In a time when the biggest oil spill in United States history has fueled worldwide outcries for alternative energy solutions, one would think that a local project founded on these aspirations would be able to find a business partner.
Not so for the San Francisco public power plan CleanPowerSF, a program expected to allow cities and counties to combine their citizens’ purchasing power so residents and businesses can buy electricity and choose which specific type they prefer to use.
If everything goes as planned, it would also provide customers with another option for an electricity provider besides PG&E. The project’s primary goal is to decrease the Bay Area’s dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear energy in order to be 51% renewable by 2017.
However, those goals will take longer than expected to achieve, as contract negotiations with the company that would help them run the program fell through Monday.
Talks with Power Choice LLC collapsed after the Board of Supervisors refused the consortium’s last-minute proposal to use the city’s credit to borrow up to $400 million to stabilize customer electricity rates.
The city will now spend until at least next spring trying to find another company to replace Power Choice, with hopes that they will be able to get CleanPowerSF started soon after that.
