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From the perspective of our California investor owned utility and electric franchise grantee San Diego Gas & Electric Company, San Diego County depends on natural gas coming out of the ground.
Getting that electrical power to customers safely is a different matter altogether.
According to Onell Soto's article from May 23, 2010, SDG&E gets about 14% of its electricity from solar, wind, and other green alternative sources, a similar amount from still-operating nuclear reactors at San Onofre, and the vast majority from burning fossil fuels in the form methane and other simple hydrocarbons at conventional power plants, both sustained and peaker plant operations.
SDG&E's primary method of electrical power distribution is through overhead power lines, a practice that it hopes to continue as a state-allowed industry standard until at least 2063. SDG&E power lines were implicated as causes of county wildfires in 2003 and 2007, and last year SDG&E employees testified before the consumer protection branch of the California Public Utilities Commission as to those overhead utility equipment causes in the 2007 Guejito-Rice-Witch Wildfire Complex.
Consumers can expect to see rates increase to cover SDG&E's increasingly uninsured wildfire risk. Under a proposal by SDG&E, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric (of Proposition 16 fame), all uninsured wildfire legal awards, attorney fees, and related wildfire expenses would be passed on to consumers as the ordinary cost of doing business with overhead power lines. According to the utilities, “Wildfires are inevitable. Given the nature of the utilities’ service and the service territories within which our customers reside, wildfires associated with utility facilities are bound to occur.”
CPUC's Division of Ratepayer Advocates is opposed to the Wildfire Expense Balancing Account (WEBA) authorization sought by the investor-owned utilities (IOUs) as an unlimited, open ended consumer liability for admitted “inevitable” corporate acts and omissions that cause wildfires in the first place. CPUC DRA attorneys stated in formal WEBA opposition, “Insurers do not provide open ended coverage for unspecified amounts of liability. Neither should ratepayers be expected to assume an unspecified amount of risk.
Further, “DRA objects to having ratepayers pay for any increase in [wildfire insurance] premiums that is due to a utility’s negligent, grossly negligent or reckless conduct in maintaining their facilities, or a failure to comply with GO [CPUC General Order] 95 requirements, or other applicable federal or state rules, regulations or statutory requirements.”
SCE will file a WEBA application update with CPUC on or about May 28 as to all parties meeting to confer on settlements of issues before a decision on the application by CPUC is reached.
Passage of Proposition 16 will help to insure that ratepayers will cover the uninsured wildfire legal costs and other expenses resulting from inevitable utility negligence if CPUC approves IOU WEBA authority. State law dictates that any actions of utility employees in causing wildfires are therefore acts of the utility. WEBA authority simply removes utility shareholders as responsible parties when consumers are left with the inevitable liability of overhead power distribution with CPUC approval.
Under Proposition 16 as a constitutional amendment, a two-thirds approval by voters is required for any customer to switch to municipal power and community choice aggregation if that service is already offered to an IOU customer. Under current law, San Diego voters may terminate the electricity franchise with SDG&E by a simple majority vote, but if Proposition 16 passes, expect SDG&E to use the constitutional amendment to quash unfavorable voters' rights enumerated in the existing San Diego electricity franchise. PG&E will use Proposition 16 to reduce municipal CCA threats in its service area, and it would be unreasonable to expect SCE not to seek the same constitutional protections from local voters as well.
From the perspective of our California investor owned utility and electric franchise grantee San Diego Gas & Electric Company, San Diego County depends on natural gas coming out of the ground.
Getting that electrical power to customers safely is a different matter altogether.
According to Onell Soto's article from May 23, 2010, SDG&E gets about 14% of its electricity from solar, wind, and other green alternative sources, a similar amount from still-operating nuclear reactors at San Onofre, and the vast majority from burning fossil fuels in the form methane and other simple hydrocarbons at conventional power plants, both sustained and peaker plant operations.
SDG&E's primary method of electrical power distribution is through overhead power lines, a practice that it hopes to continue as a state-allowed industry standard until at least 2063. SDG&E power lines were implicated as causes of county wildfires in 2003 and 2007, and last year SDG&E employees testified before the consumer protection branch of the California Public Utilities Commission as to those overhead utility equipment causes in the 2007 Guejito-Rice-Witch Wildfire Complex.
Consumers can expect to see rates increase to cover SDG&E's increasingly uninsured wildfire risk. Under a proposal by SDG&E, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric (of Proposition 16 fame), all uninsured wildfire legal awards, attorney fees, and related wildfire expenses would be passed on to consumers as the ordinary cost of doing business with overhead power lines. According to the utilities, “Wildfires are inevitable. Given the nature of the utilities’ service and the service territories within which our customers reside, wildfires associated with utility facilities are bound to occur.”
CPUC's Division of Ratepayer Advocates is opposed to the Wildfire Expense Balancing Account (WEBA) authorization sought by the investor-owned utilities (IOUs) as an unlimited, open ended consumer liability for admitted “inevitable” corporate acts and omissions that cause wildfires in the first place. CPUC DRA attorneys stated in formal WEBA opposition, “Insurers do not provide open ended coverage for unspecified amounts of liability. Neither should ratepayers be expected to assume an unspecified amount of risk.
Further, “DRA objects to having ratepayers pay for any increase in [wildfire insurance] premiums that is due to a utility’s negligent, grossly negligent or reckless conduct in maintaining their facilities, or a failure to comply with GO [CPUC General Order] 95 requirements, or other applicable federal or state rules, regulations or statutory requirements.”
SCE will file a WEBA application update with CPUC on or about May 28 as to all parties meeting to confer on settlements of issues before a decision on the application by CPUC is reached.
Passage of Proposition 16 will help to insure that ratepayers will cover the uninsured wildfire legal costs and other expenses resulting from inevitable utility negligence if CPUC approves IOU WEBA authority. State law dictates that any actions of utility employees in causing wildfires are therefore acts of the utility. WEBA authority simply removes utility shareholders as responsible parties when consumers are left with the inevitable liability of overhead power distribution with CPUC approval.
Under Proposition 16 as a constitutional amendment, a two-thirds approval by voters is required for any customer to switch to municipal power and community choice aggregation if that service is already offered to an IOU customer. Under current law, San Diego voters may terminate the electricity franchise with SDG&E by a simple majority vote, but if Proposition 16 passes, expect SDG&E to use the constitutional amendment to quash unfavorable voters' rights enumerated in the existing San Diego electricity franchise. PG&E will use Proposition 16 to reduce municipal CCA threats in its service area, and it would be unreasonable to expect SCE not to seek the same constitutional protections from local voters as well.