The Tumwater City Council recommended adopting an ordinance to renew a franchise agreement with Puget Sound Energy (PSE) at a meeting on Tuesday, July 1.
The agreement allows the energy company to set up, operate and maintain facilities in the city’s rights-of-way for the distribution and sale of gas and power.
Tumwater Transportation and Engineering Director Brandon Hicks said the agreement lays out the rules as to what PSE can do and how it should notify the city of its activities.
The council scheduled the ordinance for final adoption via its consent agenda at its July 15 meeting.
Once adopted, the ordinance will renew PSE’s franchise agreement for five more years. Its current franchise agreement was approved in 2015, and its initial terms will expire on Sep. 14 this year. The city council may renew the franchise for five years twice upon PSE’s written request.
PSE is the state's oldest local energy provider. According to its website, the company serves 1.24 million electric customers across 10 counties in the Puget Sound area.
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KentReister
PSE is owned by a multi-national conglomerate and exports much of its profits instead of adequately reinvesting them in local infrastructure.
Saturday, July 5 Report this
jimlazar
Tumwater has previously adopted a policy to create a local public power utility. This would give people in Tumwater access to lower-cost hydropower from the Bonneville Power Administration. Policy B 7.2 in the Climate Mitigation Plan.
The staff presentation did not even mention this previously adopted policy.
Clearly PSE has been lobbying deep to the core.
Saturday, July 5 Report this
JW
Jim Lazar wants his PUD to take over power just like they take over community water systems so your bill can get jacked up 4x. No thanks
Sunday, July 6 Report this
KarenM
The franchise agreement is where Tumwater has the chance to hold PSE to task. For example, I have seen specific instances where PSE contractors have ruined a sidewalk when installing a pole. They need to leave the sidewalks and streets in the same or better condition than they found it. Another example is a situation where PSE could have improved ADA access since they were tearing up the sidewalk anyway. Instead, they returned it to the 'existing' bad condition. It wouldn't have cost more to do it right.
PSE makes a big deal about being a part of the community. I see lots of PR for that, not enough real action.
By the way the PUD cannot belong to Jim Lazar since it is a public entity. And he hasn't been on the board for many years. Public power serves their customers better because they are not simply looking out for the stockholder profits. Public power is owned by the people and serves them. There is no profit to be worrying about.
Tuesday, July 8 Report this