By Lizzie Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
A compromise initiative that will align a city-run renewable energy program with state standards won at the polls Tuesday.
Proposition H, a countermeasure to Proposition G, clarifies whether the city can advertise its power program, CleanPowerSF, as green — even though it’s not 100 percent greenhouse-gas-free. Under the measure, renewable energy will be defined in accordance with the state’s definition.
With all precincts reporting and most of the votes counted, Prop. H had 80 percent support. Prop. G was opposed by 77 percent of voters.
The result is a victory for the city, said London Breed, president of the Board of Supervisors and sponsor of Prop. H.
“San Franciscans have sent a clear message tonight that we want CleanPowerSF and the cleaner energy and better prices it will provide,” Breed said. “This program is the single most important thing the city can do to combat climate change.”
The dispute between the measures stemmed from CleanPowerSF, a city-run renewable energy program that begins this spring and will compete directly with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The point of contention: whether the city can advertise the program as green, even though it’s not 100 percent greenhouse-gas free.
In an effort to protect local jobs, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, a union representing PG&E electrical workers, pushed Prop. G to more narrowly define “green” energy. A compromise, Prop. H, was eventually found — but it came too late to remove Prop. G from the ballot.
CleanPowerSF, which is more than a decade in the making, will use “community choice aggregation,” under which local governments purchase electricity for their residents, while private utilities own and operate the electrical grid, delivering that energy.
San Francisco customers will be automatically transferred from PG&E to CleanPowerSF unless they opt out. Prop. H makes it easier for customers to compare different clean power programs, said Jason Fried, executive officer of the city’s Local Agency Formation Commission.
The program is a pivotal part of San Francisco’s efforts to meet a statewide push to have 33 percent of power coming from renewable sources by 2020, and 50 percent by 2030.
©2015 the San Francisco Chronicle Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
