PG & E Fights Ballot Measure

Pacific Gas and Electric Company has spent nearly $1 million trying to defeat a public power ballot measure in San Francisco. The company filed for bankruptcy protection at the height of the state´s energy crisis. Proposition D would put the city´s Public Utilities Commission in the business of generating electricity for San Franciscans. PG and E says the spending is necessary to educate voters about the proposition that´s a threat to the company´s local distribution monopoly. They also say the measure threatens the economic interests of PG and E customers and city taxpayers. Last year, PG and E spent $1.28 million to narrowly defeat a pair of public power ballot measures that presented alternative approaches to a public takeover of the company´s local distribution network.