TRAGESER: Is it time for public energy utility?

By JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Friday, July 11, 2008 6:10 PM PDT ∞

When the first power lines were being strung to homes and businesses in the late 1800s, electrical power was a novelty. Like the telephone that was coming into use around the same time, electricity served no crucial need but was one of the modern marvels that transformed the way we live.

In the years since, electricity has become part and parcel of our lives. From the computers and televisions that keep us informed and entertained, to the refrigerators and stoves that keep our food safe, to the home medical equipment that keeps many of us alive, it's hard to imagine life without electricity.

So perhaps it's time to treat electricty as the indispensible part of modern life that it is. To take its steady delivery as seriously as we do that of water.

As has become quite clear during the ongoing debate about whether to string high-tension power lines through some of the county's last undeveloped wilderness areas, San Diego Gas & Electric is more concerned with ensuring its future profit margins than it is in working toward what's best for our region. That's not a knock, it's simply a statement of reality: SDG&E is a publicly owned corporation. It exists in order to make money for its owners (which could well include me, as I own both an IRA and a 401(k)).

By and large, leaving private enterprises free to pursue their own course results in a better world for the rest of us. Profit motive may not be the ideal way to live, but it does tend to create a healthier economy and more prosperous society than anything else we've yet tried.

But private enterprise isn't the right fit for every challenge in life. We have government agencies in charge of our water supplies and delivery systems, for instance, as well as of keeping our public roads in good repair. It's not that privately held companies aren't capable of doing such things, but their priority is necessarily their own health and well-being, not the common good.

So when some needs are too important, we come together as a community through a public agency and set up a system to handle those needs.

Water. Public education. Our roads and highways.

As mentioned, the current system of having regional electrical monopolies generating and delivering electricity came about through historical accident. There's no reason that electricity can't be competently managed through a local agency. One hesitates to look toward Los Angeles for anything in the way of inspiration on good governance, but the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power has been serving that community's electrical supply for more than a century, with some 4 million users today.

Is the DWP perfect? Of course not (although it has a very strong track record of day-to-day competence).

But because its primary purpose is to serve the area's residents and not to turn a profit, its motivation is likewise different.

Were San Diego to have a publicly owned power utility, the debate over the so-called Sunrise Powerlink line would likely have a far different tenor.

For starters, the utility would actually care about what's best for the region's future, not just what's the quickest, cheapest way to turn a profit, no matter the cost to residents' standard of living or the region we leave to our children.

Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at (760) 740-5408 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.

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