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For Immediate Release<br>
August 30, 2014<br>
<br>
Contact:<br>
<br>
Eric Brooks, 415-756-8844, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:brookse@igc.org">brookse@igc.org</a><br>
Woody Hastings, 310-968-2757, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:woodyhastings@gmail.com">woodyhastings@gmail.com</a>
<br>
<br>
AB-2145 Attack On Local Energy Choice Defeated by Consumer &
Clean Energy Advocates<br>
<br>
In an extraordinary legislative upset, David beat Goliath in
Sacramento when Senator Darrell Steinberg brought down the gavel
this morning at 3:00 a.m. to close the 2013-14 legislative session,
with no vote on Assembly Bill 2145. AB 2145, the proposed law aimed
at crushing locally based clean energy efforts known as Community
Choice energy programs in California, is officially dead. <br>
<br>
The newly emerged statewide coalition, Californians for Energy
Choice, pushed back the monopoly electrical utilities’ latest
attempt to deeply undermine competition from these emerging local
programs. Previously, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) spent
over $46 million in 2010 pushing Proposition 16, a ballot measure
that would have ended Community Choice in California. Voters soundly
defeated the measure. Organizers who fought against Prop 16, joined
with scores of new activists to help form the new coalition.<br>
<br>
“The monopoly utilities made a huge mistake when they forced us to
create a coordinated statewide coalition to fight AB 2145. We have
now educated thousands of people and legislators to the fact that
Community Choice is the state’s most powerful tool to give
communities local control over electricity supply, and rapidly build
clean energy programs that will put Californians back to work, and
combat the climate crisis. We can now use this new coalition to
change the game on energy in California,” said Sunnyvale resident
Margaret Okuzumi, a key member of Californians for Energy Choice.<br>
<br>
The defeat of AB 2145 protects the ability of local communities to
take control of decision-making about their electricity sources. It
also empowers them to access lower rates by leveraging the joint
customer buying power and energy market competition that Community
Choice makes possible. The door is once again wide open for
Community Choice to flourish in California. Local governments
throughout the State now have a green light to create successful
clean energy-based Community Choice programs.<br>
<br>
"The defeat of AB 2145 opens the door for everyday ratepayers,
residents, and businesses to free ourselves from the grip of the Big
Utility monopolies and their accomplices," said Bruce Wolfe of the
Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council and SF Clean Energy Advocates.
"It is now time for all this corporate monopoly resistance to stop,
and for emerging Community Choice programs like San Francisco’s
CleanPowerSF to be implemented immediately.”<br>
<br>
Erica Etelson, a San Francisco East Bay activist stated, "I hope
PG&E and the other utilities finally get the message that
Californians want clean, affordable, 21st century electricity and
won't stand for monopoly bullying in Sacramento."<br>
<br>
“This is ultimately about energy democracy,” said Al Weinrub,
coordinator for the Oakland-based Local Clean Energy Alliance. “The
question is, will the power to decide what kinds of energy we use
and who benefits from the system, be in the hands of a small group
of powerful players, as it has been for the past hundred years, or
will the power be in the hands of the people?”<br>
<br>
Californians for Energy Choice thanks the Senate President Pro Tem
Darryl Steinberg, Minority Leader Bob Huff, and the entire Senate
and all of its hard-working aides, who saw through the
misinformation put out by 2145 operatives and helped to defeat the
bill. <br>
<br>
For more information:<br>
<br>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://no2145.org">http://no2145.org</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.facebook.com/noab2145">https://www.facebook.com/noab2145</a><br>
<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves."
Che Guevara</pre>
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