Kurt Yeager takes on Prop 16 in recent op-ed

In a recent op-ed, Kurt Yeager emphasizes the importance of community aggregation and the threat that Proposition 16 poses to consumers in California and across the country.

Proposition 16: A Vote Against Community Choice
By Kurt Yeager

When it comes to the electricity system, consumers have the right to more control, more choice, more savings and more clean energy. But if Pacific Gas & Electric gets its way, it will be nothing but more of the same for cities and towns across California.

Proposition 16, funded largely by PG&E, challenges a law passed in 2002 supporting a new method of power purchasing known as community choice aggregation. The resolution would require a two-thirds, or “super,” majority, vote among residents of a municipality before the local government can take control of power purchasing on their behalf. Moreover, the utility is using its marketing clout to monopolize the conversation on a topic that residents currently know little about. The reality is that aggregation takes business away from PG&E and its shareholders.

Community aggregation allows municipalities to pool the buying power of its residents and purchase electricity on their behalf, from whoever they choose. Aggregation is an alternative to conventional modes of electricity distribution where electricity is purchased directly from the utility, leaving local governments out of the transaction and unable to pursue options that are tailored to their residents’ needs.

Putting purchasing power into communities’ hands can pay big dividends for their residents. Local governments can negotiate contracts that save residents money and offer custom pricing plans and in-home services that give residents choice. With aggregation, local governments can purchase power from cleaner energy sources, even making local renewable power generation a possibility.

Many electricity consumers do not realize that there are alternatives to the dominant utility model, or that better quality service is possible. Aggregation is an important step toward creating a consumer-driven power system by simply adding electricity to the list of services already under municipal control, such as garbage collection and municipal water. And since local governments are accountable to their constituents — not a group of shareholders — and open to public scrutiny, they are uniquely motivated to procure services to residents’ advantage.

In early February, residents in Marin County voted in support of community choice aggregation and moving forward to exercise their legal right to choose how they use energy. PG&E will still own and operate the power grid infrastructure, but this new utility-community power dynamic is exactly what prompted Proposition 16. If passed, the resolution will make it very difficult for other communities to pursue this option. Furthermore, under Proposition 16, public utilities such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, who own their own infrastructure, would also have to secure a two-thirds vote before expanding their customer bases.

The 20th century model in which residents pay utilities for power but have no say in the management or maintenance of the system is outmoded and antiquated. With the breakup of monopoly control of the telecommunications industry in the 1970s, we saw an explosion of options for customers to use technology to their benefit as well as save money. The time is ripe for a similar transformation in the electricity sector.

Come June, California voters must stop Proposition 16 and PG&E’s efforts to deny their right to play a part in their electricity destiny. While Marin County would be the first city in California to vote to implement community aggregation, the policy is alive and well in other states, including Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island. The motivations driving Proposition 16 should serve as a wake-up call to electricity consumers in California and across the country that alternatives exist to the outdated regulations that prevent change in a system that is in dire need of an upgrade.

Our electricity system is at a defining moment, and communities hold the key to its transformation. Rather than clinging to the obsolete regulations and policies of the past, we need to pass more policies that, like community choice aggregation, maximize consumer benefits, encourage innovation, and open the door for more aggressive action to protect our environment.

Kurt Yeager is the executive director of the Galvin Electricity Initiative and co-author of the book, Perfect Power: How the Microgrid Revolution Will Unleash Cleaner, Greener, and More Abundant Energy. He lives in Aptos, California.