Part of the progressive-socialist agenda here in California includes a complete takeover of our energy supplies regardless of the cost or impracticality of the same. Two components of this would include a de facto takeover of the electricity grid, along with the elimination of oil and gas production, uses and supplies in our state.
With respect to the grid, a program called Community Choice Energy enables local jurisdictions to dictate to our electric utilities to deliver an energy portfolio of their choosing. What that means in practical terms is that PG&E and Southern California Edison are rapidly losing their customer base, their franchise model, and the ability to be vertically integrated.
In the end, these utility companies will end up being power delivery service companies rather than power generators. A model that worked so well for so long is being destroyed by zealots who think that providing 40 million customers with a secure and stable energy supply is so easy that government bureaucrats and politicians can do it with no risk whatsoever.
Community choice programs, because they are run by government entities, claim they can provide cheaper energy. However, they can only do so by virtue of the fact that they don’t have to pay property taxes and income taxes as do our utilities. They are also taking advantage of the fact that industrial-sized solar does not pay property taxes either, regardless of who owns the facility. These government entities are thereby embracing a business model that involves cutting off their own tax revenue via this lecherous ponzi scheme.
Another reason these community choice programs can sell some electricity cheaper than the utilities has to do with the fact that California required the utilities to purchase renewable energy for their portfolios when the renewable power industry was in its nascent stage, meaning the power generated by the same was still inefficient and extremely expensive. This is one of the reasons we already have some of the highest electricity prices in the country, 50 percent higher than the national average, and of course, things are about to get a whole lot worse.
Although the community choice programs pretend they can deliver power cheaper than the utilities, our Santa Barbara county supervisors aren’t planning on passing on the savings to their constituents. No, they want to create a green energy slush fund from the “profits” in order to pay for other green energy projects that can’t otherwise get financing any other way.
The community choice proponents believe they won’t get charged for the liability of the recent fire catastrophes or the billions it will take to upgrade the grid. In a way, they are right. The customers will end up paying. Either that or the utilities go bankrupt. Then what happens? The state will end up having to take over the grid in its entirety.
Meanwhile, the state Legislature wants to eliminate gas and diesel vehicles and the PUC wants to eliminate the supply of natural gas to your home. This will put even more strain on our electricity supplies and the need to invest tens of billions of dollars in new infrastructure. Can you imagine the cost of changing over every gas station in California to an electric charging station? Otherwise, how else will millions of people be able to leave their homes for extended trips, business and pleasure, within the state? And what about trips out of state, since other states are not on this same all-electric jihad?
Eventually, these politicians and their constituents are going to learn once again, the hard way, that government never does anything better or cheaper than does the private sector.
