Prop H will move SF to 100% clean energy

San Francisco is about to answer Al Gore's call for a switch to 100% clean energy. The San Francisco Clean Energy Act, Proposition H on the November ballot, would set a clear timetable for moving completely to renewable energy, while creating new protections for ratepayers.

Written by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, Sierra Club activists, and power experts, the Clean Energy Act enshrines clean-energy mandates in the San Francisco City Charter. Within 10 years, Prop H mandates that at least 51% of San Francisco's electricity is to come from renewable energy and conservation. This is a more conservative goal than Al Gore's 100% in 10 years, but is only a minimum. Prop H then requires at least 75% clean energy by 2030, and at 100% by 2040. Prop H also prohibits San Francisco from using nuclear power, which some are labeling as "carbon-free".

Such a large-scale creation of green power will create a Bay Area boom in jobs in solar, wind, geothermal, and other green technologies.

To meet these renewable-energy goals, Prop H assigns the city's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to study how best to achieve these goals. Possible outcomes include expanding on the current Community Choice Aggregation program, contracting out energy production to a new utility, or creating a municipal utility district (MUD) like the highly successful and green one in Sacramento.

PG&E doesn't like any of these options, as they would change how its home city creates electricity. Although trying to brand itself as a green company, PG&E is actually going backwards in its use of renewable energy by building more fossil-fuel power plants than green energy (see July-August Yodeler, page 6). It gets only 1% from solar and 2% from wind. PG&E also won't even meet the state's minimal requirement of 20% renewables by 2010. The company has already begun what we believe will be a multi-million-dollar campaign to fight Proposition H.

PG&E is calling Prop H a "blank check". The reality is that Proposition H adds protections for ratepayers by creating the kind of accountability we will never see from PG&E. Prop H creates a new Office of Ratepayer Advocacy. Any Prop H revenue bonds - funded by investors, not taxpayers - must be approved by the PUC, the Board of Supervisors, and the mayor, and satisfy requirements imposed by the controller. None of these controls currently exists for PG&E, which passes on the cost of every expense to the ratepayers, and which is constantly suing the city in attempts to get out of commitments it has made.

As our nation debates its energy future - with Republicans urging more offshore drilling and dependence on fossil fuels - San Franciscans have a chance to lead the country by passing Proposition H.