Contacts

Elise Dearborn - 760-317-017

Craig Rose - 858-336-5378
Public Power San Diego

For immediate releas
April 12, 2021

Stop the Franchise Sellout

Public Power San Diego Launches Video Campaign
SAN DIEGO – Public Power San Diego today released its first public video message, a brief film calling
on the public to contact City Council members and demand they vote “no” on a proposed franchise
agreement.

Bids for a proposed new San Diego gas and electric utility franchise are due April 16th, in response to
Mayor Todd Gloria’s flawed request for proposals. The most likely bidder is San Diego Gas & Electric, a
subsidiary of Enova and Sempra, which charges twice the national average for electricity.

“Our video asks every San Diegan to contact their Council Members and urge them to vote ‘ no’ on any
proposed franchise agreement,” said Elise Dearborn, Co-Chairperson of Public Power San Diego.

PPSD’s new video can be viewed at: PublicPowerSD.org

Dearborn continued, “This proposed franchise goes against what San Diegans requested at their local
Franchise Town Halls. If this passes, every San Diegan will pay California’s highest electric rates for two
more decades. That’s higher than any public or private power utility in the state. If SDG&E wins the
auction, their executives will take from the city and its ratepayers over $1 million in profits every day.

San Diego ratepayers don’t want our money going to Sempra’s stakeholders, such as Saudi Arabia’s
Aramco or JP Morgan. We don't want to pay for building and maintaining Sempra’s fracking and
petroleum infrastructure in the US and Mexico. We don’t want the burden of paying for Sempra’s mass
purchases of Texas fossil fuels.

So, we respectfully request that our City Council Members listen to their constituents and say, ‘no,’ to this
bad franchise deal.”

Mayor Gloria’s proposed terms would award a franchise likely to provide $20 billion in profits over two
decades for less than a penny on the dollar in return to the City, whose property they need to earn those
profits.

“The franchise proposal would be a sellout 50 times worse than the 101 Ash Street building debacle, the
unusable building that Gloria also advocated we purchase,” said Craig Rose of Citizens Franchise
Alliance, a member of The Public Power San Diego Coalition.

“There’s a better choice,” Rose added. “Let’s do a serious study of organizing a non-profit public utility
and compare that with rates we’d suffer with a profit-taking utility like SDG&E.”

(more)

 The locally produced video released today highlights the large discrepancy in rates between SDG&E and
California’s public, non-profit utilities. SDG&E customers using 750 kWh, for example, pay about $100
more per month than customers of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

The video will be distributed on social media and other public sources.

Public Power San Diego is a coalition of groups advocating the creation of an independent, non-profit
utility in the city. Members of the coalition include Protect Our Communities Foundation, Sunrise
Movement, Change Begins with Me, Citizens Franchise Alliance, Sierra Club, North County Equity and
Justice Coalition, Activist San Diego, as well as other organizations and individuals who support the
creation of a non-profit public power utility in the City of San Diego.

For more information, please visit Public Power San Diego’s website: publicpowersd.org

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