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Grand jury's clean energy sticker shock
Marin Grand Jury recommends abandoning Marin Clean Energy

by Jason Walsh

Posted by pbjammin, a resident of the Tiburon neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2009 at 4:39 pm

I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind the grand jury's recommendation. The MEA says it will only add 6-7% but the GJ said it would cost $6 million dollars. Can you illuminate, please?

Posted by johnnymarin, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2009 at 4:39 pm

With the exposure of the "global warming" fiasco, maybe it's time to put a hold on all of these changes. If it turns out that humans are not the cause, then why are we spending all of this time and money to change something that we do not effect. Please keep the government(s) out of the business of running and ruining our lives. Just widen the roads and fix the pot holes.

Posted by gtopor, a resident of the Corte Madera neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2009 at 4:44 pm

The $ 6 million is overhead for staff (most likely made up of MCE consultants) the first couple of years. The $16 million could be if they decide to start building renewable energy generating facilities, ie: Solar and or wind. Where would they place them? An unasked question

Posted by Marinite, a resident of another community, on Dec 7, 2009 at 5:15 pm

So PG & E worked exclusively with the conservative Grand Jury to get this report published behind the scenes. It is filled with exaggerations and inaccuracies. they did the same thing in SF, but the SF council members were smart enough not to buy it and are proceeding. PG & E is a big bully trying any means possible to keep their monopoly.

It makes me sick to my stomach. Hopefully our elected's will see thourgh it and recognize what this report really is...a thinly veiled propoganda piece by PG & E.

Posted by Answers, a resident of the Corte Madera neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2009 at 5:19 pm

The amount MEA would borrow is through general obligation funds to get the thing going. PG & E does general obligation bonds all the time, that is paid by ratepayers, we just don't have any say in it. This is not a bond like the COM one which shows up on our taxes, it is paid through the amount we are already paying PG & E for "generation fees" about half of our electricity bill. MEA will be great for Marin and it is too bad pG & E is fighting it so hard.

Posted by J, a resident of another community, on Dec 7, 2009 at 5:27 pm

"So PG & E worked exclusively with the conservative Grand Jury to get this report published behind the scenes"...

So how do you know this happened? ...another newspaper has it? On the radio? Proof please.

Posted by Tom, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2009 at 7:38 pm

The ROI on clean energy is either extremely long or nonexistent! The only investments (this includes international) in it are due to heavy government subsidies via grants, tax incentives, or other. Deeply in debt government entities have no place in borrowing to invest in it. Taxpayers will end up paying the bills for many years. It's shortsighted and irresponsible and simply driven by the need to appear politically correct.

Posted by Bobby, a member of the Marin Academy community, on Dec 7, 2009 at 9:35 pm

So, let me get this straight:

PG&E somehow convinced 19 randomly selected citizens from across Marin (a liberal county by anyones standards), to spend five months researching, investigating, and writing a report (somehow skewing all of that research and those interviews) in their favor. Makes a tasty plot for a mystery novel. But for those of you (all three of you I suspect, with way too much time on your hands), who truly believe this "theory" I have a GREAT stock tip for you...ENRON!

Listen to your fellow citizens, read the report, attend a meeting of the board, and decide for yourself which theory holds more water.

Posted by Rolly Simms, a resident of the Corte Madera neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 9:23 am

Let's keep "grand jury" opinions in perspective. They're average citizens with little or no expertise in the matters they weigh in on... they serve as glorified citizens advisory committees--which is great--but not the end-all authority on the subject. Global warming is a man made problem, as most credible scientists agree, and we need to do whatever we can to reign it in.

Posted by Marvin Lundwall, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 11:52 am

Having served on a Marin County Grand Jury, I am happy with the report knowing that the citizens who served to put forth,"Marin Clean

Energy, Pull the Plug" made a conscientious unbiased,and determined effort to give the citizens of Marin County their best

synopsis.

Posted by Old Buffalo, a resident of the Corte Madera neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 1:24 pm

This is a MCE consultants full employment program.

Posted by anon, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 2:50 pm

I'd like to know why 6 million?!

For overhead staff?!! I wish I had been on that staff. That'a a lot of money going toward a lot of rubbish.

"Global warming" is not man made! We have contributed to depletion of the ozone over the years with our man-made pollution, but a lot of ozone depletion is inevitable.

Otherwise, the planet has always and will continue to change temps wildly back and forth without deviant behavior from human beings. This whole notion of humans being responsible for inevitable climate change is ludicrous.

We could have saved 6 million and beyond by leaving everything alone and letting nature take its natural progression. Environmentalists blow more hot air than any other supposed threat to "global warming" and that's what will do us in in the long run.

Posted by see for yourself, a resident of another community, on Dec 8, 2009 at 3:12 pm

MEA’s response to the grand jury is available on the MEA Key Documents page in the Marin Clean Energy section Web Link

The updated FAQ is also posted on that same page, Web Link

The grand jury never contacted a single proponent for al alternate viewpoint to pG & E's propoganda. If they had, they would have found out they were being spoon fed rubbish and inaccuracies.

Posted by Jerry Driscoll, a resident of the Corte Madera neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 3:25 pm

Anon, stop getting your information from Fox news; the scientific community agrees global warming is man made. Why else did its incredible trend upwards begin with the industrial revolution? Geezus, I can't even believe we're having this discussion... just for the record, men have landed on the moon and the sky is blue, as well.

Posted by Paul, a resident of the Novato neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 4:33 pm

Jerry, maybe you should watch something besides CNN and stop drinking the cool aid. The earth stopped warming over 12 years ago. It's remained unchanged. It's a natural shift - an ebb and flow. Most scientists do not believe man has caused any warming. A multi-university study concluded that there is not enough man made carbon dioxide to effect a global temperature change. Of course, CNN, MSNBC, etc aren't going to report that! Now we know they suppress information!!!!!! What a hoax. Stop all this nonsense so we don't screw up the economy any further.

Posted by anon, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 5:10 pm

To say that the "scientific community" agrees global warming is man-made is a pretty unspecific generalization.

The people who created the big scare surrounding this current ridiculous global warming scare have all been shown to have no credibility behind any of their "studies".

Nasty, mean Fox news has enlightened us all in the last couple of weeks on the latest scams regarding your scientists. You might go to their website and look it up.

Regarding the men landing on the moon, yes, I'd like to think that was true too. There's even speculation about that now. I would like to know how they were able to get through the Van Allen belt without being fried to smithereens.

But that's another subject, yet one that might be fun to bring up on this site! One can only imagine.

Oh, but at least I agree with you that the sky is blue. Whaddya know?! Your global warming hasn't turned it brown yet! So much for that global warming problem, huh?

Posted by gary, a resident of the Fairfax neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 5:17 pm

it is impossible for me to believe that marin county and all the marin cities who have joined in this venture of unknown costs.these same cities which have untold millions of dollars owed to unfunded pension and health care liabilties because of outrageous past decisions would dare to back a business venture they cannot possibly understand as there are no reliable cost projections. how insulting to the taxpayers in this economy to put marin taxpayers at further risk of owing more money every month.

bravo to novato and san rafeal to avoid this businwess venture that will cost untold amounts. smarter council members realize you cant back a half backed business venture with the risks involved(still not known or understood) this is no time for our town to take a risk with our taxpayers money.business men always assess the risk involved in making decisions and as you can see from present evidence of unfunded liabities(see above)many councils have not been prdent in past business decisions and cannot be trusted with your wallet and to make decesions in your best finacial interest.

one resoponder above has it right. fix the potholes!

council members please forget the fancy energy plan which, at our peril, you cant and dont understand as the facs are still undislosed. pass on this one. please.

finally without a shred of evidence posters here say pge cooked the grand jury study. my take on them is if those whackos are in favor of this plan will outright lie then something is very fishy!taxpayers must protect themselves and follow the money very closely as this plays out. who is getting paid what? make them devulge potential a cost-risk business plan and this will fail on the merits. find out who gets the $$ and how they are connected to the plan.

my bet this is doa. if so we dodged a bullet.

Posted by Sea, a resident of another community, on Dec 8, 2009 at 6:15 pm

Congratulations to the Marin County Civil Grand Jury for their inevitable finding.

Posted by Ken Kitchens, a resident of the San Anselmo neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 6:20 pm

If this is such a good deal (MEA) why wouldn't we have to opt into it as opposed to opting out of it?

If the MEA defaults all of us, whether you opted out or not, will have to pick up the tab.

This is not the time or place for something even Berkely opted out of!

Kenny

Posted by Mark, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 8:54 pm

These MEA supporters are so caught up in PC feel good fantasies it's pathetic. Marin County and most of it's cities are in very serious financial trouble. Fix the pot holes, schools and basic infrastructure and please spare us all from another bloated, unproven, unfunded government "Authority". Who could possibly want to borrow money that we don't have to create another government bureaucracy that we don't need,(that by the way folks, we don't even get to vote on), to buy power from a middle man? On top of all that, this brand new dead on arrival "authority" only wants to "meet" the prices of PG&E. Only in Marin ! Even Berkeley didn't fall for this one.

If you want to promote green power, install some photovoltaic on your roof, install CF lighting, drive a high mpg mileage car, use public transportation, unplug the damn flat screens, etc. But please don't try to put us all further in debt with a feel good boondoggle.

Posted by christopher, a resident of the Fairfax neighborhood, on Dec 9, 2009 at 12:12 am

climate change is real, just like pollution, i am outside all day, every day for 41 years, our ecosystem is out of equilibrium and burning fossil fuels to maintain our lifestyle with its subsequent huge carbon footprint does not seem right, one of the best ways to shift power generation to a more sustainable practice is to invest so that private sector companies will invest in alternative power generation, sure, follow the money, but also our calling as wealthy progressive people is to lead our society in a better direction through our investments, if we don't do this now, then when? business as usual is no longer acceptable, our biggest problem is apathy and inaction "new game:smallest carbon footprint wins" true conservatives would not continue with our profligate , deleterious habits of consuming so many nonrenewable resources with nothing left but a contaminated ecosystem and a pile of garbage, what a legacy!

Posted by Louise L Mathews, a resident of the San Anselmo neighborhood, on Dec 9, 2009 at 12:44 pm

Ken Kitchens said it. I'll repeat it more forcefully- the taxpayers, NOT THE MEA OR ELECTED COUNCIL OFFICIALS THAT APPROVED THE MEA, will be forced to pay when MEA fails to perform according to MEA expectations.

Supervisor McGrashin's rep at the SA Council months ago said it and it was said again last night at Mill Valley Council by legal council. Taypayers will pay the cost for political scams that sink.

Why aren't the taxpayers listening?

Any program should be OPT-IN only in order to balance the scales that have been so severely manipulated by political-industry lobbyist schemes to win at any price.

llm

Posted by Mark, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 9, 2009 at 5:39 pm

Charles McGlashin is quoted in the paper 24 Hours ago saying that he has no idea who will finance MEA and no idea who will guarantee the notes, yet they say they are ready to sign a contract committing us to untold millions, with a power wholesaler as early as Feb. 4th. The MEA business plan is so half baked and so incredibly irresponsible it's hard to fathom how it made it this far.

And Christopher in Fairfax, you are right, let's all invest in alternative power generation. Put your own money where your mouth is and support local, readily available resources and businesses from photovoltaics to conservation efforts that will significantly reduce your footprint. Don't fall for thinking that you need a brand new government agency that will suck the efficiency out of your alternative power choices. You are free to invest your own capital in any way you see fit, right now, and you don't need any help from the MEA. We all currently subsidize alternative power through the massive California State tax rebate and credit programs currently provided to end users / purchasers of solar, wind, and fuel cell power generation, as well as rebates for conservation and efficiency upgrades. Your alternative power choices already exist in a much more streamlined, direct and personal format, use them.

And as to your "apathy and inaction" comment, we have installed many, many kilowatts of photovoltaics and energy efficiency upgrades on homes throughout Marin and the Bay Area and we find just the opposite. Most people are very interested in alternative power, conservation and overall footprint reduction and they are participating as their budget allows.

Posted by Bob, a resident of the Santa Venetia neighborhood, on Dec 9, 2009 at 8:27 pm

OK Christopher from Fairfax, you've got all the cliches and catch phrases down and a few of your points are well taken. Good for you that there is absolutely nothing keeping you from taking action and supporting any kind of alternative power and pollution remedies that you may desire. The current choices of investments in the marketplace for alternative power are abundant if you choose to seek them out. Your support towards them will make a difference and be appreciated. All you got to do is "just do it". Don't wait for big brother !

Posted by Doug, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Dec 10, 2009 at 9:17 am

Parallels with the politics of health care are easy to see. PG&E sells $95M of electricity every year in Marin County. Why would they not fight to keep it? They have a budget and a disinformation/fear campaign, and I see from comments here that it is working. If you are 'affraid', then please ask yourself why. MCE is already motivating PG&E to move toward cleaner energy. MCE is not rockety science. It is new and creative, but we can pull this off. The George Bush wrecking crew is not running this iniative. Global warming is fact. Will you stand helpless with coal up your?

Posted by Ken Kitchens, a resident of the San Anselmo neighborhood, on Dec 10, 2009 at 7:49 pm

Doug I will try again to make this simple. If this is a "good deal" why do we have to opt-out as opposed to opt-in?

No other city in California has fallen for this except San Francisco. Doesn't that make you wonder?

Do you think that the rest of us who opt-out should have to pick up your tab when this doesn't work?

Why would you assume that the citizens on the County Grand Jury are less informed/enlightened than you?

Kenny

Posted by Bob, a resident of the Santa Venetia neighborhood, on Dec 10, 2009 at 10:25 pm

Doug, don't be so paranoid. And why are you so trigger happy to create a new bureaucracy that needs to soak up over six million dollars in overhead in the first year? Why do you expect to be taken care of by the nanny state. Why do you want to go through a bloated middleman to access alternative power? Why don't you invest your own money towards any of the many already existing alternative power choices that exist in the marketplace? It's not complicated Doug. What can possibly make you think that politicians, an authority or an agency can make better choices than you. What do you mean "we can pull this off"? Where have you been? There are loads of us already doing it. After all, it IS all about reducing your foot print. Don't hide behind the nanny and expect others to create opportunities for you. The opportunities are there right now for your taking.

And by the way Doug, California only gets a smidge over 1% of it's electricity from dirty old coal, 13% from hydroelectric, and almost 12% from renewables. Twelve percent from renewables right now ! So what's your excuse? Participate, invest, promote, support to your hearts content. You don't need McGlashin to be your inefficient six million dollar nursemaid. The heavy lifting has alredy been done for you by creative, innovative people so go get it.

Posted by Edgar, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 14, 2009 at 5:55 pm

To those of you who think that global warming has stopped, just take a look at the most recent NOAA or World Meteorological Organization reports - the 2000's was the warmest decade on record. The 1990's was the second warmest. The minor fluctuations around the trend do not contradict the trend - it is relentlessly upward, with disatrous consequences coming. Those of you who live less than 20 feet above sea level should get your house on the market soon - it won't be worth much 20-30 years from now.

MEA is the best way to get access to renewable power. PG&E is pursuing a corporate strategy of nuclear and gas - just read their investment prospectuses. They are only investing in renewables because they are forced to do so. MEA will give us access to windpower (which is cost-competitive with natural gas) and solar power from places where those systems produce much more power than here in Marin, and in a very cost-effective manner.

While the Grand Jury may be well-intentioned ("volunteers" can certainly have an agenda - just read previous GJ reports), they are not experts. And to ignore the MEA implementation plan and fail to talk to any of the experts from MEA is inexcusable - with the result being that this Grand Jury report is fatally flawed. They can't even get the state law about liability correct, which would seem rather straightforward. So, read the report and then the MEA response, to see how the Grand Jury missed the mark by a wide margin. Their report reads like it was written by PG&E, whose representatives (Joe Nation) are not known for their veracity.

Posted by Ken Kitchens, a resident of the San Anselmo neighborhood, on Dec 15, 2009 at 8:58 am

So let me get this straight, anyone who opposes the MEA has a problem with veracity or is confused but well intended and those who support it have the correct set of facts and are trying to enlighten the rest of us.

Do you personally know the members of this Grand Jury? Do you have any knowledge of their collective backgrounds or expertise? Are you certain these volunteers have a pro-PG&E agenda?

Why is it that the PG&E experts have this all wrong even though they have been providing electrical power for over a hundred years and the politicians and MEA people who have yet to provide a single kilowatt of electrical power have it right?

Why must we opt out if this is such a good deal as opposed to opting-in? If I choose to opt-out why must I pick up your tab if this "experiment" fails?

Why did the supervisors think the subject matter was too difficult for us to understand, therefore voters do not get to vote on this?

Why did one of the most progressive cities in our country, Berkeley, with some of the most brilliant minds, pull out of their clean energy program? Remember they cited, “Too risky!”

Your well intentioned letter appears to have been written by another who has had major difficulties with his own veracity, Al Gore.

Kenny

Posted by Edgar, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 15, 2009 at 12:13 pm

I don't know who is on the Grand Jury this year - what I do know is that their report is flawed in major ways. I cited a couple of examples in my previous post. I have also read all of PG&E's materials and the Grand Jury report, and they are very similar in the spin that they put on MCE. So, even if PG&E did not write it, they may as well have. In any case, the Grand Jury did a lousy job on this topic, which does not serve anyone well, except perhaps for PG&E.

The fact that PG&E is sponsoring a major initiative to make it impossible to expand an existing CCA or create a new one, and the fact that they have spent so much money spreading mistruths about Marin's version (even going to the PUC to attempt to get rulings that contradict state law) are merely a couple of the reasons that I and others think PG&E is wrong. If MEA won't work like PG&E claims it won't, why are they working so hard to kill it?

As for the opt-out and the vote, both of those are defined in AB 117, the statute that authorizes CCA programs like MEA. Opt-out is the way the program is set up, and if you don't want to participate, you don't have to. You will have four opportunities to vote on it - each opt-out notice gives you the chance to stay with PG&E if you want to do so. How much more of a vote do you need? If your tax dollars are not at risk (which they aren't, despite PG&E's and the Grand Jury's claims to the contrary), why are you insisting on yet another vote?

And Berkeley chose to put its CCA on hold because Oakland (and they) experienced a financial meltdown from the recession, and did not want to invest the minimal start-up costs that a CCA requires. Once MEA gets up and running, I think Berkeley will join in - just as San Francisco is considering.

And Al Gore has no problems with veracity that I know of - he's one of the few politicians around these days who has lots of integrity and is focused on the biggest problem we face - global warming.

Posted by Ken Kitchens, a resident of the San Anselmo neighborhood, on Dec 15, 2009 at 1:23 pm

Edgar you should have to opt in not out! If this were a good deal for the citizens of Marin they would opt in. Once again you are counting on the County Government to manage a program in which they have no, I repeat, no experience.

We have experienced the same financial meltdown as Berkeley and Oakland. We have no way to keep funding the "bloated" County pensions and yet Marin is ready to set up another layer of government and, if the MEA fails, dump all of this on the taxpayer whether he or she opted out or not.

The Grand Jury issued their opinion. Because their opinion does not comport with yours does not make their opinion wrong.

And Al Gore has had lots of problems with veracity.....from the invention of the internet, his service in Vietnam and the declining Polar Bear population which he was recently "called out" on.

Kenny

Posted by anon, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Dec 15, 2009 at 2:15 pm

Hey Edgar, I saw a little blurb in Fox news today, yes Fox. I'm sure it's your favorite source for news.

Here goes, an article by the London Times in Fox news today:

"There are many kinds of truth. Al Gore was hit by an inconvenient one yesterday.

The former vice president, who became an unlikely figurehead for the green movement after narrating the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," became entangled in a new climate change row.

Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, stated the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years.

In his speech, Gore told the conference: "These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr. [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years."

However, the climatologist whose work Gore was relying upon dropped the former vice president in the water with an icy blast.

"It's unclear to me how this figure was arrived at," Dr. Maslowski said. "I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this."

Gore's office later admitted that the 75 percent figure was one used by Dr. Maslowski as a "ballpark figure" several years ago in a conversation with Gore.

The embarrassing error cast another shadow over the conference after the controversy over the hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, which appeared to suggest that scientists had manipulated data to strengthen their argument that human activities were causing global warming."

Continue reading at The Times of London

Yeah, sure. Integrity.

Posted by Tim, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 16, 2009 at 9:04 am

Why all the reverence for PG&E? They lobbied for the deregulation that in part brought us the state's energy disaster and their own bankruptcy. How many other major utilities in the country have gone bankrupt?

They also brought us Erin Brockovich and the hexavalent chromium coverup. For those who have forgotten: The plaintiffs' lawyers had to:

* Prove medical causation

* Deal with missing evidence that had been lost or destroyed

* Reconstruct a complex hydro-geological water system

* Prove the extent of PG&E's inappropriate conduct

At the end of the arbitration trial, the plaintiffs reached a global settlement with PG&E which:

* Compensated all the named plaintiffs in the amount of $333 million

* Required PG&E to clean up the environment

* Required PG&E to stop using chromium 6.

Web Link

They paid people off the streets to pose as interested citizens and pack hearings in San Francisco opposing the same kind of thing we are trying to do in Marin. Now they're pushing a state initiative that would allow a minority of voters to block a majority in local communities from doing what they think is best for their communities. I trust our local electeds to put our interests first a lot more than I trust PG&E.