Mayor’s Task Force on Infrastructure
The City of San Francisco currently faces an energy crisis that adversely affects each and every one of its citizens and those entities that do business within its confines. The current and future cost of this shock to our economy is unascertainable. Times of crisis and uncertainty such as this, require swift effective action. However, any action that is taken by this City must be calculated action that will provide immediate assistance to the City’s residents and businesses at the least cost.
Under present conditions, which are likely to continue for the next eighteen to thirty-six months, it is essential that City residents and businesses obtain immediate near-term relief. The City and County of San Francisco is already authorized under state law and the City's Charter (Cal. Const. Art. XI §9, Pub. Util. Code §10002 and City Charter §4.112) to engage in power generation, distribution and power aggregation (purchases). In fact, the City’s PUC has been in this business, albeit on a relatively smaller scale, for over sixty years. With a simple reorganization of the PUC staff, and without the need for any delays via the ballot box or the courthouse, the City can immediately do locally what the City of Los Angeles has been doing for a number of years and what the State of California has just begun to do on a statewide basis—employ the City's capital and experienced workforce to secure firm, long-term and affordable power to distribute to City residents and businesses. This approach promises to both deliver uninterruptable power immediately in the short-term and provide the City with the potential to address our long-term utilities needs after careful and thoughtful consideration.
Other options deserve study, including the options to create a "Power District" or a "Municipal Utility District"—but these alternatives involve delay, possible litigation and huge financial outlays before the first megawatt is delivered to City residents. For instance, the well-intentioned proposal to create a Municipal Utility District will not provide immediate relief. The vote on the measure will not take place until November. It may or may not pass. It will take months to fund, organize and staff so that it can begin to operate. It is uncertain whether the process by which it comes before the voters is legal. There could be legal challenges to its formation and the voting process that enabled it. There could be appeals no matter what side wins. This could drag on for years, and the residents and businesses of this City would have been ill served—and during this time of political wrangling—would have no relief from the immediate crisis.
The City and County of San Francisco should effectively deploy the resources already at its disposal to provide immediate assistance to the City’s residents and businesses. This approach will keep the City’s short-term costs within reason, avoid lawsuits and further delay, and permit reasoned discourse of alternative long-term solutions. This approach also allots sufficient time to the Mayor, the Board of Supervisors and the electorate to determine whether or not to exercise the City’s power to acquire and own additional public utilities under City Charter §16.101 and to incur the financial costs of doing so. The decisions that will be made over the next few months deserve full and careful consideration. A misstep can cost the taxpayers and the City of County of San Francisco billions of dollars.