Measure to replace San Diego Gas & Electric angling for November ballot

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — San Diegans may soon get to vote on whether the city should replace San Diego Gas & Electric with a municipal power utility.

Holding signs that read “Fire SDG&E,” volunteers with the Power San Diego campaign gathered outside San Diego City Hall on Tuesday to launch a signature drive to put the long-discussed switch from investor-owned power on the November ballot.

“We know that switching to public power can work,” said Dorrie Bruggemann, the initiative’s campaign manager. “We need to move forward now to give San Diegans lower rates with something we know will work for them.”

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Under the Power San Diego proposal, the nonprofit municipal utility would be take over the responsibility of distributing power to customers within the city of San Diego through a buyout of SDG&E’s electrical grid in the area.

The group estimates the purchase and formation of the public utility would cost taxpayers about $3.5 billion, on top of miscellaneous metering and startup costs. According to the group, this could be paid for through a city revenue bond that would be amortized over 30 years.

Proponents of the plan argue that placing the grid in a public ownership structure will lower the city’s electricity rates by about 20%, bringing much needed relief to current SDG&E customers already paying the most expensive rates in the nation with even more increases likely over the next few years.

“Public power has lower rates, higher reliability and is a massive success in communities across the state of California,” Bruggemann said. “Meanwhile, SDG&E charges us the highest rates in the nation and they make record profits while one in four San Diegans can’t pay their electricity bills … We cannot let this continue any longer. It’s simply unsustainable.”

However, the effort has already drawn stiff opposition, notably from the union workers who work on SDG&E’s power grid who called the proposal financially “risky” during a counter-demonstration held across the plaza from Power San Diego’s signature drive launch on Tuesday.

“All of them are extremely concerned by this irresponsible, reckless plan to force a government takeover of San Diego’s utility grid,” said Matt Awbrey, spokesperson for Responsible Energy San Diego, a rival political action committee that emerged to quash the proposal.

“The City of San Diego has a lot of priorities on its plate and this would be adding a multi-billion dollar obligation to what the city is already doing,” he continued, pointing to other issues with hefty price tags like homelessness and storm water infrastructure.

While Responsible Energy San Diego is co-chaired by local groups like the Regional Chamber of Commerce and the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, the PAC has been entirely funded by SDG&E since its creation last December.

According to campaign finance documents, the utility company has contributed about $300,000 to the PAC so far — the only raised funds that have been disclosed. Two of the officers listed for Responsible Energy San Diego are SDG&E leadership.

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The proposals’ backers described this involvement as “shadowy,” although Awbrey defended the utility company’s involvement as the “quickest way to to get together” a coalition of groups opposed to the measure.

Power San Diego needs to gather about 80,000 valid signatures from registered voters in the city of San Diego to qualify for the November ballot.

As of Tuesday, the group said they already had about 10,000 signatures. According to campaign finance documents, the campaign has also raised $156,670 since last year.

“San Diegans want this,” Bruggemann said. “We need to get this on the ballot so we can give them a choice.”

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