Berkeley Energy Teach-In

The "Why a Utility Meltdown?" Emergency Town Hall/Teach-In at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall in Berkeley was packed to overflowing with nearly 200 people. For three hours, speakers relayed important information, announced many upcoming events, and made impassioned speeches to the receptive crowd.

Gray Brechin, author of "Imperial San Francisco", revealed that the history of PG&E, which was originally backed by interests of the DeYoung family, Wm. Randolph Hearst and others, shows why the Chronicle has a history of enforcing the PG&E company's side of the story.

The likelihood of further rate increases was discussed, as was the issue of enlisting PG&E employees to the cause of public utilities, the possibility of creating a San Francisco Municipal Utility District and of having East Bay MUD take on the functions of providing electricity in Alameda County.

State Assembly members Dion Aroner and Don Perata had been invited but were not present. Their response to the invitation was "The first $10 billion is not a bailout". Attendees were encouraged to contact these representatives to let them know their opinions.

Leo Seidlitz of the Labor Party said that party would be in favor of public utilities if the contracts of the current PG&E employees (who belong to IBEW local 1245) are continued.

Graham Brownstein of TURN (The Utilities Reform Network) mentioned several upcoming bills to watch out for. Assembly Bill 18X by Bob Herzberg was characterized as the "worst bill", which would give "a total bailout" and devastate all local efforts for public utilities, sustainable resources, and energy conservation. Contrastingly, Senate Bill 18X (confusingly similar in name) should be supported as it calls for the commitment of in-state generated power to small users (rather than to sale for profit on the energy market).

Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington called for public support at the February 13 city council meeting (7 PM), when Linda Maio's proposal for a Berkeley Municipal Utility will be on the agenda again. Mayor Shirley Dean has been attempting to derail this proposal.

Medea Benjamin rose to speak, to thundering applause. She spoke of the citizens' group's vain attempts to meet with Governor Davis about this issue, describing the long waits outside his office, where they finally began humorously asking passers-by for donations, calling themselves "the Citizen's Fund to Meet with Gray Davis" because "we know it's expensive to meet with the Governor."
     Medea described a young mother she met while she was in jail for a recent action, who is going to be in prison for a long time because of extremely minor welfare fraud. After telling the story, she expressed her outrage by shouting out, "I want those CEO's in jail for corporate fraud of unbelievable dimensions!"
     She recommended that the audience go to the website powertothepeople.org, where there is posted the amounts of money the legislators have taken from the utility companies, and contact each one of them and tell them to give back the money, because "We can't trust them until they have given every penny of that money back."
     She announced another teach in in San Francisco on Sunday, February 11.

Pamela Drake of the Oakland Alliance for Community Energy announced a teach-in in Oakland on March 4th at the Oakland Baptist Church.

Nancy Nadel, Oakland City Council, announced a meeting of the Public Works Committee on Tuesday, Feb. 6 at 1:30 PM in Hearing Room 1, and also called for people to attend Oakland City Council meetings.

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson recommended that people meet with and educate Dion Aroner. He also outlined the different impact of utility costs on families of different income levels. Although (based on pre-rate-increase figures) it is said that "average utility bills account for 2.7% of a family's income", the lowest income group (making $7,000 per year) actually pay 10% of their income for utilities. A middle-income family ($31,000) would average 3.5% of their annual income, while A high-income family ($110,000) might pay 1.4%. He also pointed out that 20% of existing electricity generating plants are offline and 29 facilities are operating at less than peak performance, while 13 are closed.

At the end of the meeting, the audience voted on the clauses of a resolution to be presented to the Berkeley City Council. The resolution calls for conservation measures, no bailout of the utility companies, support for SB18X, opposition to AB18X, a tax on excess profits, refusal of any rate hikes, and public ownership of utilities.