{"id":11481,"date":"2010-04-07T21:40:50","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T21:40:50","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-04-07T21:40:50","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T21:40:50","slug":"pges-prop-16-ads-hits-the-trifecta-lies-halftruths-and-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2010\/04\/07\/pges-prop-16-ads-hits-the-trifecta-lies-halftruths-and-deception\/","title":{"rendered":"PG&E’s Prop 16 Ads Hits the Trifecta: Lies, Half-Truths and Deception"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/object>PG&E, the Proposition 16 backers, leave a lot of information out of their slick new TV ad. Let’s go through it (transcript over the flip.<\/p>\n

Let’s go over it, claim by claim. First, read the fine print <\/p>\n

PAID FOR BY YES ON 16\/CALIFORNIANS TO PROTECT OUR RIGHT TO VOTE, MAJOR FUNDING FROM PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY, A COALITION OF TAXPAYERS, BUSINESS AND LABOR<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, it only flashes on the screen for 4 seconds, so you can’t really read it in the ad. But if you could read it, you wouldn’t even know that 100%, not “major,” funding comes from PG&E. Every penny comes from the electrical utility, who has a lot to gain in their attempt to actually limit the people’s choice, and even limit their voting<\/a>. By the way, PG&E ins’t a coalition of anything, especially labor. No labor organization that I know of supports this measure.<\/p>\n

“But in the end, it’s really government run electric service.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is technically true, but they leave a few convenient facts out. Government or municipal electric service is accountable to the voters through board elections and consumer choice.  PG&E is beholden to its management and stockholders to make them money. Operators at public power agencies cannot be paid multi-million dollar corporate bonuses like the $10 million a year compensation package PG&E’s CEO, Peter Darbee is getting. (That’s paid for with ratepayer funds.)<\/p>\n

Furthermore, government or municipal electric utilities cannot spend one dime of your ratepayer money for a political campaign like Prop. 16.  But PG&E, a for-profit utility, has contributed $25 million in ratepayer funds to pass Prop. 16 which will limit consumer choice and give PG&E a virtual monopoly.<\/p>\n

Under current law, local government can spend unlimited public funds to go into the electricity business, and we don’t even have the right to vote on it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is absurd. Local governments are made up of elected officials – County Supervisors, Mayors and City Council members. They and their actions are highly accountable to voters. It’s the way we decide every other spending decision, apparently PG&E wants special privileges. Anyway, local public agencies cannot put taxpayer resources at risk without a vote of the people under existing law.<\/p>\n

Requires voter approval before local governments can spend public funds to take over electric service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, what it doesn’t mention is that it isn’t just a simple up and down vote. Proposition 16 requires that two-thirds of the electorate has to approve a new municipal power system – giving PG&E a clearly unfair advantage. This is a rarely achieved supermajority that a deep-pocketed for-profit business like PG&E will use to ensure consumers have no choice in power providers.<\/p>\n

Whether government run electricity is a good idea or not, voters should have the final say, because we’re paying the bills.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, voters have NO say in the high rates and poor service that PG&E provides. Prop. 16 locks that in. Virtually every municipal or government run power system in California charge lower rates than PG&E, some by 25% or more.<\/p>\n

Transcript:
\n
Image- power lines<\/p>\n

Woman narrating: “It goes by different names”<\/p>\n

Text Images on the screen: “public power” “local public electricity providers” “community choice aggregation”<\/p>\n

Women narrating: “But in the end, it’s really government run electric service.”<\/p>\n

Women on screen: “under current law, local government can spend unlimited public funds to go into the electricity business, and we don’t even have the right to vote on it.”<\/p>\n

Image and spoken by women: “Proposition 16, The Taxpayers Right to Vote Act”<\/p>\n

Highlighted text on screen read by women: “Requires voter approval before local governments can spend public funds to take over electric service.”<\/p>\n

Woman back on screen: Whether government run electricity is a good idea or not, voters should have the final say, because we’re paying the bills. Vote Yes on Proposition 16, the taxpayers right to vote act.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object>PG&E, the Proposition 16 backers, leave a lot of information out of their slick new TV ad. Let’s go through it (transcript over the flip.<\/p>\n

Let’s go over it, claim by claim. First, read the fine print <\/p>\n

PAID FOR BY YES ON 16\/CALIFORNIANS TO PROTECT OUR RIGHT TO VOTE, MAJOR FUNDING FROM PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY, A COALITION OF TAXPAYERS, BUSINESS AND LABOR<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, it only flashes on the screen for 4 seconds, so you can’t really read it in the ad. But if you could read it, you wouldn’t even know that 100%, not “major,” funding comes from PG&E. Every penny comes from the electrical utility, who has a lot to gain in their attempt to actually limit the people’s choice, and even limit their voting<\/a>. By the way, PG&E ins’t a coalition of anything, especially labor. No labor organization that I know of supports this measure.<\/p>\n

“But in the end, it’s really government run electric service.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is technically true, but they leave a few convenient facts out. Government or municipal electric service is accountable to the voters through board elections and consumer choice.  PG&E is beholden to its management and stockholders to make them money. Operators at public power agencies cannot be paid multi-million dollar corporate bonuses like the $10 million a year compensation package PG&E’s CEO, Peter Darbee is getting. (That’s paid for with ratepayer funds.)<\/p>\n

Furthermore, government or municipal electric utilities cannot spend one dime of your ratepayer money for a political campaign like Prop. 16.  But PG&E, a for-profit utility, has contributed $25 million in ratepayer funds to pass Prop. 16 which will limit consumer choice and give PG&E a virtual monopoly.<\/p>\n

Under current law, local government can spend unlimited public funds to go into the electricity business, and we don’t even have the right to vote on it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is absurd. Local governments are made up of elected officials – County Supervisors, Mayors and City Council members. They and their actions are highly accountable to voters. It’s the way we decide every other spending decision, apparently PG&E wants special privileges. Anyway, local public agencies cannot put taxpayer resources at risk without a vote of the people under existing law.<\/p>\n

Requires voter approval before local governments can spend public funds to take over electric service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, what it doesn’t mention is that it isn’t just a simple up and down vote. Proposition 16 requires that two-thirds of the electorate has to approve a new municipal power system – giving PG&E a clearly unfair advantage. This is a rarely achieved supermajority that a deep-pocketed for-profit business like PG&E will use to ensure consumers have no choice in power providers.<\/p>\n

Whether government run electricity is a good idea or not, voters should have the final say, because we’re paying the bills.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, voters have NO say in the high rates and poor service that PG&E provides. Prop. 16 locks that in. Virtually every municipal or government run power system in California charge lower rates than PG&E, some by 25% or more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[8308,5745,8405,8307],"class_list":["post-11481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-8308","tag-5745","tag-8405","tag-8307"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2Zb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}