Click HERE to sign our Petition to ask the City Council for an investigation into SDG&E’s exorbitant rates and to replace the Investor Owned Utility with a Community Owned, Non-profit Utility!
NOTE: RALLY DATE CHANGE
Come join us to Rally for Public Power
Saturday, April 1 @ Noon
Downtown San Diego at City Hall in Civic Plaza
1200 Third Avenue. San Diego, CA 92101
NEWS FLASH! We welcome San Diego 350 as the newest member of our Coalition!
Our Mission Statement
Public Power San Diego advocates for a publicly owned, independently run, non-profit power utility committed to clean and sustainable energy production and distribution.
Our Platform
The means of generating and distributing electric power should be controlled by the public for the common good, not by corporations whose primary interests are increasing profits and enriching shareholders.
Public Power San Diego advocates for a publicly owned, independently run, non-profit power utility whose mission includes:
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- Providing San Diego with safe, reliable energy at the lowest possible rates.
- Eliminating greenhouse gas emissions in our energy production and use.
- Prioritizing the construction of locally distributed clean and sustainable green energy solutions, such as rooftop solar and battery storage; improving grid safety, efficiency, and reliability; and promoting the electrification of the city and region.
- Providing utility workers with union jobs that include fair wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Public Power San Diego works for the creation of a utility of the people, by the people and for the people.
“Stop the Franchise Sellout!”
By Dory Bertics, Jake Rose, and John Mattes
Definitions
FRANCHISE: The territory and infrastructure involved in a license granted to an individual or group to market and profit off of a company’s goods or services; the license itself.
FRANCHISE AGREEMENT: A utility is granted the exclusive use of city infrastructure for transmission and distribution, as well as the right to install and maintain wires, poles, power lines, and underground gas and electric lines within the city limits, like San Diego.
INVITATION TO BID: A request for utilities, like SDG&E, to make a bid on San Diego’s power franchise.
UTILITY: An organization supplying the community with electricity, gas, water, or sewerage.
Contact your City Councilmember
Thank Councilmembers Joe La Cava, Monica Montgomery Steppe, and Vivian Moreno
for voting AGAINST the Legally Ambiguous SDG&E Franchise Agreement.
Express your disappointment to the other 6 who voted in its favor.
Public Power Timeline & Updates
- Former San Diego City Council President, Georgette Gomez, refuses to docket opening the bids from the gas and electric franchise auction the first week of November 2020.
- Former San Diego City Council President, Georgette Gomez, writes an offer to former Mayor Faulconer to issue a proposal to City Council for a one-year extension on November 10th, 2020.
- A one-year extension proposal never appears on the docket at former City Council meetings.
- Jennifer Campbell, wins the position of San Diego City Council President over progressive Democrat, Monica Montgomery, on December 10th, 2020.
- San Diego City Council President, Jennifer Campbell, proposes to open the franchise auction by issuing an Invitation To Bid (ITB) on December 17th, 2020 at 10 AM.
- SDG&E is the only corporation to have placed a bid on San Diego’s power franchise. In their bid, SDG&E crossed out many requirements specified in the ITB, despite instructions not to do so.
- New Democratic Mayor of San Diego, Todd Gloria, dismissed SDG&E’s bid on December 18th, 2020 due to their hubris in disregarding explicit ITB instructions.
- Mayor Todd Gloria, as of March 2021, works on a new ITB. He has presented, via staff member, Javier Gomez, Franchise Forums to the general online public while excluding any mention of publicly owned and operated power.
- Publicly owned and operated power is still an option on the table for San Diego. Legislatively* it can be applied and administered more successfully than any franchise agreement.
- Mayor Todd Gloria released on March 18th a new ITB consisting of favorable terms for SDG&E, despite the recommendations from JVJ Consulting (originally hired by Mayor Faulconer for an independent assessment of the franchise process), that if no bid submissions satisfy the terms of the ITB, San Diego should pursue municipal power.
- City Council President Campbell tentatively docketed the franchise agreement for a City Council vote in May 2021. Mayor Gloria removed it.
- City Council had the first vote on Tuesday May 25th with a 6 – 3 vote in favor of SDG&E. City Council allowed for a 3 minute pro-SDG&E visual presentation prior to the vote without allowing an equal length rebuttal by opposing organizations. Monica Montgomery, Joe La Cava, and Vivian Moreno voted against the Franchise.
- City Council held the second vote on the SDG&E Franchise Agreement on Tuesday June 8th with a 6 -3 vote in favor on the legally ambiguous SDG&E 20 year Franchise Agreement. SDG&E VP uses misdirection to answer Councilmember Elo-Rivers’s question on the $20 million Climate Equity fund for ratepayers, claiming “Shareholders will pay” without addressing their potential reimbursement by San Diego ratepayers.
- The Fight is NOT over!*please see the California Municipal Code
SDG&E charges $100/month more than Sacramento’s municipal utility, & $75/month more than Los Angeles
Let’s Improve Our Utilities Together!
Join us in the fight for a just, sustainable, and affordable public utility in San Diego. You can keep up to date with related news, campaign progress, volunteer opportunities, and upcoming events!
San Diego’s 101 Ash Street Debacle
Let’s not repeat history with SDG&E
101 Ash St.
Sempra, the parent company of SDG&E, vacated their headquarters at this downtown high rise on 101 Ash Street and moved to a new luxury high rise overlooking Petco Park. Their new landlord (Cisterra Development) brokered the deal to unload the old building –left completely furnished by Sempra, and full of asbestos and other problems– in a highly controversial lease deal to the City.
“This high-rise debacle is costing us $18,000 a day,” says Craig Rose, a member of PPSD and the Citizens Franchise Alliance. SDG&E currently takes $1 million/day in net profits from the City, money which would otherwise go to benefit the people of San Diego, but instead only benefits the heads of Sempra Energy. “We’re dealing with a climate crisis, rolling blackouts, and a pandemic, with communities of color and lower-income folks slammed hardest. We can’t afford to ship this wealth out of our city any longer. We need Public Power.”
Publicly owned and operated power is the only way to lower utility rates for San Diegans and to give us the control we need to deal with the climate crisis, as well as the resources to help address environmental, economic, and social injustices. Sempra just finished creating a $10 billion fracking facility off the coast of Louisiana – using ratepayers’ money. They don’t care about San Diego and its residents needing to go green by 2035, or about dealing with the climate crisis. Sempra wants unearned profit – including making every San Diego resident pay SDG&E’s Franchise Fee to San Diego.
So, do we really want our power system controlled by a multinational corporation that pulls profits out of San Diego to build massive natural gas – fracking – export facilities instead of helping us develop the solar energy potential we have right here in our own City and County?
We say,
“Power to the people is Public Power!”
PPSD members include: SanDiego350; The Sunrise Movement – San Diego; Protect Our Communities Foundation; The North County Equity and Justice Coalition; Activist San Diego; the San Diego Democrats for Environmental Action; Indivisible San Diego; La Jolla Democratic Club; the Citizens Franchise Alliance; and many unaffiliated residents who want a public utility for our city.