Stop PG&E from controlling our "community" energy!

(01/2021) This Thursday, January 14, with little public input, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is rushing a vote to set the rules for building resilient energy in the form of microgrids that could protect our communities from shutoffs in the future. 

 

Reclaim Our Power: Utility Justice Campaign (ROP) has submitted a letter calling for the CPUC to focus on protecting disadvantaged communities, by including community voices in determining rules for microgrid development in order to guarantee equity in access to these critical energy resources. The CPUC must not allow PG&E and other private utilities to control energy resilience in our communities. 

 

The current effort by ROP and allies hopes to stop another giveaway to the private investor-owned utilities (IOUs). Local Clean Energy Alliance (LCEA) encourages all of our allies to join us in public comment to the CPUC this Thursday, January 14th at 10 am, to demand Commissioners put our communities, not PG&E, first in determining who controls microgrid development. Click here to see the talking points.

 

In 2018, the Legislature passed SB 1339, which required the CPUC to make it easier for communities to build microgrids and other resilient infrastructure—the things we need to keep our families safe in the midst of power shutoffs. Yet, in failing to meet this mandate, the CPUC has left our communities exposed to shutoffs for at least another year and more.   

 

The proposed decision marks the culmination of Track 2 in a three-part CPUC proceeding that was supposed to determine policies and processes to implement SB 1339. Track 1 of these proceedings allowed the IOUs to develop diesel powered emergency generators in fire-prone areas to the objection of ROP and many other environmental organizations. 

 

The Commissioners are about to defy the spirit and the letter of that law, lock out Black, Indigenous, low income, and disabled communities, and pave the way for PG&E to control every aspect of our future energy resilience.