12 comments:

• posted at 2:21 pm on Sun, Apr 26, 2009.

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  dogs4you 18th and shotwell, ring, ringyou know Rocky Cox??

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• posted at 5:36 am on Sun, Apr 26, 2009.

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  Gator, if the Point is the worst place, Filmore Dist. runs a close second. Does 18th and Shotwell along with the Old Homestead ring a bell?

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• posted at 2:18 pm on Sat, Apr 25, 2009.

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  dogs4you, the worst of the worst Hunters point San Francisco!!!

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• posted at 9:28 am on Sat, Apr 25, 2009.

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  Another advantage that municipalities have over PG&E is that they get to cherry pick their customers. They get all the high density, easy to provide for customers. PG&E is required to provide for all the rest. You know, those miles apart country dwellers.

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• posted at 8:28 am on Sat, Apr 25, 2009.

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  Gator, one more thing, my favorite yard now is the one in back of my house. After 33 years in the trenches, I`ll let the new breed take over.

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• posted at 8:04 am on Sat, Apr 25, 2009.

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  Gator, being a gas rat for PG&E I have dug-up many a burn out both on 240 and 12 KV, power off on the 12. The company went direct bury when they first went undergrounding. They found out soon enough that didn`t work. Now everything is in condut. I have the utmost respect for a lineman or hot apprentice on top of a 70' pole belted off when the wind is blowing that pole around. The electric guys would say the gas guys are crazy for working around 60 lbs. of blowing gas. Guess were both a little crazy for doing what we did for a living, both can be very dangerous jobs. The most difficult place to work was SF, a wild and crazy city.

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• posted at 6:51 am on Sat, Apr 25, 2009.

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  Dogs4you, I can tell lots of stories about putting lines back up in snow storms and in floods. Working lot’s of hours repairing underground lines that every one thinks thatare so great (Horse S***)Driving up to a site on Ryer Island and seeing 15 poles downFrom a wind storm… 32 great years I wouldn’t trade for anything!!! My favorite yard?Garberville California!!

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• posted at 6:34 am on Sat, Apr 25, 2009.

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  PG&E also pays Lodi a franchise tax, for every foot of gas pipe in the ground a tax is paid. Stockton receives millions of dollars from the company every year as part of that franchised tax. One reason Stockton chose to keep PG&E as their electric provider. The company also pays for the licence plate tag on all their vehicles, not excempt like the city and state vehicle`s, and is regulated by the CPUC, where as Lodi and other small cities can raise rates anytime they feel it is necessary.

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• posted at 6:23 am on Sat, Apr 25, 2009.

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  Concerning PG&E, the company just went back into the power producing business with the most effecent plant in the country.Observer, you speak of layers of bureaucracy and PG&E in the same sentence. Stopping to consider the company servers millions of customer`s in both gas and electric. Big company, lots of paper work. As opposed to Lodi which is flat, and only electric customers. The company works in all kinds of weather, in the mountains during snow storms and has the resource`s to handle any situation.

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• posted at 4:31 am on Sat, Apr 25, 2009.

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  Lodi was reported to have one of the highest electric rates in the country, why??? I find itHard to believe as Municipalities receive a lot of breaks. The can buy power at a cheaperRate, they pay no property Tax, the pay no vehicle registration fees, why? Well you do in the Form of state taxes. PG&E has a an annual property tax bill that runs in the millionsand vehicle registration bill in the millions…On the plus side their continuity of service isoutstanding, their Transmission grid is one of the very best in the country. They run the safest most efficient Nuclear power plant in the country…Question Observer with a localOffice why would you feel the need to deal with Corporate???

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• posted at 3:35 am on Sat, Apr 25, 2009.

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  I believe it would be foolish to judge the utility based on it's performance for the past three years. For the many, many years I have lived here the City of Lodi rates have been significantly lower than PG&E's for most of those years. If you think it is difficult working with your local providers just wait until you have to deal with PG&E's corporate office in San Francisco. You want to talk about layers of bureaucracy, there you have it.

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• posted at 3:09 am on Sat, Apr 25, 2009.

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  It's a good start, but in Lodi, the average useable sun hours per day ranges between 3 and 6 hours depending on cloud cover and seasonal variation. Tying the solar energy produced electricity to the power grid is the most efficient, but this implies that our local distribution system and finances are efficient as well. Even if Lodi has a 30% increase in solar panels (I don't see this in the near future), if we don't bring efficiency to how we market our power in Lodi, we won't see any differences. In other words, we need to streamline our electric department bureaucracy so our rates are competitive with PG&E. That was the original idea supporting an independent Lodi electricity utility. Lodi is no longer economically efficient. If it were, our electric rates would be lower. Thats how efficiency is measured in capital markets. In most of Lodi, its a government owned monopoly that is out of control. We need a professional manager to find out where the problems are that makes us inefficient for the market. Why are Lodi electric rates markedly higher than surrounding communities?

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