by Meteor Blades
At SolveClimate, Leslie Berliant
writes:
Earlier this month, California voters rebuffed a power-grab by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), defeating a ballot initiative that would have helped the utility maintain its monopoly on electrical power in northern California.
California’s Prop 16 would have required local governments to gain the support of two-thirds of voters before purchasing local power. The state’s voters rejected the measure. It would have made it extraordinarily difficult for local governments to create or expand their own municipal utilities and compete with PG&E.
PG&E is not the only utility company using legislation, ballot propositions and lots of cash, to try to hold onto its monopoly or control the future of power supply in the vicinity of its operations.
In May, an attempt by New Hampshire utility PSNH to spend most of the state’s renewable energy project funds was rejected by the state legislature.
In Kansas, Sunflower Electric Corp has been waging an ongoing battle to build new coal-burning power plants that would export most its power to out-of-state customers.
And in Colorado, the state’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES), passed by a large majority of voters, is facing attack in the legislature.
But in these fights, political influence and a deep war chest does not necessarily translate into victory for the utilities. PG&E spent $46.1 million on the failed ballot initiative in California. Opponents say they stopped the utility with a campaign that cost less than $100,000. |
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The green diary rescue regularly appears on Sundays and Thursdays. Inclusion of a particular diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement with it. The rescue begins below and continues in the jump:
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Brad Johnson of the Wonk Room, known here as
The Cunctator, explained how Senator Harry
Reid Calls The Bluff Of The Climate Peacocks: "Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is giving obstructionist senators a chance to finally take action on climate and clean energy, after they attempted to block the "unelected bureaucracy" of the Environmental Protection Agency from doing so. After holding a 'thrilling' climate caucus with his members last week, the Democratic majority leader plans to bring an 'impenetrable' comprehensive package of legislation to repair the damage caused by fossil fuels to our economy and our planet."
NRDCActionFund suggested that it might be
Time to Turn Off The A/C At the White House?: "...perhaps we should all hope for the White House air conditioning to be broken tomorrow – or turned off on purpose - so that the Senators meeting there get a taste of what the planet will feel like everywhere if they don’t do something about it now. When you think about it, a bit of Senatorial sweat and a few stained shirts is not too high a price to pay if it results in long-overdue, comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation on the President’s desk sometime this sweltering summer. Is it?"
continued at Daily Kos....
