Candidate for
Director; Proposed San Francisco-Brisbane Municipal Utility District; Ward 4

Robin David on The Current Energy Crisis and What Needs to Be Done

California's energy crisis is rooted in the fact that this valuable social resource has been turned over to the profiteers and their market. Controls provided by government oversight, which offered us some measure of protection, have been vastly reduced and weakened by deregulation.

Governor Gray Davis and the State legislature have been unwilling to act to protect the public interest. Instead, they are bailing out the profit-driven, privately owned energy industry which created the crisis in the first place. This is a threat to the living standards of working people and threatens jobs and public services in San Francisco and Brisbane and throughout the state.

Although this crisis, ultimately, will have to be resolved on a state and even national level, the proposals on the ballot November 6th for (1) a Municipal Utility District in San Francisco and Brisbane, SF&B MUD, and (2) a Water and Power Agency provide a way in which utility users can exercise a high level of local control over energy services and even a great measure of independence from the market's high prices and unreliability.

Labor, consumer and environmental activists across the state agree that the real solution to the problem is public power.

Public power's goal is lower ratepayer costs rather than higher shareholder profits. Guided by ratepayer needs and under democratic control, public power authorities can also develop alternative energy programs and balance energy needs against environmental impact -- while ensuring the continued livelihoods of utility industry workers.