Edison Short-Circuits Municipal Utilities
Re “Moreno Valley Officials Say Edison Is Running a Power Play,” Oct. 19: Reading how Southern California Edison is spending over $1.3 million to restrict the Moreno Valley new utility once again demonstrates how hard it is for a city to compete on the same playing field as an investor-owned utility. As a resident of Corona for 15 years, I saw firsthand how Edison killed our own city’s attempts to start a utility, using slick, expensive mailers to every resident, full-page ads in newspapers and nonstop commercials on cable TV.
California law allows for municipal utilities, but Edison uses ratepayer income to fund expensive campaigns to either stop them or, in Moreno Valley’s case, restrict how they will be run. How is a city, with its tight general fund, able to fight back? In short, it can’t. I hope Moreno Valley residents will see through Edison’s propaganda machine and realize that finding alternative sources of income is smart city management.
Chris Perez
Corona
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
