Blackout lessons for S.F.

THE ONLY GOOD news to come out of the catastrophic blackout in the Northeast is that once again the dangers and delusions of deregulation and free-enterprise economics for electricity have been demonstrated to the world at large. For San Francisco, the blackout is yet another loud clang on the warning bell: because of the Pacific Gas and Electric Co.-Raker Act scandal, San Francisco has been for decades – and remains – the most blackout-prone city in the state and one of the most blackout-prone cities in the country.

As this paper has been reporting since 1969, the scandal is that San Francisco officials have allowed PG&E to keep the city from serving its residents and businesses with its own public power generated by the Hetch Hetchy Water and Power system – in violation of the federal Raker Act of 1913. The city, under PG&E pressure in the late 1920s, stopped building a transmission line to carry Hetch Hetchy power across the bay from its Newark substation. Instead, San Francisco was forced to get its power via PG&E's lines.

The Bay Area transmission system, designed and largely built by PG&E, is almost criminally inadequate, providing only one route to the city. Remember the blackout of 1998 – and all the world-class dodging and ducking of responsibility?

This single-line transmission system left San Francisco vulnerable to blackouts for the duration. It also wired the city for environmental injustice because the line plows through Hunters Point.

In cities with public control, officials are taking steps to protect their utility customers. Jurisdictions from the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District to Roseville, from the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts to Riverside and Los Angeles, are moving way, way ahead of San Francisco and building generation within their own service area. That means if there's a power problem outside its service area, the local community will be protected from blackouts.

San Francisco, still beholden to PG&E and its one transmission line, is taking some worthy baby steps toward energy safety and independence. But it is still refusing to use city hall muscle and Raker Act leverage against PG&E. Meanwhile, PG&E holds the city hostage to its get-out-of-bankruptcy campaign for less regulation and more market-based energy.

This policy ensures an ever more clear and present danger for the people of San Francisco. There is one big lesson from the blackout: Move as quickly as possible to enforce the Raker Act, bring public power to San Francisco, and ensure local reliability and safety from blackouts.