UCAN has aggressively opposed SDG&E's efforts to shut off power to San Diego citizens during times of high fire risk.

This morning, the San Diego Union-Tribune published another story by Onell Soto on Sempra's persistent efforts to shut off your power without accepting any legal responsibility for any harm it causes you.

In the process of lobbying for this change, Sempra and SDG&E have treated regulators and the public like a Third-World Banana Republic. Only this time, it isn't rebel forces knocking out out the power lines ... it is Sempra Energy.

If Sempra and SDG&E get their way, they will be able to legally shut off your power during times of high fire risk. Testimony shows that the power shut-offs will put as many as 70,000 utility customers at risk, and increase the probability of fire. Such a scheme is unheard of in the annals of utility abuse.

Here's why intentionally shutting off power is an unheard of proposition:

SDG&E is a monopoly. It has no competition. Because it has no competition, it is guaranteed a profit by the State of California. The people who guarantee this sweet deal to SDG&E are appointed bureaucrats at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). In exchange for the guaranteed profits, SDG&E and its parent company, Sempra, are obligated to provide safe and reliable, electricity. That's it. SDG&E's ONLY job is to provide a network of reliable power lines to every resident in San Diego and Southern Orange County.

Putting ratepayers on the back-burner, and turning up the heat.

In the interests of protecting its profits (instead of ratepayers) SDG&E wants to violate this social contract by shutting off power to potential fire victims precisely at moment they need it the most - when fire is a looming danger.

The reason the utility wants to shut off power is because in 2007, SDG&E's poorly built power lines started the Witch Creek and Rice fires - a disaster so profound that it shut down an Interstate Freeway, burned up parts of Ranch Bernardo, threatened the City of Escondido, closed the Wild Animal Park, and ultimately, resulted in massive evacuations (source).

At this time, SDG&E is replacing its flammable "fire-starter" lines with safer steel poles that are less likely to cause fires, but this is something they should have done long ago. In the meantime, SDG&E continues to avoid responsibility for its faulty third-world infrastructure by seeking a blanket pardon for future fires that its lines are expected to cause. SDG&E's latest strategy is to seek "collaborators" in its efforts to avoid supplying power to local water districts, fire departments, the sick, and the elderly, etc.

So far, the bulk of the citizen "collaborators" have been SDG&E's hired gun lobbyists, posing as residents and voters, organizations and politicians that have been the recipients of SDG&E money. Now, apparently, SDG&E has unstopped its ears and is willing to "listen" to the concerns of its customers. Translation: We will listen carefully. Then, when we want your opinion, we'll tell you what it is."

Will this latest effort of getting people to "like" getting their power turned off work?

UCAN's Executive Director, Michael Shames, is quoted in today's article as saying "That depends on how attached the power company is to its earlier proposal," said Shames, an opponent of fire shut-offs. “There's a possibility there could be a collaborative (process) and consensus reached, yes ... Will it be based on what SDG&E's model was? No.”

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob was more direct: “If SDG&E is using this collaborative effort as a ruse to try to promote the shut-off plan the PUC denied, then it goes nowhere,” she said.

UCAN predicts this plan will go nowhere fast because SDG&E will have trouble finding "collaborators" willing to allow the utility to burn them out.

Related UCAN stories ...

When SDG&E talks, hot air walks. Santa Ana brings hot winds and fire hazards ... from SDG&E

ARSONIST SQUIRRELS ON THE LOOSE! One expert says SDG&E's lines are so shaky that even falling squirrels can start a fire.

Shut-off plan shut off by CPUC? Perhaps not.

Head of Assembly Utilities Committee brags about having sex with a Sempra Lobbyist.

SDG&E's ABC Rate Hike: Arrogant, Bizzare, and Callow. SDG&E wants you to pay for its fire-safety negligence.

Columnist Don Bauder: The California Public Utilities Commission, CPUC, is "owned and operated" by the utilities.

Utility-paid travel junkets degrade CPUC's ability to regulate.

Public Officials taking dictation (and donations) from SDG&E ... then they write letters in support of fire shut-offs.

Fire Risks from SDG&E Sunrise PowerLink "Jaw Dropping."

LA Times Story: "You could see this red-hot [SDG&E] power line pulsing and throwing sparks in the riverbed down there ..."

And the list goes on and on at UCAN's Energy Section.

If you are tired of SDG&E having its way with politicians, regulators, and you, then please consider joining the fight by supporting UCAN, the Utility Consumers' Action Network.