Countdown to public power

Countdown to public power | October 31, 2001 | SFBG News
 		 		 		 		
Reason no. 10 to vote for Proposition F and Measure I 
						
The Last of the top 10 reasons to vote for the two public power 
initiatives on the Nov. 6 ballot: Proposition F (the city-run 
water and power agency) and Measure I (the municipal utility 
district, or MUD).
 						
The Lassen Municipal Utility District Board of Directors recall 
drive: When the LMUD board raised power rates by 41 percent last 
winter – at the height of the energy crisis – Lassen residents 
were furious. So LMUD customers took matters into their own 
hands, launching a recall drive against the entire five-member 
board. To date, successful petitions against four of the 
directors have been turned in, and the fifth member is likely to 
be ousted as well.
 						
Public power's detractors, most of whom are bankrolled by Pacific 
Gas and Electric Co., have tried to use the Lassen recall 
campaign to cast a negative light on local efforts to form a MUD. 
But for Helen Williams, an LMUD customer, the right to vote for 
directors is a key selling point of public power.
 						
"That's one of the reasons we wanted a MUD in the first place: to 
have more input into what happens," she told the Bay Guardian.
 						
PG's customers, Williams points out, don't have such rights, 
which would have been handy last May when PG increased rates by 
about 35 percent for many customers. Lassen's rates, by the way, 
remain lower than PG's. 
						
For more information on public power go to www.sfbmud.org 
[http://www.sfbmud.org] and www.publicpowernow.org 
[http://www.publicpowernow.org] .
 						
[http://www.sfbg.com/searchit.html]