Sonoma Clean Power officials will explore public ownership of PG&E utility lines

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Sonoma Clean Power officials will explore public ownership of PG&E utility lines
TYLER SILVY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT November 14

Sonoma Clean Power, a public agency that supplies renewable energy to Sonoma and Mendocino counties, will begin exploring the impact of a public takeover of PG&E’s electrical grid as the bankrupt utility faces growing questions about the safety and solvency of its operations.

In a unanimous vote, Sonoma Clean Power’s board of directors instructed staff Thursday to study what role, if any, the Santa Rosa agency might play in the acquisition of PG&E power lines and other equipment.

“I think it’s incumbent upon us,” said board Chairman Mark Landman, a member of the Cotati City Council. “I don’t see where we have a choice. We recognize it. I know the public recognizes it.”

The vote followed a discussion of PG&E’s precarious hold on solvency, including whether it would be able to meet a June 30 deadline set by Gov. Gavin Newsom to resolve its bankruptcy in order to access state money to pay for future wildfire liabilities.

Sonoma Clean Power is following the lead of San Francisco and a public power agency in Yolo County, which each made offers to buy PG&E’s distribution grid, and a group of elected officials in Northern California who urged the creation of a customer-owned cooperative to replace PG&E.

PG&E facilities are not for sale, spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said in an emailed statement. Changing the structure of the company would not create a safer operation, she said.

“We remain firmly convinced that a government or customer takeover is not the optimal solution that will address the challenges and serve the long-run interests of all customers in the communities we serve,” Contreras said.

Sonoma Clean Power has a symbiotic relationship with PG&E. Founded in 2014, the agency buys and generates electricity from renewable sources, then delivers it to customers over PG&E wires. PG&E retains responsibility for maintaining the grid, servicing customers and billing.

Acquiring the operations of a close partner is a difficult topic to discuss, said Geof Syphers, chief executive officer for Sonoma Clean Power. But PG&E is behind on maintenance by 10 to 14 years and is ensnared in a multibillion-dollar bankruptcy case featuring plans put forth by hedge funds bent on squeezing huge margins out of the utility, Syphers said.

“The only way to do that is hurt employees, don’t invest in safety or you do something else dramatic,” Syphers said. “I’m nervous at the outset at who’s competing to control PG&E.”

Board member Dave King, a member of the Petaluma City Council, put a sharper point on it.

“Nothing I can think of says, ‘screw the public interest’ like a hedge fund-owned public utility,” King said.

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We very much do have a choice....
1.We can keep trusting the CA government to trust PG&E
2. We can let this same government, that has shown an inability to manage PG&E's abuses, take over PG&E's broken equipment, as though it'll do a better job with the same broken equipment.
3. We can let them go broke and let the free market handle the issue. Scariest, but likely best option.

I don't really know the best way forward here. PGE is a nightmare. The publicly owned utilities in CA... SMUD is fairly popular while the ones in So CA are not- and have likewise had their equipment cause fires.

And I don't really trust Sonoma Clean Power (even though I paid their premium for years) - they largely invest in damns that destroy fish and land...and geothermal- which has a number of problems...all while wiping their hands of the problem we are discussing- transmission of power.

Can we just be honest and say what we are really discussing here? The most expensive electric rates in the mainland US becoming much, much more expensive. At the same time we see the wealthy getting state and federal subsidies to "go solar"...which benefits them, benefits society re: climate change, but insulates them even further from the costs of the reality of power in CA...

The current Bohemian has a front page article on PGE that is the longest article I have ever seen in the Boho during my 30 years of reading it.

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Charity Case
Investigating PG&E-funded Rebuild North Bay Foundation
BY PETER BYRNE AND WILL CARRUTHERS

On October 30, 2017, as thousands of Sonoma County homes smoldered in ruins from the Tubbs Fire, Darius Anderson established the nonprofit Rebuild North Bay Foundation. Anderson is a longtime lobbyist for Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation and owner of the Press Democrat.

In a subsequent application for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, Anderson told the Internal Revenue Service his charity would "provide immediate disaster relief to those residents of the North Bay who were hardest hit: families and individuals with low incomes who have been displaced from their homes and/or lost their jobs due to the wildfires." The foundation would also work with local governments to help residents rebuild in a "fire safe" fashion, "for example, by assisting with the construction of fire-retardant roofs," Anderson wrote. According to a six-month investigation of Rebuild North Bay Foundation by the Bohemian, that's not exactly what happened.

The organization's independent audit and tax returns and hundreds of emails obtained from local governments under the California Public Records Act reveal that Rebuild North Bay Foundation functions more as a lobbyist than a disaster relief group.

During its first year of existence, most of the foundation's expenses went to management and administration; it spent relatively little money on grants to the public, according to its audit.

The foundation made erroneous claims in its tax return regarding its lobbying activities; serious errors which the organization says they will correct.

The law prohibits the foundation from making campaign contributions. Yet, the campaign committee of a Sonoma County supervisor disclosed a contribution from the foundation, which also "gifted" money to the mayor of Santa Rosa, public records show.

According to an aide for North Bay Congressman Mike Thompson, some of the foundation's lobbying activities may be doing harm by "injecting politics" into the disaster-funding process.

Rebuild North Bay Foundation is mostly funded by PG&E.

While Rebuild North Bay Foundation has performed some charitable acts, it has focused on creating a network of businesspeople and local public officials to lobby bureaucrats and legislators in Washington, D.C., on specific issues. Under IRS rules and regulations a charity is allowed to do some lobbying related to its nonprofit purpose—but focusing on lobbying can result in the loss of a nonprofit's tax-exempt status, tax experts say.

According to a nationally prominent expert consulted by the Bohemian, the Rebuild North Bay Foundation crossed over the boundary between charity and lobbying. Ellen Aprill is the John E. Anderson Professor of Tax Law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. She reviewed the foundation's IRS Form 990 federal tax return for 2017–2018, which discloses its financial information and lobbying and charitable activities. Aprill concluded, "It's not even a close call, it's blatant lobbying. The foundation is primarily a lobbyist, not a charity."

Philip Hackney is a professor of nonprofit law at the University of Pittsburgh and a former-IRS lawyer. He explained that asking public officials to support specific legislation or funding requests is the definition of lobbying. Hackney said that spending a substantial amount of an organization's effort on lobbying can violate the charitable mandate.

It is up to the IRS to determine whether the Rebuild North Bay Foundation has fallen afoul of nonprofit rules and regulations by focusing on lobbying. "Trying to give a definitive answer about the legality of this organization is like sticking my hand into a pile of goo," Hackney said. "What is most interesting is that Rebuild told the community it was going to do one thing and then ended up doing another."

Why does that matter? It matters because Anderson chartered the Rebuild North Bay Foundation for providing disaster relief; not for sending politicians and businesspeople to lobby politicians in Washington. It matters because the activities of Rebuild North Bay Foundation intersect with its founder's business, publishing and political interests.

For example, until Nov. 1, 2019, PG&E was a client of Anderson's California- and Washington, D.C.–based lobbying firm, Platinum Advisors. PG&E is bankrupt and facing $30 billion in liabilities for sparking wildfires around California. Two PG&E executives have served on the foundation's board of directors; it names PG&E as its "partner" in charitable activities. And a disaster-debris removal firm named Ashbritt Environmental hired Anderson's lobbying firm, and gifted the foundation with $450,000, after Anderson and its board members lobbied federal officials to change debris-removal reimbursement regulations.

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