, and the Full Circle Fund got a pretty decent crowd last night as they called for a California constitutional convention. The L.A. Times has done the same, so this is quite a movement, huh?
San Francisco: Repairing California: Time for a Constitutional Convention
Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The mise-en-scene. Left early but let’s call this a crowd of 300-something, all told, at the PG&E Auditorium on Beale Street last night:
Amy Lesnick of the Full Circle Fund:
Is this another Bear Flag Revolt, like we had in 1846?
And, of course, noisy PopChips were laid out everywhere, just like at the premiere of La Mission in Le Castro Theatre.
A little history:
“In response to a budgetary crisis, several prominent individuals and political organizations are calling for a new constitution. The Bay Area Council, a public-policy advocacy organization, issued a press release in August of 2008 to launch the idea, and co-sponsored a symposium on the subject on February 24, 2009.
A coalition calling itself “Repair California” was formed in 2009 to continue the push for a California constitutional convention. The group plans to submit its proposed measures to the Attorney General by September 25, 2009. This is the first step in the process, after which signatures are solicited from voters.The plan is to obtain the two-thirds majority vote in the legislature and place a new constitution on the ballot for the November 2010 election.
Repair California states that a consensus is emerging to reform these areas:
Who were the speakers and who was there? Find out, after the jump. (more…)
Your local gas and electric utility monopoly would like you to think before you dig. PG&E reminds us all today to call 811 at least two days before you start digging around, else you might hit a gas main and blow yourself to kingdom come. Some local folks will answer the phone and check things out for you and what’s wrong with that?
But what about all the other x11 telephone services – they are starting to add up huh? Let’s learn about them below.
Here there are, all the N11 Codes we have:
211 Community Information and Referral Services
311 Non-Emergency Police and Other Governmental Services
411 Local Directory Assistance
511 Traffic and Transportation Information
611 Telephone Repair Service
711 Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS)
811 Access to One Call Services to Protect Pipeline and Utilities from Excavation Damage
911 Emergency
Wow, that’s a lot.
See yesterday’s news conference in the “crime-ridden” Tenderloin / Adam’s Block area concerning Light Emitting Diode (LED) streetlights here with photos taken by Bill Wilson, and read all about this new technology here. The United States Department of Energy and PG&E have recently helped San Francisco conduct a beauty contest of competing brands of LED lights – read the gritty nitty here (.pdf, you might need to right click, Save File As… or whatever).
The upshot is that it’s not really worth pulling out existing street lighting to install LED lights. You can save a few bucks a month in electricity by converting a streetlight to LED and there are other benefits as well, so it appears we’ll eventually, slowly convert over with the hope that prices of these new kind of bulbs will go down.
Take a look at the Before and After:
That’s a scene from the test in Outer Sunset. The first shot is lit with your typical High Pressure Sodium (HPS) streetlight. See how everything looks yellow, just like the background of all your nighttime photos taken outside? That’s due to sodium’s low color temperature, around 2000K or so. The same area lit by LED shows a more natural look, probably 4000-something Kelvin. If LED’s do nothing else, they’ll improve night photography in San Francisco.
And here are the LEDs in action:
Hello lamppost,
What cha knowing?
I’ve come to watch your diodes glowing.
And speaking of the DoE, big ups to America’s new Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu. He just recently labored as a professor of physics and molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, Berkeley and he used to be the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
More deets about the new lights in San Francisco after the jump.
