Outage on 16

We were a little worried about this one, but it came out OK.

CoCoTimes

California voters' rejection of Proposition 16, despite at least $46 million in backing from Pacific Gas and Electric Co., clears the way for municipalities throughout the state to follow Marin's lead and compete with the investor-owned utility as retailers of electricity.

The proposition, which would have required two-thirds approval from local voters before cities or counties could choose an alternate energy provider, lost with 52.5 percent of voters opposed and 47.5 percent in favor. In Marin the margin was much larger: 61.3 percent of voters voted no, while 38.7 percent voted yes.
...

"The voters saw through the attempt to buy the election. They could smell a rat," said Marin Supervisor Charles McGlashan, who heads the Marin Energy Authority board. The authority, which consists of the county of Marin and seven Marin cities, is sponsoring the Marin Clean Energy initiative, the first community choice aggregation effort in the state, which is competing for customers with PG&E.

"I'm relieved that other communities may be able to join us in creating competition," McGlashan said.

In a press release, Greg Pruett, senior vice president of corporate affairs for PG&E, said PG&E respected the voters' decision. [...]

That's white of ya, Greg. This attempt by PG&E to highjack the initiative process and con the voters into thinking their 'voting rights' were under attack to prevent competition failed because enough voters paid attention.

I have no idea what effect the overcharging of thousands of customers by PG&E's SmartMeters had on the election. Heh.

Here's an interesting bit: voters in areas where private utility companies like PG&E are predominant voted against Prop 16 in overwhelming numbers. Voters in areas with giant publicly owned utilities, like Los Angeles' Department Of Water & Power (LADWP), voted for it in large numbers. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, I guess.

Nobody seems to like their large utility companies very much. I get my power from the Truckee Donner Public Utility District (TDPUD) (from whom I get free light bulbs) via Sierra Pacific Power Company (NV Energy), a publicly traded company. The power appears to be ON and I like TDPUD just fine. My polling place is in their meeting room, which I think is a very fitting place to vote against the attempted power grab (pun intended) by Big Volt.