SAN DIEGO — The battle is heating up over an effort to replace SDG&E in the city of San Diego with a nonprofit power company.
Dueling reports seek to estimate the costs of transitioning to a municipal power company. The estimates range from $3.5 billion to $13 billion.
Business was brisk in front of the Costco store in Bay Ho on Tuesday, as volunteers encouraged people to sign the petition to “fire SDG&E.”
“Electric rates are just ridiculous. They just keep going up, and I don't know who's getting all the money, but it's a big rip off,” said one man who signed the petition.
The petition would force a ballot initiative in November to establish a nonprofit power company run by the City of San Diego.
“We're paying the highest or nearly the highest rates in the nation,” said Bill Powers, chairman of Power San Diego, which launched the petition drive.
His group estimated the buyout of SDG&E would cost the city $3.5 billion. Even with that up-front cost, customer bills would still go down about 20 percent, according to Powers.
“Their gross profit is approximately 20 percent a year, and this will be a nonprofit, a not-for-profit municipal entity. Right off the top, we’ll eliminate 20 percent of the costs and charges SDG&E is currently collecting,” Powers said.
Meanwhile, SDG&E is funding a political action committee called Responsible Energy San Diego aimed at killing the petition drive.
The PAC posted a new study recently that claimed the buyout would cost much more, between $11 billion and $13 billion.
A spokesperson for the PAC emailed CBS 8 the following statement:
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I wanted to offer you these two statements from two of the co-chairs of the Responsible Energy San Diego coalition regarding the study that was released … the City of San Diego is conducting a second phase of their own municipalization study which will be done in 2025 — a study that Power San Diego doesn’t want to wait for by pushing for a 2024 ballot measure that will go into the effect before the public has the benefit of seeing that taxpayer-funded report in 2025.
Here are the statements:
Brigette Browning, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council:
“Working families across San Diego are facing real financial hardships in this tough economy. The Power San Diego initiative will force a government take over of San Diego’s energy grid and likely put us on the hook for $9.3 billion in debt, as well as cost us $3.9 billion in lost revenue to the City. This idea threatens good union jobs and doesn't guarantee workforce protections or the benefits our members have today.”
Jerry Sanders, President & CEO, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce:
“Power San Diego’s proposed government takeover of San Diego’s energy grid will negatively impact the City of San Diego’s finances and priorities. At a time of budget uncertainty, incurring upwards of $9.3 billion in debt to acquire electric infrastructure and potentially losing billions more in revenue would be egregious. A government run utility is not the solution to addressing the cost of energy in California and will likely mean higher electric rates for San Diego businesses.”
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Power San Diego issued a rebuttal letter to the Responsible Energy San Diego findings. Powers said their cost estimates came from various reports paid for by the city of San Diego, while the Responsible Energy San Diego report was paid for by SDG&E.
Power San Diego said volunteers have collected about 15,000 signatures, so far. They're going to need 80,000 signatures by May to qualify for the November ballot.
WATCH RELATED: SDG&E funds PAC to fight against municipal power effort (Feb. 13, 2024)