200 words: The Emergency Power Outage and Sewage backups

200 words: The Emergency Power Outage and Sewage backups by Loch David Crane, M. Ed.

    During the blackout, sewage pumping stations  lost power and major spills occurred.  The water supply was also threatened as water pumping stations similarly failed. Do you support investing in backup systems even if it means an increase in fees for residents?

    Of course I support investing in backup systems for water.  I DO NOT feel the city or the citizens of San Diego should pay for these backup systems!  The corporation which designed such a fragile, vulnerable system is responsible.  Yes I believe SDG&E (San Diego Greed and Excess) needs to pay for its backup systems, place them where they cannot be destroyed by a fault line, drowned by a tsunami, or shut down by a lone terrorist.   

     SDG&E also has a layer of fat to remove: the shareholders, who demand profit from each of us!  They made $360 million profit in one year: that’s a dollar a day from every one of you people, all year long – just for PROFIT!  Shareholders should pay for these emergency repairs, then be removed.  Ratepayers should not shoulder these fees.  I ripped into the Public Utility Commission before (on YouTube).  There were NO San Diegans on the PUC board!

    There must be some legal way to take over that  utility monopoly, buy off the shareholders, and lower consumer rates by about a third when you don’t have to feed the rich.  We can ask Michael Shames’ U-CAN  how to save even more!