THEN & NOW: July 20th news from 5, 10, and 20 years ago

“Alameda County Becomes First In Bay Area To Ban Fracking”

Alameda County became the first Bay Area county to ban the controversial practice of fracking on Tuesday, reaching a compromise between environmental advocates and an existing oil producer in the Livermore area.

There are not currently any fracking operations in the county, but county staff reports indicated there is interest in extracting oil and gas from the Monterey Shale Formation, portions of which may lie under Alameda County land.

Fracking is the process of extracting oil and gas from the earth using high-pressure water mixtures. Activists have raised concerns it could cause environmental damage such as ground water contamination.

“I am deeply relieved that the Board of Supervisors passed the fracking ban,” anti-fracking activist Karen White said in a statement after Tuesday’s vote. “We’ve taken a step that will protect everyone in Alameda County, especially our children and grandchildren, from toxic chemicals.”

The ban comes after the county reached a compromise with its lone oil generator, E&B Natural Resources. The company operates 25 oil and gas fields in four states, including one east of Livermore that produces about 1,000 barrels a month.

E&B raised concerns that a draft version of the ordinance would make it difficult for the company to dispose of wastewater, to use dilute acid in routine maintenance, and would make it costly and difficult for it to prove it didn’t violate the new rules.

The company has never done any fracking there and has no plans to do any, according to a letter sent to the supervisors in February from E&B vice president of land Gary Richardson. But Richardson said the original draft of the ordinance would interfere with its existing business.

The county made adjustments in the language to account for E&B’s concerns, and today Amy Roth, a spokeswoman for E&B, said the company can work with the current version of the legislation.

Environmental activists are seeking county-by-county bans, having thus far been unable to achieve a statewide ban. Monterey County will vote on whether to ban fracking this November, according to the environmental group Food and Water Watch.

“As we take the fight against fracking to Monterey, I feel safe going home at the end of the day knowing I’ll never have to worry about toxic fracking chemicals in my drinking water,” said Ella Teevan, an organizer with Food and Water Watch who lives in Oakland.

“State Regulators Approve PG&E Smart Meter Deployment“

The California Public Utilities Commission approved today Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s plan to install 9.3 million “SmartMeters” that will eliminate the need for meter readers throughout its service area.

PG&E’s $1.7 billion SmartMeters investment will begin with installation of the high-tech meters in Bakersfield this fall and will be completed systemwide in 2011.

“This technology empowers customers with better information and the ability to make cost-saving choices about the way they use energy. It also gives PG&E new rapid-response capabilities to restore service following an outage, as well as enhanced abilities to assist customers when they phone our call centers,” said Tom King, PG&E’s chief executive officer.

The SmartMeters transmit energy usage data hourly to the PG&E network and allow the utility to pinpoint power outage size and location more quickly. The technology also allows meters to be read electronically through transmitters on power poles.

Customers also will have online access to daily information about their energy use and the new meters will allow customers to voluntarily take advantage of electricity prices that vary by season and time of day, PG&E said.

Customers can reduce their bills by shifting their energy use from expensive peak to cheaper off-peak periods through time-of-use pricing. The company says that will allow it to reduce its need to purchase power to meet demand at the most critical times, help avoid a strain on the power grid and reduce reliance on fossil fuel generation.

The CPUC also approved PG&E’s proposal to offer customers a “Critical Peak Pricing” option. Residential customers who enroll in the program can reduce their electricity rates by nearly 3 cents per kilowatt hour between June 1 and Sept. 30 during non-critical peak pricing events, PG&E said.

During a Critical Peak Pricing event, residential customers will pay a 60-cent per kilowatt hour surcharge in addition to their regular rates for energy used between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Enrolled business customers would pay a 75-cent per kilowatt hour surcharge for energy used between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. The number of Critical Peak Pricing events would be limited to 15 per year and only between May 1 and Oct. 31, but would typically occur only on the hottest days of summer, PG&E said.

A typical Critical Peak Pricing customer who reduces energy usage by about 25 percent just during designated hours will save about 10 percent on electric bills during the four-month summer rate period, PG&E officials said. The program will be available next spring.

PG&E estimates only about 15 percent of its customers will need to enroll in the Critical Peak Pricing program for the SmartMeters program to offset 10 percent of its projected cost.

To fund SmartMeters installation, PG&E is seeking a rate increase that will cost the average residential customer with gas and electric service between 49 cents and 99 cents per month for the first five years, or about 1 percent, and will decrease each year afterward.

The Utility Reform Network, TURN, immediately criticized the CPUC’s approval today, claiming it will cost customers billions of dollars more to install and maintain the SmartMeters in customers’ homes.

“Installation and upkeep of the meters comes with a high price tag, but the benefits associated with the use of the meters have not been proven,” TURN spokeswoman Mindy Spatt said.

She said PG&E also is asking for an average $5 per month general rate increase for residential customers, a request the CPUC is to decide before the end of the year.

TURN Executive Director Bob Finkelstein said, “TURN supports programs that conserve energy and save consumers money. These meters do neither.”

He said air-conditioner cycling programs attack peak usage directly and save energy and money and have proven to be cost-effective.

Finkelstein said large commercial customers have already been given SmartMeters at taxpayers’ expense but have failed to appreciably reduce load since then.

“If large customers haven’t changed their energy usage substantially in response to so-called price signals, it is hard to imagine that the typical household will be able to,” Finkelstein said.

PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said the company’s 900 meter readers in its Northern and Central California service area will be phased out over five years and offered retraining or a severance package. The company said it has reached an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the union that represents the meter readers, that provides ways for meter readers to find other work within PG&E.

Moreno said meter reading has a high attrition rate and is regarded as a stepping stone to other employment opportunities within PG&E and that 40 percent of the company’s workforce is scheduled to retire in the next five years. The company plans to hire and train temporary union workers to read meters until the SmartMeters are installed, Moreno said.

The company has 5.1 million electricity and 4.2 million gas customers and is adding “tens of thousands of new customers each year,” Moreno said.