Energy Independence a Day Nearer in San Francisco

Energy Independence a Day Nearer in San Francisco

April 27 (News Release)

Tomorrow at 1pm at San Francisco City Hall, the Board of Supervisors Finance Committee will hold a hearing of Local Power's 361 MW Energy Independence Ordinance announced by Tom Ammiano in mid-February, which puts in place a process for the City to solicit bids from the energy industry within a process of the California Public Utilities Commission.

The ordinance sets the 361 MW bidding criterion adopted by the Board of Supervisors in its Energy Plan, and puts in place a nine month Implementation Plan and Request for Proposals (RFP), which if successful would transfer San Franciscans to a new electric service provider in late 2005. This will be the greatest municipal green power works project ever, setting in place a technology competition to meet or beat PG&E prices with a massively greener portfolio of resources, delivering a Kyoto-scale greenhouse gas reduction, without major tax expenditures or a rate increase.

San Francisco is first in the state to move on Community Choice, but it is not alone. Currently, over a dozen cities, with 3 million residents and 10% of the statewide electricity load, are currently commissioning consultants to prepare studies and implementation plans. Dozens of others are in varying stages of investigating or implementing Community Choice, which is law in five states with millions of customers.

For the RACE coalition, a local/global coalition opposing plans to make California's power grid dependent on foreign imported natural gas, the success of San Francisco's Energy Independence is the basis on which we can eliminate the forecasted need for new gas fired generation. All proposals for LNG terminals on California's coastline admit that the gas is only needed by power plant developers seeking to both gas and electric ratepayers on the hook for new power plants they build, as well as pipeline system upgrades, to deliver LNG into the state-regulated pipeline system. RACE has urged the California Public Utilities Commission to plan for as much as 5-10% of electric utility customer load to depart each year. With the current crop of cities setting a goal of 40% Renewables Portfolio Standard by 2017 rather than the state-mandated 20%, and San Francisco proposing 361 MW out of 650/850MW total aggregate load, we predict that the departure rate would offset the California Energy Commission's current forecasted statewide electricity demand increase, physically eliminating the need for new gas-fired generation (by building the equivalent in renewables, energy efficiency and conservation), and -also according to CEC forecasts - thus also eliminating the need for an LNG terminal on our coast.

While East Coast activists view natural gas as cleaner than coal, at current methane leakage rates, natural gas is only nominally cleaner than burning oil, as it is twenty times as reactive a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. Moreover, California already over-depends on natural gas (40%) to make its electricity - the primary cause, in fact, of the 2000-1 power "shortages"that were really contrived by the likes of El Paso and Enron.

Leaked methane is also the leading cause of childhood asthma, which is an epidemic in America. The public widely supports a massive institutional change to renewable energy and conservation, and all the state's energy agencies have committed to both an acceleration of its Renewables law and to helping California cities implement Community Choice.

Members of the public will have 3 minutes to say why San Francisco should commence its technology competition to make this happen before the utilities lock in a new gas-fired power plant and LNG infrastructure on backs of ratepayers.

Paul Fenn 510 451 1727