From Stark
In 2008, after an Australian financial consortium bought up Puget Sound Energy, Whatcom Countians debated whether it would be a good time to revive the idea of public takeover of the Bellevue-based utility’s assets here.
There was a lot of discussion that eventually died down, and no public vote.
Now, the idea of a public buyout has been revived in Thurston County. In the November election, voters there are being asked to authorize their county’s public utility district to move toward a takeover of PSE assets there.
PSE, of course, is fighting that proposition.
Read the company’s take on the issue here.
Until I read that take, I had been unaware that Jefferson County is already in the process of taking its PSE power system public, after voters there authorized their PUD to make the move. Here’s a May 2012 report from the Peninsula Daily News.
Today, (Aug. 30) PSE issued a press release announcing that an appraiser had pegged the Thurston County PUD’s acquisition costs at $650 million.
Here’s the case for the public takeover, from the Thurston Public Power Initiative.
PSE is the electric power provider for all of Whatcom County except Blaine and Sumas, where municipal utilities provide the power.
Great idea!
Thurston County is right. Let’s keep those millions of dollars we are sending off to Australia right here at home. We all know our state and its counties sorely need the money.
The Sierra Club and other groups have been protesting PSE’s ownership of the Colstrip Generating Station – major coal burning polluter. PSE is about to have to clean up the mess and the huge cost of this will be passed on to us. See “PSE Should Do the Math” in Sightline Daily online for the background on this.