If you’re in Marin or San Francisco, you’ve got a wall of junkmail coming at you from PG&E. Oh, beg pardon. You have a wall of junk coming at you from “The Commonsense Coalition.” This is a coalition of one, and that one is PG&E.
In teeny tiny letters, in ever more pale ink, you may be able to find the line on those mailers that says something about PacificGas&Electric. Or maybe you left your magnifying glass at home and you can’t find PG&E on there.
Regardless, these 100% PG&E mailers are everywhere, they’re expensive as heck, and they’re clearly meant to scare the pants off us. If we didn’t have brains in our heads, it might be hard to know what to do about it.
First, know that this is a straight out disinformation campaign. These mailers are packed with the same tired ol’ threats PG&E’s Joe Nation has been trotting out in council meetings (rebutted, again and again) since 2008. Some of them are the same threats (again, examined and rejected) used by PG&E to generate fear and confusion around San Joaquin’s CCA in a devastating disinformation campaign down there. As they’ve made clear to their shareholders, PG&E has one motive behind everything they throw at this: STOP the CCAs. Halt the threat to earnings.
It’s faux grassroots on a boardroom budget, with just that one simple goal: shut the competition down. PG&E knows Marin Clean Energy — if it can just survive PG&E’s onslaught — will succeed, and compete. And then replicate. Why else would they go to these extraordinary measures and $35 million dollar budgets to stop it?