PD Editorial: Power authority holdouts should reconsider

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that there are "no second acts in American lives." But there certainly are in California politics. Second acts and second chances.

Three Sonoma County cities - Petaluma, Rohnert Park and Cloverdale - have being given both. These cities had their reasons for holding out on joining Sonoma Clean Power Authority when the invitation arose. We, too, had reservations about how this plan for a new power provider would play out. But it's time to give credit where its due. Those behind Sonoma Clean Power so far have delivered on their promises.

First, Sonoma Clean Power is about to go live with the system on May 1. About 24,000 power customers, including commercial accounts and 6,000 randomly selected residential accounts in Santa Rosa, Cotati, Sonoma, Sebastopol, Windsor and the unincorporated parts of Sonoma County, are eligible to begin receiving electricity through Sonoma Clean Power.

More important, Sonoma Clean Power has not only been able to keep rates competitive with those of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., they, by all appearances, will come in below. Those who go with Sonoma Clean Power can expect to pay 2 to 3 percent less. If PG&E gets approval for a rate increase in the coming weeks, as expected, the savings for Sonoma Clean Power customers will be more in the 4 to 5 percent range.

This takes much of the sting out of our dissatisfaction with a provision of state law that requires customers to opt-out of the new service rather than opt-in. Although customers will automatically be enrolled in the company, they at least will be paying less.

Thus the opt-out rate, so far, is below projections. Sonoma Clean Power CEO Geof Syphers says that only about 5 percent of customers so far have decided to opt out of the system. That number is expected to increase before the May 1 launch, but it's far below the projections of 20 percent so far.

As a result, Sonoma Clean Power is going back to the three holdout cities and giving them a second chance. They'll now have until Jan. 31, 2015 to join the authority and have a seat on the governing board. After that, they'll face a fee of at least $85,000 and possibly more obstacles.

Some officials from these cities say they still have concerns about Sonoma Clean Power's long-term ability to remain competitive. We do as well. In particular, we question how Sonoma Clean Power will remain competitive and offer a greener energy supply than PG&E while contracting for a majority of its power with another major power company - Constellation, a subsidiary of Chicago energy giant Exelon Corp. Although it helps that 15 percent of Sonoma Clean Power's energy will come from The Geysers geothermal field on the Sonoma-Lake county border, by all appearances, Constellation appears no more "green" than PG&E. There's also the risk that Constellation may be keeping rates artificially low here in order to gain market share in the potentially lucrative California energy market.

Nonetheless, we encourage the holdout cities to take another look. Barring any last-minute glitches, the system is about to get off to a promising start. Sonoma County residents should have the opportunity to make up their own minds as to whether to be a part of it.