Colors of Christmas in midst of Hanukkah
City Hall was bathed in beautiful green and red lights last week. Which seemed curious to some people, considering that it is Hanukkah and not Christmas and the colors associated with Hanukkah are blue and white.
There’s a tradition of lighting up City Hall to commemorate special or sad events: orange for the Giants’ World Series wins, the French national colors — blue, white and red — as a sign of solidarity after the terrorist attacks in Paris last month.
Asked why the city seemed to be celebrating Christmas and not Hanukkah, City Administrator Naomi Kelly paused. After talking with people who decide how to light up City Hall, she came back with an explanation.
Red and green “is not for Jesus, it’s for the holiday season,” she said, and noted the city doesn’t light up City Hall to celebrate religious holidays like Easter.
“We haven’t received a request to put up lights for Hanukkah, nor have we received any complaints for not putting up lights for Hanukkah,” Kelly added.
That said, Kelly said she plans to work with the San Francisco Interfaith Council and the city attorney to come up with new guidelines for celebrating holidays.
“Before I get out there to flip the switch to blue and white I need to make sure I don’t run afoul of the First Amendment or the separation of church and state. We want to have a cacophony of lights that we can use to enlighten folks.”
— Emily Green
Fight the power: A controversial energy exit fee raise is drawing battle lines across the Bay Area.
That’s because the Pacific Gas and Electric filed an application in November to as much as double its exit fee, called the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment, or PCIA, for customers transferring to local green energy programs. It would raise electricity rates for customers looking to enroll in programs like CleanPowerSF, which begins this spring.
Supervisor John Avalos sponsored a resolution opposing the fee increase that passed at a joint hearing of the city’s Agency Formation Commission and Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee Friday. It will be voted on at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. But the ultimate decision will be made by the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday.
“To me, this is a direct attack against our CleanPowerSF program,” he said at Friday’s meeting. “It would reduce the funds we have available to build up and make our program competitive, and it would prevent us from having the robust rollout we are hoping for.”
The monthly exit fee is required under California law for customers switching to local clean power programs. It helps the energy provider, like PG&E, pay for power it contracted when it had more customers, keeping prices low for remaining consumers. The PCIA charge stops when the power company’s contracts expire.
The controversy stems from the formula PG&E uses to calculate what that exit fee will be. Under the proposed increase, CleanPowerSF would lose almost $8.4 million, and Peninsula Clean Energy — which will provide electricity in San Mateo County beginning in August — would have a $40 million loss.
“This is the highest exit fee rise in history,” said Shawn Marshall, executive director of LEAN energy, a nonprofit focused on expanding green energy programs.
During Friday’s meeting, Barbara Hale, assistant general manager for power for the San Francisco PUC, held up a portion of the formula that had been released by PG&E. Huge sections of it had been redacted, and some pages were completely black.
“The information we need to see whether the price rise is appropriate is in a black box,” she said, gesturing to the paper. “We can’t look for ourselves at what the calculation is. Part of what we are asking the California PUC to do is to look at real calculations and make sure they understand how a charge like this affects our customers.”