The sorriest thing about Prop 16 (the New Two Thirds Requirement for Local Public Electricity Act) is that it demonstrates the brute force of corporate money over our lives. Today, I received an e-mail with videos opposing Prop 16; they were the voices of ordinary people speaking for the interests of citizens. The email asked us to show these videos in homes because the opposition couldn’t afford to buy media time.
In contrast, PG&E, the sole funder of this proposition, has a war chest of $35 million. It could afford to pay professional teams to collect the thousands of signatures required to place this measure on the ballot and then to constantly broadcast its misleading television ads.
This measure only serves the interest of PG&E. If passed, Prop 16 will raise the threshold for competition to PG&E from a simple majority to a two thirds majority, thus essentially granting PG&E a monopoly. It doesn’t matter how attractive alternative utility programs are and will become in the future. They will not, realistically, be for us.
Prop 16 is not just about our utility bills or the right to choose green energy; it’s about the use of corporate money to wield political power over people. This is what the death of a democracy looks like.
