Following up on yesterday’s post about community choice aggregators in California and the development of a political slush fund sourced from utility bills, four thoughts. First, community choice aggregators are supposed to be electric power utilities, primarily existing to deliver a highly technical product. So who runs them? If you look at the senior leadership of a traditional electric power utility, you find
Just looked at my PG&E bill and found the "Central Coast Community Energy" charges of $45.91 on my bill due 4.2. Had to wait on hold with PG&E for 20 minutes, they admitted that they are forced to enroll me in this scam. I was able to call CCCE or (3CE) and opt out. Took a total of about 7 minutes following telephone prompts. Thank you for your article. I will report back on what happens on my next bill(s).
Nebraska is a public power state. We haven't had any IOUs in Nebraska since the thirties. Our Power District's are political subdivisions. Each has its own elected board. They are exempt from taxation, very, very, lightly regulated, and prohibited from doing anything except: Generate, transmit and distribute electrical power. They get special access to low-cost federal power from the dams on the Missouri River. All of them are very focused on keeping rates as low as possible. If they don't, there is always an election coming up. Nebraska is very late to adopt wind. We had to change the state law. The Power District's refused to spend a dime on windmill's (no tax-increment financing for the Power Districts) - Public power can work - you have to keep the politicians away from it. It doesn't hurt that the power districts are pretty small usually. We all know what is going on.
I wonder how many people within the IOUs know about this.
My job (which I should be doing instead of reading Substack) is electric utility design for SDGE via a contract engineering company. Chris is right; it's mostly engineers running the show, along with linemen and some admins.
Never have I run into these vulture fake utilities. Their names don't show up on our drawing sets; they don't review our work; they don't review or issue permits for the work, or traffic control, or anything at all. So in terms of the actual work of keeping the lights on, they're useless. And even more, invisible. I don't think they'd know a transformer bank if they saw one.
"This assumes, of course, that your local government isn’t run by sociopathic grifters"
Not a safe assumption. We seem to have reached the point where ALL elected positions are filled by "sociopathic grifters". Local, regional, state or federal elected bodies are full of the bastards.
Not sure its possible to vote our way out of this.
I'm sure all the "insurrectionist/science deniers/racist/phobiaphobics/ad naseum" can be certain that they'll always be able to get uninterrupted on demand energy.
I don't think this one ends well.
This is exactly why they use labels to identify the "enemy".
Enemies don't deserve power...you see because we must vanquish them.
So, the legislature created a "subgovernmental agency" - one that cannot be challenged politically because it was chosen by the energy consumers (who, in reality, did not actually choose it) to be charged more for the same service under the management of the same, original energy company. And the "profits" generated by this scheme go into a political slush fund. Is that about it?
These people are indeed engineers - socialism engineers. They make the processes of daily life so complex and opaque they can seemingly defraud the consumer for any amount of money and hide it behind a "greedy corporation," all the while, heading the entire operation but acting as benevolent overseers who are working for our good.
I quit a local “sustainability” group over this and other pointless greenwashing enterprises, like pushing carbon tax, electric cars, paper straws, “shopping green” rather than what was advertised: community building for transformational self-reliance and mutual aid. A classic case of misdirection and cooption of do-gooder’s energy and talent. Anyone asking questions could see the grift from the moon.
Tell you how this ends...? This ends with Chris packing up his family and leaving the looniest state in the union for saner, safer regions. (the sooner the better)
Chris,
Just looked at my PG&E bill and found the "Central Coast Community Energy" charges of $45.91 on my bill due 4.2. Had to wait on hold with PG&E for 20 minutes, they admitted that they are forced to enroll me in this scam. I was able to call CCCE or (3CE) and opt out. Took a total of about 7 minutes following telephone prompts. Thank you for your article. I will report back on what happens on my next bill(s).
MP
Nebraska is a public power state. We haven't had any IOUs in Nebraska since the thirties. Our Power District's are political subdivisions. Each has its own elected board. They are exempt from taxation, very, very, lightly regulated, and prohibited from doing anything except: Generate, transmit and distribute electrical power. They get special access to low-cost federal power from the dams on the Missouri River. All of them are very focused on keeping rates as low as possible. If they don't, there is always an election coming up. Nebraska is very late to adopt wind. We had to change the state law. The Power District's refused to spend a dime on windmill's (no tax-increment financing for the Power Districts) - Public power can work - you have to keep the politicians away from it. It doesn't hurt that the power districts are pretty small usually. We all know what is going on.
You must admit, these unmitigated thieves are brilliant at their deceptions.
I wonder how many people within the IOUs know about this.
My job (which I should be doing instead of reading Substack) is electric utility design for SDGE via a contract engineering company. Chris is right; it's mostly engineers running the show, along with linemen and some admins.
Never have I run into these vulture fake utilities. Their names don't show up on our drawing sets; they don't review our work; they don't review or issue permits for the work, or traffic control, or anything at all. So in terms of the actual work of keeping the lights on, they're useless. And even more, invisible. I don't think they'd know a transformer bank if they saw one.
I'm so disgusted by this I had to take several breaks while reading these articles.
"This assumes, of course, that your local government isn’t run by sociopathic grifters"
Not a safe assumption. We seem to have reached the point where ALL elected positions are filled by "sociopathic grifters". Local, regional, state or federal elected bodies are full of the bastards.
Not sure its possible to vote our way out of this.
I'm sure all the "insurrectionist/science deniers/racist/phobiaphobics/ad naseum" can be certain that they'll always be able to get uninterrupted on demand energy.
I don't think this one ends well.
This is exactly why they use labels to identify the "enemy".
Enemies don't deserve power...you see because we must vanquish them.
Chris, I posted this to my Nextdoor feed. I've been canceled by them before. Let's see what kind of response I get from my 'neighbors'.
So when you flip the switch in the evening out in CA, do you hear the sound of a Gender Studies major getting zir’s wings?
So, the legislature created a "subgovernmental agency" - one that cannot be challenged politically because it was chosen by the energy consumers (who, in reality, did not actually choose it) to be charged more for the same service under the management of the same, original energy company. And the "profits" generated by this scheme go into a political slush fund. Is that about it?
These people are indeed engineers - socialism engineers. They make the processes of daily life so complex and opaque they can seemingly defraud the consumer for any amount of money and hide it behind a "greedy corporation," all the while, heading the entire operation but acting as benevolent overseers who are working for our good.
Bullshit jobs for people who are not qualified to hold a real job.
So that answers my question yesterday. The IOU, the real utilities, just have to take it and can't say anything. Damn.
I quit a local “sustainability” group over this and other pointless greenwashing enterprises, like pushing carbon tax, electric cars, paper straws, “shopping green” rather than what was advertised: community building for transformational self-reliance and mutual aid. A classic case of misdirection and cooption of do-gooder’s energy and talent. Anyone asking questions could see the grift from the moon.
So basically it’s just more Bullshit in CA!
Chris, What % of people in CA are aware of this stupidity? I am guessing it is a low number. This is likely the best scam not involving Hunter Biden.
Tell you how this ends...? This ends with Chris packing up his family and leaving the looniest state in the union for saner, safer regions. (the sooner the better)