One hundred and five years ago, in 1918, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 465 sat down with San Diego Gas & Electric and hammered out the first major wage agreement for workers who built, maintained, and operated San Diego’s developing electric system.
That was the beginning of an extraordinary partnership between SDG&E and IBEW 465 that has resulted in the most reliable electric grid in the West for 17 years straight.
SDG&E’s partnership with labor and local public safety agencies to pioneer cutting-edge wildfire safety innovations has also helped protect our region from catastrophic wildfires.
Grid reliability and wildfire safety are fundamental to our region’s economic prosperity, public health and safety. For that reason, residents of San Diego should seriously consider the significant risks associated with the city’s current efforts to explore the feasibility of municipalization.
This is process whereby the city would acquire the electric infrastructure that serves San Diego and operate its own electric utility, independent from SDG&E. The debate over the pros and cons of public power is again flaring up due to the city’s recently released feasibility study.
Bottomline, municipalization would upend more than a century of hard work, progress and successful community partnership while endangering the city’s financial stability and potentially even slow down its efforts to meet its net zero goals.
Municipalization comes with enormous risks and costs, while the benefits are extremely uncertain, as research has shown. As we look at attempted municipalization efforts across the country, what we’ve seen is that the public utility formation process is costly and time-consuming, often taking close to a decade. In a vast majority of the cases, the efforts failed.
The most common argument in favor of municipalization is that it would result in lower rates and energy bills for the public. Unfortunately, this argument ignores the billions of dollars the city would have to spend to acquire the electric infrastructure — power poles, power lines, substations, transformers, and more. The city would have to finance the acquisition and startup costs with taxpayer funds to create its own energy utility, while the city already has its hands full with running its own water utility.
Municipalization would require the city to issue billions of dollars in bonds that would saddle generations of San Diego taxpayers with enormous debt payments that extend far into the future before any promised benefits would materialize, if they ever materialize.
What’s even more concerning is that the municipalization debate is taking place when there are more urgent issues the city should be addressing than attempting the largest, most expensive electric grid takeover in modern history. Working families expect and deserve the city’s full attention on housing they can afford, streets that are free of potholes, safe communities, and quality libraries, parks, and recreation centers.
If the cost of municipalization does not give you pause, consider the impact this effort would have on the 4,700-plus San Diegans who work day in and day out to deliver the kind of reliable service that local families, businesses and communities across the region can count on 24/7/365, even at the height of a world pandemic.
Before COVID vaccines became available, under an agreement negotiated between SDG&E and IBEW 465, rotating teams of grid operators were isolated from their families for weeks at a time, living in RVs onsite at work, to keep the lights on.
Our labor agreements have provided thousands of stable middle-class jobs for generations of San Diegans, expanded job training opportunities, and brought many other economic benefits to the region. We’ve also collectively accelerated the clean energy future to address the growing threat of climate change and help advance the city’s net zero goals.
Our region leads the nation in advancing a clean energy future. The existential climate crisis requires enormous investments in our energy infrastructure to integrate the unprecedented need of renewable energy successfully and safely. Any disruption — including launching a public power utility — could jeopardize this progress.
Municipalization also puts highly skilled middle-class jobs on the chopping block — union busting 101. If the city were to establish its own utility, there is no guarantee that our jobs would carry over from SDG&E.
We ask the residents of San Diego to consider if this effort to municipalize is truly in our best interests. After careful consideration of the facts, the clear the answer is “no.”
Nate Fairman is the Business Manager and Financial Secretary for IBEW Local 465. Blain Adams-Denner is a transmission system operator at SDG&E and member of Local 465.
