{"id":69,"date":"2019-11-15T00:49:32","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T00:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/?p=69"},"modified":"2026-01-17T18:33:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:33:06","slug":"why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Public Should Own Our Electric Utilities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<form action=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/cgi-bin\/webscr\" method=\"post\" target=\"_top\">\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"cmd\" value=\"_s-xclick\" \/>\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"hosted_button_id\" value=\"MEX33C5PM785Y\" \/>\n<input type=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.paypalobjects.com\/en_US\/i\/btn\/btn_donateCC_LG.gif\" border=\"0\" name=\"submit\" title=\"PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!\" alt=\"Donate with PayPal button\" \/>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.paypal.com\/en_US\/i\/scr\/pixel.gif?resize=1%2C1&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/>\n<\/form>\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why the Public Should Own Our Electric Utilities\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uaDKa7liB4k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p> By Glen Anderson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(Originally published in a downloadable document <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/parallaxperspectives.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/2019.06-Summary-of-Publicly-Owned-Electric-Utilities-interview.docx\"><em>here<\/em><\/a><em>. Reposted by permission of Glen Anderson.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The June 2019 interview on \u201cGlen\u2019s Parallax Perspectives\u201d explores the many benefits of having the public own our electric utilities instead of letting big business own them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People\ntypically think about \u201cdemocracy\u201d in terms of government.  But\nwhy not also have democracy in how we run our economy?  Why can\u2019t\nour economic institutions \u2013 such as our electric utility \u2013\nrespond to the will of the voters?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Voters\ncan choose to have local governments own and operate our electric\nutilities.  Dozens of cities and counties in Washington State have\nlong, successful track records of using publicly owned utilities to\nprovide reliable, low-cost electricity to their people.  These\nutilities are accountable to the voters instead of sending money away\nto distant stockholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>During\nthis hour, two knowledgeable guests explain the enormous differences\nbetween utilities that are owned by giant private corporations vs.\nutilities that are owned democratically by the public.  <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Randal\n\tSamstag<\/strong>\n\tis a highly experienced and respected expert in engineering related\n\tto water quality.  Randal has helped people in many parts of the\n\tworld with engineering for sewage treatment and other technical\n\tmatters, including air pollution.  He has conducted research for the\n\t\u201cIsland Power\u201d campaign, which has worked to create a publicly\n\towned electric utility in Bainbridge Island WA.\n\t<\/li><li><strong>Steve\n\tJohnson<\/strong>\n\tunderstands public power very thoroughly, especially public power\u2019s\n\tsuccessful history in Washington State.  Steve was the Executive\n\tDirector of the Washington Public Utility Districts Association. \n\tAlso he is a grandfather who cares deeply about having a sustainable\n\tclimate for future generations.  He knows that public power can help\n\tprotect the climate.\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"> <strong>How do publicly owned utilities differ from those owned by Big Business?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nsaid converting to a publicly owned electric utility is not as\ndifficult as people might think.  He interviewed two guests who\nexplained the advantages clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nJohnson has many years of professional experience working with\npublicly owned electric utilities.  He summarized the spirit of\npublic power by first emphasizing the power of democratic control. \nHe said electricity is one of the necessities for modern life, so we\nmust figure out how to provide and control it.  He said publicly\nowned electric utilities can do that democratically, so customers can\ncontrol it locally and keep their costs low.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randal showed the viewers a slide summarizing what public power is, and Steve summarized and commented on it.  He said that Washington State has a rich history of public power and among the 50 states Washington is the second most reliant on publicly owned electric utilities.  It has the most diverse kinds of these utilities, including Public Utility Districts (PUDs), city-owned utilities, rural cooperatives, and some irrigation districts that provide electricity.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"692\" height=\"436\" data-attachment-id=\"71\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/annotation-2019-11-14-163132\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163132.png?fit=692%2C436&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"692,436\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Annotation-2019-11-14-163132\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163132.png?fit=692%2C436&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163132.png?resize=692%2C436\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-71\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163132.png?w=692&amp;ssl=1 692w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163132.png?resize=300%2C189&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 692px) 100vw, 692px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\nSteve\nexplained that the federal government\u2019s Bonneville Power\nAdministration (BPA) has been a crucial support for producing and\ndistributing public power in the Pacific Northwest.  The BPA operates\n28 dams on the Columbia and Snake River system and receives power\nfrom one nuclear plant at Hanford WA.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Although\nwe did not discuss the Hanford nuclear power plant, people need to\nknow that it\u2019s basically the same design as the plants that\ncontaminated Fukushima, Japan.  See the TV interview and read the\nthorough summary of that TV program at this link: \n<a href=\"http:\/\/parallaxperspectives.org\/tv-fukushima-hanford-and-dangers-of-living-near-nuclear-radiation\"><strong>http:\/\/parallaxperspectives.org\/tv-fukushima-hanford-and-dangers-of-living-near-nuclear-radiation<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nBPA is provides all or nearly all of the electricity for the 62\npublicly owned electric utilities in Washington State.  Steve\nexplained that BPA and these utilities enjoy a partnership\nrelationship that enormously helps the local utilities.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nadded that he has talked with experienced people who appreciate BPA\nfor being very helpful.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This\ntopic is timely now for people in the Olympia area because local\nfolks are organizing for the City of Olympia to own and operate a\nmunicipal electric utility here to replace Puget Sound Energy (PSE)\nwithin the city limits.  Organizers plan to educate the public and\ngather enough signatures from Olympia\u2019s voters during the middle\npart of 2020 in order to qualify for a city-wide initiative for the\nNovember 2020 ballot.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PSE\nused to be owned by many American stockholders with headquarters in\nBellevue, Washington, but now it is owned by an even more huge\ncorporation owned by rich stockholders in other countries, and it is\nbeing sold to other foreign owners.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nsaid replacing PSE with a city-owned electric utility would be good\nfor democracy because we do not get to elect the board of directors\nof the giant business corporation that owns PSE and operates it\nwithout our participation, but we do get to vote for the Olympia City\nCouncil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said many of the organizers for a municipal utility care about the climate crisis and are eager to get away from the fossil fuels that PSE burns and quickly changed to carbon-free electricity.  (We discussed this later in the interview.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>History and variety of publicly owned electric utilities in Washington State:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nSteve\nhad worked as the Executive Director of the Washington Public Utility\nDistricts Association, and he knows a lot about the history and\nextent of publicly owned electric utilities statewide.  Glen asked\nhim to summarize the very long and successful history of publicly\nowned electric utilities in Washington State.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nsaid the rich history of public power goes back more than a century\nago when a battleship visiting Tacoma used its dynamo to provide\nelectricity for some of Tacoma\u2019s street lights.  Tacoma was the\nfirst city here to create a real municipal electric utility:  \u201cTacoma\nPower.\u201d  [Their website says they began in 1893.]  Steve said that\nin addition to buying BPA\u2019s power, Tacoma Power also has created\nits own projects for generating electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nsaid public power grew rapidly in the 1930s.  The Great Depression\nwas underway.  Rural areas were not being served by the\ninvestor-owned utilities that provided electricity for some areas. \nHe said that in 1929 only about 19% of farms had electricity.  He\nsaid the Grange [a rural grassroots organization] wanted to do what\nsome of the cities were doing, so in 1932 they passed an initiative\nthat created a powerful state law allowing Public Utility Districts\n(PUDs) to be created.  He said now there are 29 PUDs in Washington\nState.  Collectively, these PUDs are the largest customer of the BPA,\nwith virtually 100% carbon-free power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nsaid that in 2012 people within Thurston County organized a campaign\nto put onto the November 2012 county-wide ballot a proposal to\nauthorize Thurston County\u2019s PUD to seriously consider providing\nelectricity county-wide in addition to the water utility services it\nprovides for a few small areas.  He said the grassroots campaign had\nvolunteers but almost no money, so PSE threw huge amounts of money\ninto their propaganda campaign to defeat the ballot issue.  Even so,\nthe supporters won about 40% of the vote.  He said some of the same\nvolunteers \u2013 along with new people \u2013 are working in 2019 to put\nonto the November 2020 ballot for Olympia a proposal for the City to\ncreate a publicly owned electric utility for within city limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nadded that this is a common pattern.  He said Springfield, Oregon,\ntried three times to create their municipal electric utility.  The\nsucceeded on their third try.  He said that educating the public is a\nbig part of the effort.  Glen agreed and said this TV interview is an\nearly start at that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randal showed a visual image summarizing public power\u2019s record of success.  He said Steve created the contents of this image and emphasizes that no public power utility has ever failed or reverted to private ownership.  People save money through public power partly because corporations that own utilities rake 10% off the top for profits.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"670\" height=\"453\" data-attachment-id=\"72\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/annotation-2019-11-14-163224-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163224-2.png?fit=670%2C453&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"670,453\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Annotation-2019-11-14-163224-2\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163224-2.png?fit=670%2C453&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163224-2.png?resize=670%2C453\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-72\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163224-2.png?w=670&amp;ssl=1 670w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163224-2.png?resize=300%2C203&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p> Next, Randal showed slides about publicly owned electric utilities in Tacoma (a big city) and Steilacoom (a small community next to Tacoma).   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"673\" height=\"417\" data-attachment-id=\"73\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/annotation-2019-11-14-163303-3\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163303-3.png?fit=673%2C417&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"673,417\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Annotation-2019-11-14-163303-3\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163303-3.png?fit=673%2C417&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163303-3.png?resize=673%2C417\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-73\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163303-3.png?w=673&amp;ssl=1 673w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163303-3.png?resize=300%2C186&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 673px) 100vw, 673px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p> Steve said he grew up near Steilacoom.  He said the electric utility is old and has 2,800 customers but only 6 employees and serves its customers with excellent reliability and very low rates.  Steilacoom Electric buys all of its power from BPA and has \u201cmutual aid agreements\u201d with other publicly owned utilities, so they help each other in case of storm damage, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"435\" data-attachment-id=\"74\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/annotation-2019-11-14-163336-4\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163336-4.png?fit=682%2C435&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"682,435\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Annotation-2019-11-14-163336-4\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163336-4.png?fit=682%2C435&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163336-4.png?resize=682%2C435\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-74\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163336-4.png?w=682&amp;ssl=1 682w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163336-4.png?resize=300%2C191&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He said that PSE claims that its big size creates \u201ceconomies of scale,\u201d but actually Steilacoom Electric is very small and very efficient, with very low rates.  PSE\u2019s rates are \u2013 on average \u2013 25% higher than rates of public power utilities, and PSE\u2019s reliability record is much worse than public utilities\u2019 reliability.  PSE\u2019s claim of \u201ceconomies of scale\u201d is bogus.  Publicly owned electric utilities \u2013 even small ones \u2013 emphasize quality service to customers and low non-profit rates.  They are really close to their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nWe\nbriefly discussed these public utilities\u2019 \u201cmutual aid\nagreements.\u201d  They help each other out when storms occur.  Steve\nsaid that recently a big storm was forecasted for Jefferson County,\nso their new PUD arranged for help from other publicly owned electric\nutilities.  He said that the PUD manager told him that they had\nalready pre-positioned two crews from Lewis County\u2019s PUD, a long\ndistance away, because the storm was not heading toward Lewis County.\n Also, publicly owned utilities loan equipment to each other when\nneeded.  Steve said that, in effect, the collaboration among them\namounts to \u201ca vast virtual large utility supporting each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We briefly mentioned another kind of small publicly owned electric utility:  cooperatives that are owned and operated by their members.  Although not governmental entities, they are publicly owned.  Several exist in parts of Pierce County, the next county north of Olympia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A local publicly owned electric utility would offer lower rates than PSE:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p> Glen asked Randal and Steve to discuss some of the reasons why a local publicly owned electric utility would offer lower rates than PSE.  Randal showed this image based on research he did.  He visited the websites of 48 utilities in Washington State that publish their rates every year.  Our two guests are working to create a publicly owned utility for Bainbridge Island WA, so Randal said he researched the electric rates for the average amount of electricity used by Bainbridge Island\u2019s households.  This graph shows that PSE\u2019s regular rates and their \u201cgreen\u201d rates are among the highest in the state.  PSE\u2019s high rates disprove their propaganda that this huge company\u2019s \u201ceconomies of scale\u201d make it efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"925\" height=\"695\" data-attachment-id=\"75\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/annotation-2019-11-14-163456-5\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163456-5.png?fit=925%2C695&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"925,695\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Annotation-2019-11-14-163456-5\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163456-5.png?fit=925%2C695&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163456-5.png?resize=925%2C695\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-75\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163456-5.png?w=925&amp;ssl=1 925w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163456-5.png?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163456-5.png?resize=768%2C577&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163456-5.png?resize=678%2C509&amp;ssl=1 678w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163456-5.png?resize=326%2C245&amp;ssl=1 326w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163456-5.png?resize=80%2C60&amp;ssl=1 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 925px) 100vw, 925px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nsaid that if Olympia\u2019s voters have the opportunity to have our city\nbuy out PSE\u2019s operations here, Olympia\u2019s new city-owned utility\nwould figure out how much to charge for electricity.  He asked how\nOlympia\u2019s municipal utility rates would compare with the rates PSE\ncharges us now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nsaid that in 2008 Jefferson County\u2019s people bought out the PSE\nassets there and created a publicly owned electric utility, the\nJefferson County PUD.  The new PUD kept their rates constant with\nwhat PSE had been charging.  The rates could not immediately drop\nbecause they needed to pay for the assets.  This is like when a\nperson who rents their house buys a house and needs to pay off the\nmortgage.  In the long run it makes smart economic sense, even if you\ndon\u2019t save money right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jefferson\nCounty\u2019s PUD added some programs to better serve their local\ncommunity, reduce rates for seniors, improve conservation and\nrenewable energy activities, and create job opportunities for local\npeople, including young people graduating from high school.  Better\nservice is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve repeated than when the mortgage is paid down, the rates will become better than PSE\u2019s rates, especially as PSE\u2019s rates continue to increase over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A local publicly owned utility would keep our money in the local community:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nsaid that PSE is owned by a giant corporation that has been based in\nAustralia for a decade and now will be based in Canada and elsewhere.\n PSE sucks millions of dollars out of our local community every year\nand sends our money away to foreign owners.  If the people in our\nlocal community owned our own electric utility we would keep our\nmoney circulating here in our local economy.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randal\nsaid that a utility owned by the public \u2013 rather than private\ninvestors \u2013 would qualify for cheaper Tier 1 rates from BPA, which\nwould be the cheapest possible rate.  He said this wholesale rate\nwould be cheaper than what we pay now, even apart from the profit\nthat PSE adds on top of it, and apart from taking money out of the\nlocal economy.  Puget Sound Energy used to be owned by stockholders\nin the U.S., but a decade ago it was sold to a giant hedge fund based\nin Australia, and \u2013 as often happens in such cases \u2013 the hedge\nfund sells it off after a while.  Now it will be owned by a Canadian\npension fund and a Dutch hedge fund.  PSE \u2013 besides charging more\nfor electricity \u2013 also charges our local customers a 10% return on\ninvestment.  He said we could save money by investing in our own\nsystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nadded that keeping money in our local community is important.  Some\nof the money local people pay to PSE goes to its operations based in\nBellevue WA and other places, in addition to going overseas.  He said\nPSE contracts most of its line work to other companies, but a locally\nowned utility could hire its own local employees to do the work and\nkeep the money circulating here.  He said PSE had only two people\nworking on the lines for all of Jefferson County, but the Jefferson\nCounty PUD has 40 employees from the local community for lines,\nbilling, etc.  They are serving the community and earning family-wage\nincomes that stay in the local community.  The PUD has a local high\nschool internship program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nsaid this is \u201ca whole different mind-set.  It\u2019s not just\nextracting money as profit.  It\u2019s the community building its own\nself as a community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randal added that now people can graduate from high school or community college and immediately earn a family-wage income.  This is altogether different from PSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A local publicly owned electric utility would be accountable to voters:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nsaid people in our local community are passionate about democracy. \nPeople want to elect people to serve us.  When something here goes\ncontrary to that spirit of democracy, local people demand a good,\nhonest democracy.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, we do not get to elect the board of directors of the giant corporation that owns and manages PSE from some other country.  But we do get to elect our own city council members, and counties with PUDs get to elect their PUD commissioners.  This is a huge difference in accountability!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Local publicly owned utilities provide better reliability and quicker recovery:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nsaid that we have mentioned reliability as an important issue, and\nnow we can discuss it further.  Many people throughout PSE\u2019s\nservice area complain that PSE\u2019s reliability is terrible.  The\npower goes out more often than it should \u2013 and when the power does\ngo out, PSE is very slow in bringing it back.  He said his brother\nwho lived in a nice middle-class residential neighborhood in Kirkland\nwent without power for a whole week because PSE was so slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randal showed a graph about PSE\u2019s terrible reliability compared to public power utilities.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"772\" height=\"621\" data-attachment-id=\"76\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/annotation-2019-11-14-163544-6\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163544-6.png?fit=772%2C621&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"772,621\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Annotation-2019-11-14-163544-6\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163544-6.png?fit=772%2C621&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163544-6.png?resize=772%2C621\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-76\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163544-6.png?w=772&amp;ssl=1 772w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163544-6.png?resize=300%2C241&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163544-6.png?resize=768%2C618&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 772px) 100vw, 772px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\nRandal\nexplained that the graph shows how many average minutes of outage per\ncustomer of several different utilities.  The first <strong>red<\/strong>\ncolumn is for PSE\u2019s customers in Kitsap County, the second red\ncolumn is for PSE\u2019s customers in Thurston County, and the third red\ncolumn is the average for PSE\u2019s customers throughout all counties\nthat it serves.    \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\n<strong>blue<\/strong>\ncolumns on the right half of the graph are for four publicly owned\nutilities in Western Washington.  PSE refused to provide its\ninformation, so Randal had to file a public records request through\nthe Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC), the\nstate agency that regulates investor-owned utilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nsaid that where he lives, PSE\u2019s reliability is so bad that nearly\neverybody owns a generator so they\u2019ll have electricity when PSE\nfails to provide it.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nsaid that he grew up in Snohomish County, which has a PUD (one of the\nblue columns to the right in Randal\u2019s graph), and remembers that\nthe electricity almost never went out, and if it did it was restored\npromptly.  Glen said he has lived in PSE territory for decades now,\nand the power goes out very often and stays out too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nshared a recent experience of PSE\u2019s terrible negligence in Lacey,\nwhere he lives.  The City of Lacey has an excellent record of\npromptly fixing hazards in the public right-of-way.  He said that\nwhen he has phoned to ask the City to repair hazards, the City has\nfixed them the very next day.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nsaid he lives near a busy street that bends arounds a corner with\npoor visibility.  Traffic goes too quickly around that bend.  A\nstreet light at the intersection there burned out, so he phoned\nLacey\u2019s city government to ask for a quick repair of that safety\nhazard.  The staffer said the street light is on a pole owned by PSE,\nso the City was not allowed to repair it, and I\u2019d have to call PSE.\n I called PSE and asked for a repair.  A whole week went by with no\nrepair, so Glen phoned the WUTC and also used the internet to file a\nformal complaint with the WUTC.  This is what finally forced PSE to\nrepair it a few days later.  Also, the WUTC phoned and e-mailed him\nto make sure the repair was done correctly.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nsaid the state agency took good care of him, but PSE was negligent. \nIf the City of Olympia were to create a publicly owned electric\nutility, the City would focus on service, as our guests have\nexplained, and the City would hire competent experienced local\nemployees familiar with our lines and substations and able to fix\nproblems promptly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nsaid he worked for PUDs for 23 years and also attended City Council\nmeetings to deal with these kinds of issues.  He said local\ngovernments really are responsive.  Elected officials want to be\nre-elected, so they serve the public well.  Also, the public can\nspeak to local governments\u2019 meetings, but we can\u2019t speak at the\nboard meetings of the giant company that owns PSE.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said publicly owned utilities emphasize good quality service, but PSE\u2019s main priority is to avoid spending money.  Corporations focus on money, but publicly owned utilities focus on service to customers.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"> <strong>A local publicly owned electric utility would provide clean energy for our environment and climate:<\/strong> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nsaid converting from fossil fuels to clean energy is a huge factor in\nmotivating local volunteers to have the City of Olympia buy out PSE\u2019s\nlocal operations.  Both Randal and Steve are concerned about PSE\u2019s\nhuge carbon footprint.  PSE burns a huge amount of coal, and when the\nstate eventually forces PSE to stop burning coal, PSE wants to change\nto natural gas, which also is very bad for the climate.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randal showed and explained a graph showing the huge amount of carbon pollution for each of PSE\u2019s customers.  He said each of the 65 electric utilities in Washington State is required to report its fuel mix to the Washington State Dept. of Commerce.  Those fuel mix reports become available about two years after the year for which the utility is reporting.  He showed a graph using 2016\u2019s data.  He converted the data to carbon pollution based on the EPA\u2019s emission factors.  PSE produces the largest amount of carbon pollution among all 65 utilities in Washington State.  He divided the data by the number of each utility\u2019s customers and found that in 2016 PSE produced 15 times more carbon pollution per customer than publicly owned electric utilities did.  The image we showed on the TV screen is showed here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"990\" height=\"732\" data-attachment-id=\"77\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/annotation-2019-11-14-163634-7\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163634-7.png?fit=990%2C732&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"990,732\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Annotation-2019-11-14-163634-7\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163634-7.png?fit=990%2C732&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163634-7.png?resize=990%2C732\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-77\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163634-7.png?w=990&amp;ssl=1 990w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163634-7.png?resize=300%2C222&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163634-7.png?resize=768%2C568&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163634-7.png?resize=80%2C60&amp;ssl=1 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 990px) 100vw, 990px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p> Next we showed Randal\u2019s pie charts comparing PSE\u2019s use of fossil fuels in comparison to public power utilities that are almost entirely fossil-free.  The pie chart on the left shows that 59% of PSE\u2019s electricity is generated by fossil fuels (37% from burning coal, and 22% from burning natural gas).  Randal said \u201cnatural gas\u201d is the euphemism for methane, which is very bad for the climate.  In sharp contrast, the pie chart on the right shows that less than 2 \u00bd% of Jefferson County PUD\u2019s electricity comes from fossil fuels, while 87% comes from hydropower.  Randal said he used EPA\u2019s emission factors for these graphs.  The process of extracting and working with methane entails problems beyond the emissions from eventually burning it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"670\" data-attachment-id=\"78\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/annotation-2019-11-14-163724-8\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163724-8.png?fit=1121%2C733&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1121,733\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Annotation-2019-11-14-163724-8\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163724-8.png?fit=1024%2C670&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163724-8-1024x670.png?resize=1024%2C670\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-78\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163724-8.png?resize=1024%2C670&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163724-8.png?resize=300%2C196&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163724-8.png?resize=768%2C502&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163724-8.png?w=1121&amp;ssl=1 1121w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nsaid, \u201c59% of PSE\u2019s electricity comes from burning fossil fuels,\nand PSE wants to continue doing that as long as they possibly can. \nThe State has a new 100% Clean Energy Act, and that means that by the\nyear 2030, PSE will still be 20% fueled by fossil fuels, and when\nthey are <strong>forced<\/strong>\nto shut down coal, they want to convert to natural gas, which is\nmethane, and just continue right along destroying the climate.  The\nvalue of getting away from PSE and getting into a locally owned\nelectric utility (a PUD or city-owned utility) is that we could\nswitch to fossil-free electricity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randal\nsaid PSE\u2019s marketing technique for \u201cgreen power\u201d claims they\nwill be 50% carbon-free by 2040.  But what PSE does not tell people\nis that their Integrated Resource Plan, which they produced in 2017\nfor the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, says they\nwill be producing almost as much carbon pollution in 2035 as they are\ntoday.  He said PSE will have to do something different in order to\ncomply with the new 100% clean energy law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nsaid Washington State is leading the other 49 states by passing the\n2019 law for 100% clean energy.  This new law will force\ninvestor-owned utilities such as PSE to reduce their carbon\npollution.  The transition will be difficult and take a long time. \nIn sharp contrast, he said, Jefferson County\u2019s voters moved from\nPSE to nearly carbon-free power within just five years after they had\nvoted for it.  He said people in the Olympia area could transition\nquickly by creating our own locally owned electric utility.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nalso said he thinks PSE will find ways to push back against the new\n100% clean energy law.  Also, he said, PSE will have to pay a lot of\nmoney to transition away from dirty energy, and PSE will pass those\ncosts along to their customers.  This means PSE will be increasing\nits rates, so the gap between PSE\u2019s expensive electricity and\npublicly owned low-cost utilities will widen.  Public power will\nbecome an even greater bargain compared to PSE.  Local communities\nneed to commit to clean power and save money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nsharply contrasted our local community from PSE\u2019s foreign owners. \nHe said, \u201cThe ethics, the environmental commitment, the interest\nand concern for the climate are all much greater here in our local\ncommunity than in a giant corporation\u2019s board room in a foreign\ncountry.  If we have a publicly owned local utility here, the people\n\u2013 the voters \u2013 the local governments \u2013 will push further for\nclean, renewable energy, solar, wind,\u201d and so forth.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nsaid some people elsewhere have wanted their locally owned utilities\nto provide high quality broadband internet throughout their entire\ncommunities.  \u201cIf the public owns our electric utilities, they will\nbe as responsive and as forward-thinking as the people of our\ncommunities are.\u201d  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve added that some of the locally owned utilities in Washington State are already providing broadband.  He said this is easy because they already own the poles and they already have relationships with customers, so stringing broadband fiber is easy.  He also said the \u201csmart grid\u201d improvements that we need depend on those broadband connections.  These can further save energy.  For example, hot water heaters can be shut off at certain times to reduce the peak load times that stress utility systems.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Jefferson County PUD is a success story in replacing PSE:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nWe\nhave a recent success story in Jefferson County, at the northern edge\nof Washington State\u2019s Olympic Peninsula.  In the November 2008\nelection, the county\u2019s voters decided to buy out PSE\u2019s operations\nin most of that county and electrify the Jefferson County Public\nUtility District (PUD).  They planned an efficient transition.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nsaid that if a local community decides to replace PSE or another\nprivately owned utility with a utility owned by the local public,\nthey would need to buy the existing assets, such as the poles, lines,\nvehicles, and so forth.  Some people say the Jefferson County PUD\npaid too much for PSE\u2019s assets, but the new PUD wanted to proceed\npromptly instead of dragging out the process with long negotiations\nor court cases.  They moved quickly and now they are \u201cpaying down a\nmortgage,\u201d as our guests said a few minutes before.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nsaid PSE wanted the details to be confidential between the company\nand the PUD\u2019s leaders, so we don\u2019t know what they said.  But he\nsaid the WUTC, which regulates PSE, concluded that $59 million of\nPSE\u2019s windfall of $120 million was too much, so the excess $59\nmillion should be returned to PSE\u2019s customers.  For a period of\ntime, PSE customers\u2019 bills included a line noting \u201cJefferson PUD\nsale dividend\u201d that was rebated to PSE\u2019s remaining customers. \nSo, he said, although Jefferson PUD paid too much, they were able to\nmove quickly to be \u201cowners instead of renters,\u201d to enjoy local\ncontrol, to enjoy carbon-free electricity, and to benefit from\ncompetitive rates starting promptly and improving the future compared\nto PSE\u2019s future increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They\naccomplished all of this in only 4 \u00bd years from the November 2008\nelection to the date when they threw the switch on April 1, 2013. \nThe transition went smoothly with absolutely no disruption of power. \nThe few billing problems were quickly solved.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffpud.org\/\"><strong>www.jeffpud.org<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Expect PSE to fight back with a barrage of deceptive propaganda:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nsaid we can expect that any community that wants to replace PSE with\na locally owned public utility will get strong push-back from PSE.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No\nbusiness wants to lose customers.  In 2012, Thurston County\u2019s\npeople tried to electrify our PUD in in the November 2012 election,\nso PSE spent a huge amount of money to propagandize and frighten and\ndeceive the voters into voting \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nsaid PSE\u2019s propaganda was very deceptive, and they outspent the\norganizers by a gigantic amount.  (The organizers had only a little\nfunding from voluntary donations.)  Even with a minimal \u201cyes\u201d\ncampaign and PSE\u2019s huge \u201cno\u201d campaign, the PUD ballot issue\nearned 40% of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nsaid that now in 2019 local people are starting early to win\nOlympia\u2019s November 2020 election for a city-owned electric utility.\n The public needs to understand the truth so the public can inoculate\nitself and withstand the malicious propaganda that will try to infect\nthe public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randal showed a list of some strategies we can expect PSE to use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"487\" data-attachment-id=\"79\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/annotation-2019-11-14-163827-9\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163827-9.png?fit=682%2C487&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"682,487\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Annotation-2019-11-14-163827-9\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163827-9.png?fit=682%2C487&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163827-9.png?resize=682%2C487\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-79\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163827-9.png?w=682&amp;ssl=1 682w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163827-9.png?resize=300%2C214&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\nRandal\nsaid they had a parallel situation on Bainbridge Island.  The\ntwo-year campaign for \u201cIsland Power\u201d got PSE\u2019s attention. \nPSE\u2019s nearest service people were in Poulsbo, but PSE sent people\nto every meeting of Bainbridge\u2019s City Council and every meeting of\na Citizens Advisory Committee.  They started \u201cliving\u201d on\nBainbridge Island.  PSE was a \u201cplatinum\u201d contributor to the\nChamber of Commerce.  They installed free generators at many churches\nand elsewhere.  (Randal said the generators \u201cwere appropriate\u201d\nbecause PSE\u2019s \u201creliability is so poor.\u201d)  PSE threatened City\nCouncil members while examining the relevant finances.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nsaid Olympia\u2019s people can expect PSE will resist a huge amount\nbecause they want to protect their huge profits.  He and Glen said\nPSE will be using the money we paid through our electric bills to\nlobby against the people\u2019s effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nadded that on Bainbridge Island, PSE held a number of \u201ctown halls.\u201d\n He said PSE \u201cgave away barbecues and other stuff\u201d to curry favor\nwith the local people.  He said the barbecues had been paid for by\neverybody\u2019s electric bills.  He said we \u201cshould not underestimate\nthis company that makes a guaranteed 10% profit.\u201d  They are a\nmonopoly, in contrast to \u201cthe competitive sector\u201d in which other\nbusinesses operate.  Many companies would be delighted to receive a\nguaranteed 10% profit.  He said PSE will not readily give up this\njuicy deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nsaid we can expect PSE to scare the voters with \u201cfear, uncertainty\nand doubt.\u201d  He also said PSE uses a \u201cfront\u201d organization that\nsounds as if it were an environmental organization.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nrepeated that PSE will be using the money that the people have paid\nthrough our electric bills to fight against us, and he repeated that\ntheir propaganda will be baloney, fear and lies, as it was in\nThurston County\u2019s anti-PUD campaign in 2012.  He said he hopes this\nTV program and other community-based efforts can \u201cinoculate\u201d the\npublic to resist PSE\u2019s coming onslaught of propaganda.  People\nshould be able to say, \u201cOh, no.  I can smell that propaganda.\u201d \nThe people need to be aware so they can recognize when that\npropaganda is thrown at us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nadded that PSE is very different from how our publicly owned\nutilities operate.  \u201cEverything Tacoma and Steilacoom does is out\nin the open.\u201d  The public has access to their finances, their\nservice and reliability data, and so forth.  \u201cBut not so, PSE.\u201d \nHe said one of the best ways for the Olympia organizers to proceed is\nto urge the public to look at how the 62 publicly owned utilities in\nWashington State are performing.  They operate with open meetings,\nopen discourse, and local control.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nadded that elections are a huge difference.  He said every local\ngovernment has accounting records that are public and transparent,\nbut \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on inside PSE.  They do their\nown bookkeeping \u2013 and who knows what\u2019s going on?\u201d  Although PSE\nhas some accountability to the WUTC, the WUTC has to hire their own\naccounting analysts to see what\u2019s going on.  He suspected \u201ca lot\nof skullduggery\u201d within PSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve added that PSE is more secretive nowadays than when they were owned by many stockholders and traded on an American stock exchange.  Back then, the U.S. government\u2019s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would analyze their finances, but now that PSE is held tightly by a foreign corporation and not publicly traded on an exchange, so PSE\u2019s finances are much more secretive and less accountable to public scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"> <strong>PSE is more risky than publicly owned utilities are:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p> Even though PSE is huge, it has some risks.  In contrast, publicly owned utilities are actually <strong>less<\/strong> risky than PSE is.  Randal showed this image and Steve explained some items.  Steve said the investor-owned utilities such as PSE like to claim that publicly owned utilities are risky, but actually<strong> the risks are worse with investor-owned utilities such as PSE<\/strong>.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"515\" data-attachment-id=\"80\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/annotation-2019-11-14-163901-10\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163901-10.png?fit=683%2C515&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"683,515\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Annotation-2019-11-14-163901-10\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163901-10.png?fit=683%2C515&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163901-10.png?resize=683%2C515\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-80\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163901-10.png?w=683&amp;ssl=1 683w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163901-10.png?resize=300%2C226&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163901-10.png?resize=326%2C245&amp;ssl=1 326w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/powertothepublic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Annotation-2019-11-14-163901-10.png?resize=80%2C60&amp;ssl=1 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\nSteve\nsaid public utilities have much better credit ratings than PSE and\nits Australian owner does.  In contrast, publicly owned utilities\n(PUDs and municipal utilities) have among the best credit ratings\npossible.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randal\nsaid the giant California utility Pacific Gas and Electric, which is\nowned by investors, recently went bankrupt.  In contrast, none of the\npublicly owned utilities in Washington has ever gone bankrupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nsaid public utilities have far lower climate risks.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nimage above highlights some risk comparisons. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nadded that investor-owned utility customers are at risk for the risky\nbusiness ventures that those utilities get into, such as the\nenvironmentally damaging methane export plant that PSE wants to build\nin Tacoma, which is a very risky project opposed by many people.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where is PSE getting the huge amount of money necessary to build that plant?  What are the risks to PSE\u2019s rate-payers in the Olympia area?  We local folks will not get any benefit from PSE using our money to build a plant for exporting methane to Asia.  Instead, we face environmental risks and public health risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>To protect the climate, we must take very strong actions now:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nsaid the climate crisis is <strong>extremely\nhuge<\/strong> and <strong>extremely\nserious<\/strong>.  In order to\nprotect Planet Earth \u2013 and ourselves \u2013 we <strong>absolutely\nmust<\/strong> take <strong>very\nstrong<\/strong> actions\n<strong>immediately<\/strong>.\n \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some\npeople think that is too big a task.  But the U.S. did that already\nat the beginning of World War II.  We immediately converted our\nentire civilian industrial economy in order to mobilize people and\nproduce weapons for fighting World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\nneed that kind of immediate and total transformation now to cope with\nthe climate crisis.  We can do that again now if we can generate\nenough political commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randal\nshowed this image about the huge transition the U.S. made in order to\ndeal with World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nsaid the climate crisis is an equally serious existential crisis. \nThe climate crisis threatens to kill many millions of people and\ndisplace many more as climate refugees.  The climate crisis threatens\nto horribly disrupt and damage human civilization and the ecosystem\nthat we must protect in order to continue living in a decent and\nsustainable way.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nsaid this country can do wonderful things, and we have done wonderful\nthings in our history.  He said that when the U.S. was faced with the\nhuge threats from Japan and Germany, our nation vastly increased the\narmy and our weapons inventory.  The U.S. increased its army from\n1940 when it was smaller than that of the Netherlands, to a\n12-million person army, and we equipped it.  We built 300,000 planes\nby the end of the war.  We designed and built the atomic bomb. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen\nurged the U.S. to do something on the scale that is needed \u2013 and\nstart boldly now.  Steve suggested seeing this as \u201ca moral\nequivalent of war.\u201d  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glen urged people to \u201cthink globally and act locally.\u201d  He said one way to do that would be to create a city-owned \u201cgreen\u201d electric utility with carbon-free energy instead of fossil fuels.  He urged people to do this in Olympia, on Bainbridge Island, and in other communities elsewhere.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>If Olympia owned and operated our own electric utility, this would help Olympia\u2019s people and the earth\u2019s climate:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nurged the City of Olympia \u2013 and other local governments \u2013 to\nreplace Puget Sound Energy with locally owned electric utilities that\nwould promptly replace PSE\u2019s fossil fuel-generated electricity with\nrenewable, sustainable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\n2012 local people organized a campaign to electrify Thurston County\u2019s\nPUD (which provides water for some small areas), but voters did not\npass it.  Now people are trying again for the City of Olympia to\ncreate a city-owned electric utility.  The City already owns\nsuccessful utilities for water and garbage, so this is a very\npractical project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local\nfolks are starting to organize a campaign for the City of Olympia and\nother local communities to replace Puget Sound Energy here with a\nsuccessful locally owned electric utility that will provide lower\nrates, better reliability, and sustainable energy \u2013 and will be\naccountable to the public instead of foreign stockholders.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They\nare starting to educate the public starting in 2019 and plan to\ngather enough signatures of Olympia voters during the middle part of\n2020 to qualify for Olympia\u2019s ballot for the November 2020\nelection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organizers are starting much earlier for this campaign than they did for the 2012 PUD campaign.  They are seeking more volunteers.  Look for publicity in the summer of 2019 and continuing until the November 2020 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Sources of more information:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nsaid this TV interview will air on Thurston Community Media, cable\nchannel 22 in Thurston County WA three times a week throughout June\n2019:  every Monday at 1:30 pm, every Wednesday at 5:00 pm, and every\nThursday at 9:00 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also,\nhe posted this TV interview to his blog.  Visit\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.parallaxperspectives.org\/\"><strong>www.parallaxperspectives.org<\/strong><\/a>\nand click on the \u201cTV Programs\u201d link or the \u201cEnergy\u201d link or\nthe \u201cOlympia area\u201d link.  Click the program title, <strong>\u201cWhy\nthe Public Should Own Our Electric Utilities.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On\nthe blog people can watch this interview and also read Glen\u2019s very\nthorough summary of what we said during the interview.  (You are\nreading that thorough summary now.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\nare a few sources of information now.  I\u2019ll post more later to my\nblog, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.parallaxperspectives.org\/\"><strong>www.parallaxperspectives.org<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/rsamstag.com\/public-power-issues\/\"><strong>https:\/\/rsamstag.com\/public-power-issues\/<\/strong><\/a> <\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bainbridgeislandforum.org\/\"><strong>http:\/\/www.bainbridgeislandforum.org\/<\/strong><\/a> <\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffpud.org\/\"><strong>www.jeffpud.org<\/strong><\/a> <\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/parallaxperspectives.org\/tv-a-publicly-owned-electric-utility-for-thurston-county\"><strong>http:\/\/parallaxperspectives.org\/tv-a-publicly-owned-electric-utility-for-thurston-county<\/strong><\/a> <\/li><li>See a 1-page list of four reasons for creating a municipal electric utility for Olympia:  <a href=\"http:\/\/parallaxperspectives.org\/a-city-owned-electric-utility-would-help-olympias-people\"><strong>http:\/\/parallaxperspectives.org\/a-city-owned-electric-utility-would-help-olympias-people<\/strong><\/a> <\/li><li>When Washington State law forces PSE to stop burning coal, PSE wants to burn natural gas (methane) for many more years, and continue hurting the climate.  See this report on why natural gas is NOT a good solution:  <strong>https:\/\/www.climaterealityproject.org\/content\/climate-101-natural-gas?utm_source=advocacy&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=HGW&amp;utm_content=email1&amp;mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTldRek56VXdNMlE0TWpKbSIsInQiOiJaTTZxelgrYXNDdWNmMjJ0R25YRm1XYytnK2xxZTU2RWFwUkZPVFNrSEhnVzBrSGNyWmxqZnZaU1FueFVMR2RpWmpUNGdBaE44UzBia1RjaUZIbis3bmxETkROR3loYk5UaHBSRXJEc2pGM1dJM0ltcVBweU9hSE1uOGlxVVlxVHZXYmpTd28yaXlrWmFKTjkxZzdqQkE9PSJ9<\/strong> <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Glen\u2019s closing encouragement:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nGlen\nthanked <strong>Randal Samstag<\/strong>\nand <strong>Steve Johnson<\/strong>\nfor sharing their knowledge and insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nalso thanked the people who watched this interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nclimate crisis is an extreme emergency, so we need to take strong\nactions immediately.  One powerful remedy is to stop burning fossil\nfuels to generate electricity.  Local communities can start their own\npublicly owned electric utilities with renewable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This\nwill help the climate, save money on our electric bills, keep our\nmoney in the local community, improve reliability, and provide\ndemocratic accountability to the voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local\npublicly owned electric utilities are a win-win-win all around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our\nlocal community\u2019s people vigorously support democracy.  It makes\nsense to support democracy also in how we conduct our economy.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting\nin the summer of 2019, look for publicity about the new campaign for\nthe City of Olympia to own and operate a municipal electric utility. \n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Volunteers will gather Olympia voters\u2019 signatures during the middle of 2020 to put an initiative on Olympia\u2019s ballot for the November 2020 election.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nYou\ncan get information about a wide variety of issues related to peace,\nsocial justice and nonviolence through my blog,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.parallaxperspectives.org\/\"><strong>www.parallaxperspectives.org<\/strong><\/a>or\nby phoning me at <br>\n(360) 491-9093 or e-mailing me at\n<a href=\"mailto:glenanderson@integra.net\"><strong>glenanderson@integra.net<\/strong><\/a>\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\nend each TV program with this encouragement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We&#8217;re\nall one human family, and we all share one planet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We\ncan create a better world, but we all have to work at it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The\nworld needs whatever you can do to help!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>By Glen Anderson (Originally published in a downloadable document here. Reposted by permission of Glen Anderson.) The June 2019 interview on \u201cGlen\u2019s Parallax Perspectives\u201d explores the many benefits of having the public own our electric <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/\" title=\"Why the Public Should Own Our Electric Utilities\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,22],"tags":[12,13,15,11,14,10,4,5,8,16,9,18,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-69","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-research","8":"category-solidarity","9":"tag-coal","10":"tag-ekc-pud","11":"tag-energy","12":"tag-faq","13":"tag-green","14":"tag-initiative","15":"tag-lng","16":"tag-pse","17":"tag-pud","18":"tag-renewable","19":"tag-thurston-county","20":"tag-utc","21":"tag-wa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why the Public Should Own Our Electric Utilities - Power to the PUBLIC!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/powertothepublic.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/15\/why-the-public-should-own-our-electric-utilities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why the Public Should Own Our Electric Utilities - Power to the PUBLIC!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Glen Anderson (Originally published in a downloadable document here. 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