Ron Manfredi, city manager of Kerman and chairman of the San Joaquin Valley authority, said, "For the last few years, PG&E has continually placed roadblocks in front of our program in an attempt to stop us from implementing community choice and ultimately providing residents and businesses the opportunity to have a choice about who will provide them electrical energy."
Katie Romans, a spokeswoman for PG&E, said, "PG&E always acts and communicates on behalf of our customers. That is why we will continue to oppose risky community choice ventures like San Joaquin Valley Authority's and Marin Energy's."
Weisz said PG&E has done all it can to discourage Marin municipalities from joining the Marin Energy Authority.
"The offers of assistance they've made to the nonmember communities have been couched in the context that they would be offered if the cities and towns chose not to join Marin Energy Authority," Weisz said.
Weisz said PG&E helps allocate public goods revenue, part of which comes from ratepayers, and uses those funds disproportionately in communities.
"It appears that they are making some decisions around how they use those funds that are political in nature, with a goal toward swaying elected officials in a certain direction," Weisz said.
Romans, however, denied that PG&E is selectively rewarding jurisidictions that agree to remain their customers, and said PG&E definitely wasn't using ratepayers money for such a purpose.
"We couldn't and wouldn't do either of these things," Romans said.
Weisz said Marin Energy Authority's plan, unlike San Joaquin Valley's, doesn't rely on providing rates that are lower than PG&E's. Marin Energy Authority's aim is to address global warming by boosting the amount of renewable power available to local customers.
Marin Energy Authority plans to offer customers the choice of using 100 percent renewable power, which may cost more than PG&E's electricity, and a "light green" option, which would maximize the percentage of renewable power used while matching PG&E's rate. Weisz has estimated the light-green option would be at least 25 percent renewable.
Romans said 14 percent of PG&E's electricity came from renewable sources in 2008. She said that number will increase to 15 percent in 2009.
Regarding PG&E's efforts to influence Marin municipalities, Romans said, "Over the last year, local governments in the East Bay and Marin County have decided that community choice is not worth the financial risk."
The cities of Oakland and Berkeley have abandoned efforts to implement community choice.
Contact Richard Halstead via e-mail at rhalstead@marinij.com
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