“The Taxpayers Right to Vote Act is a dagger aimed directly at a movement to enable municipalities to offer renewable green power to their residents in competition with private utilities.” – LA Times
This has to be one of the most deceptive ballot campaigns I’ve ever seen in California. This so-called “Taxpayers Right to Vote” proposition is actually a cleverly-disguised attempt by PG&E to eliminate competition and take away our choices for power. Of course PG&E doesn’t care a wit about your right to vote, so what has them scared enough to spend about $35M on this campaign?
Two words: Renewable Energy. They’re scared because municipalities that are so inclined may build windmills or solar farms in their towns and start offering energy to residents as an ALTERNATIVE to PG&E. Right now cities and counties have the right to do that if they decide that it’s in their best interest and makes fiscal sense. PG&E wants the public to have to vote on it though, and NOT WITH A SIMPLE MAJORITY! They want 2/3rds of the voters to have to say “yes” in order for cities to be able to do this. So if 65% of the town wants their city to harness the wind and offer renewable energy they still won’t get it. And whom do you think will have more money to spend on the ads leading up to the vote – PG&E or a small town?
Please VOTE NO on 16. Let PG&E compete with the cities by offering renewable energy as well and at a reasonable cost. PG&E’s profits exceeded $1 BILLION last quarter even as most people are struggling to pay their bills and 12% are unemployed. Now they want to squeeze us even tighter with this bill. Please don’t let PG&E win! For more info visit www.noprop16.org.
What would you expect from a company whose CEO learned his customer service philosophy during an apprenticeship at Goldman Sachs, and who paid himself 74% more than the median for large energy utility CEOs in 2009 (according to the Wall Street Journal compensation survey)? That’s $10.6 million, 8% above what Goldman Sachs’ CEO took down. Of course he has no qualms about skimming $35 million from his captive customers to pay for a propaganda campaign based on the presumption that California voters are idiots.
http://pgandeballotinitiativefactsheet.blogspot.com/2010/04/ceo-report-card-how-much-of-goldman.html