Letter to Matthew Hymel - Marin Administrators Office
Submitted by open4energy on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 18:14
Important notice to all our readers.
On February 19th open4energy published a formal apology and retraction of all the content in the letter below. We have left this page on our web site so that what we said, and then found to be incorrect, can be clear for all our readers!
Matthew
I am the publisher of open4energy - an opinion leading blog on consumer and small business energy saving. I also live in Mill Valley
I attended the meeting to discuss the loan guarantee to MEA yesterday and was shocked. The conflict of interests by the Chairman of MEA, Mr Charles McGlashan, was quite astounding to me.
It is not for me to condemn his motives for I do not know what they are. But it is for me to question why this conflict of interests was left in place, and allowed to manifest itself into the vote yesterday. We now have a serious issue on our hands for despite a reasonable request for the chairman to stand aside from the vote, not only was this ignored, but the discussion was framed by him as being one of managing the risk from PG&E. Specifically "as being a bully seeking to protect its market".
This misleading information from the chair was clearly a significant factor in at least one of the board members conclusions.
The argument is a complete fallacy, PG&E are doing what is needed when uniformed elected officials make serious mistakes that can affect a much bigger community. But for the discussion to have been positioned like this was most wrong indeed. If we add to this conduct, the wrongful approach of consumers being forced to "opt out" I think this matter has gone past reasonable political discussion. The board took a decision yesterday to spend the monies entrusted to them by its residents, with a level of disdain for the interests of the community it serves that can only be described as of "shocking negligence".
I am personally familiar with the professional skills of Mr Andy Tang, senior director of PG&E's smart grid technology team. I am also personally aware of their commitment to spend some millions of dollars in the technology being build by Silicon Valley firms, including Silver Spring Networks, for the purposes of improving our grid and its ability to manage energy more efficiently. I take considerable personal offense that his, and his organizations proven expert opinion was ignored yesterday. But I find it simply shameful that the many 100's of jobs they are creating for Marin residents, the powerhouse of the technological innovation we NEED, would be so shamelessly suggested as being an effort to retain market share.
In my opinion the Marin County Board has been duped by a foreign held oil company working through its North American subsidiary, and the personal aspirations of its chairman and his conflicted interests. What oil company would not want to supply the most wealthy community in the 3rd largest economy in the world - California - with energy. Unfortunately this most questionable ulterior interest has been allowed to slip into our community, on the back of a sincere desire by the community to be more energy conscientious.
I am an expert in energy saving technologies, particularly those being proposed and deployed in the smart grid. I recently met with 75 execs in the valley, including Andy Tang appointed, PG&E senior director for the smart grid. The forum hosted by earth2tech was to identify the "The next killer applications of the smart grid" I have linked a copy of our article for your information.
Killer Applications for The Smart Grid
If we stop for a moment, surely we can see that these expert people have no personal agenda. They have spent a lifetime hoping to be part of the next generation of energy supply in a global economy. It is absurd to suggest that PG&E is being a bully. They are actually trying to protect us from our own, albeit well intentioned, error.
Electricity exists as a electron, moving at the speed of light, and cannot be stored. If it is not used in the instance of its existence, it is either lost or must be converted so it can be stored. Have we any comprehension of the complexity of the USA synchronization project, to sample the national grid 30 times each second, to phase the electrons on the wires in the USA, and save 15% of our production costs. It will cost billions to do this, but ALL the money is economic growth for United States employees, many of whom are out of work Marin engineers. Silicon Valley is the power house of the technology that will make us green, and create the jobs needed to grow us out of the recession we are in.
For example, Silver Sprint Network, raised 100 million in December 2009, and were selected by PG&E to implement 10,000 smart meters later this year.
Have we forgotten that the money to pay for the homes that stand empty in our community, the falling property prices, the lost taxes is going to come from these company execs when their companies IPO
PG&E are not the enemy, they are our supplier, our customer and our partner. We should be asking what we need to do in order to be first to get the new technology being installed. This will save between 15% and 35% per household - and we are the big consumers. We should be asking how we can build more rooftop solar and how to best integrate this with their distributed demand management models. We should be asking how we can plan with them for the demands being made by the electric cars we will soon be buying.
We should be negotiating on what it will take for them to adopt more of our new technologies, for them to be part of all California, USA and then Global implementations. But whatever we do, please can we remember it is PG&E who are at the front of BUYING the technology products that finance Silicon valley, its companies and its VC's
I know they are not perfect, but who could be with the level of regulation California has regarding energy production and supply. And I know they got it wrong in 2001 - I think we are safe from these mistakes being made again.
Why are we inviting a foreign oil company to disrupt the largest buyer of our technology in the world. Can we not see that our efforts are harming our partner in the largest economic growth opportunity Silicon Valley will see this decade? The last thing PG&E needs is another foreign oil conglomerate winkling its way into the supply side of our system. They are not against Marin, they are against an oil company doing an end run into our state of California.
It will take some real courage to admit we have made a mistake. But if we do, we can spend the time and efforts we are about to waste in litigation, in constructive discussions with PG&E on how to employ our residents, accelerate the use our technologies, make our start ups successful, and help us all play a role saving energy.
I have yet to experience a more self defeating decision taken with such blatant disregard for the bigger issues being voiced. The vested interests of Mr McGlashan, and the reasons put forward for PG&E's motives, took this matter one step too far.
May I sincerely request that the board excuse Mr McGlashan for conflict of interests, set aside yesterdays decision, and bring the matter up for a proper and informed discussion.
Further I call for the resignation of Mr Charles McGlashan for his improper conduct in misleading the board and promoting his own interests in the Marin Energy Authority.
Finally, please can you supply me with the access to the public record of when and how the appropriate due diligence for an investment of this nature was carried out by the board into qualifications of the key personnel of the Marin Energy Authority to engage in the business for which this loan is being made.
Alexander Bischoff
use of "chair" clarified - 02/04/2010
On February 19th open4energy published a formal apology and retraction of all the content in the letter below. We have left this page on our web site so that what we said, and then found to be incorrect, can be clear for all our readers!
Matthew
I am the publisher of open4energy - an opinion leading blog on consumer and small business energy saving. I also live in Mill Valley
I attended the meeting to discuss the loan guarantee to MEA yesterday and was shocked. The conflict of interests by the Chairman of MEA, Mr Charles McGlashan, was quite astounding to me.
It is not for me to condemn his motives for I do not know what they are. But it is for me to question why this conflict of interests was left in place, and allowed to manifest itself into the vote yesterday. We now have a serious issue on our hands for despite a reasonable request for the chairman to stand aside from the vote, not only was this ignored, but the discussion was framed by him as being one of managing the risk from PG&E. Specifically "as being a bully seeking to protect its market".
This misleading information from the chair was clearly a significant factor in at least one of the board members conclusions.
The argument is a complete fallacy, PG&E are doing what is needed when uniformed elected officials make serious mistakes that can affect a much bigger community. But for the discussion to have been positioned like this was most wrong indeed. If we add to this conduct, the wrongful approach of consumers being forced to "opt out" I think this matter has gone past reasonable political discussion. The board took a decision yesterday to spend the monies entrusted to them by its residents, with a level of disdain for the interests of the community it serves that can only be described as of "shocking negligence".
I am personally familiar with the professional skills of Mr Andy Tang, senior director of PG&E's smart grid technology team. I am also personally aware of their commitment to spend some millions of dollars in the technology being build by Silicon Valley firms, including Silver Spring Networks, for the purposes of improving our grid and its ability to manage energy more efficiently. I take considerable personal offense that his, and his organizations proven expert opinion was ignored yesterday. But I find it simply shameful that the many 100's of jobs they are creating for Marin residents, the powerhouse of the technological innovation we NEED, would be so shamelessly suggested as being an effort to retain market share.
In my opinion the Marin County Board has been duped by a foreign held oil company working through its North American subsidiary, and the personal aspirations of its chairman and his conflicted interests. What oil company would not want to supply the most wealthy community in the 3rd largest economy in the world - California - with energy. Unfortunately this most questionable ulterior interest has been allowed to slip into our community, on the back of a sincere desire by the community to be more energy conscientious.
I am an expert in energy saving technologies, particularly those being proposed and deployed in the smart grid. I recently met with 75 execs in the valley, including Andy Tang appointed, PG&E senior director for the smart grid. The forum hosted by earth2tech was to identify the "The next killer applications of the smart grid" I have linked a copy of our article for your information.
Killer Applications for The Smart Grid
If we stop for a moment, surely we can see that these expert people have no personal agenda. They have spent a lifetime hoping to be part of the next generation of energy supply in a global economy. It is absurd to suggest that PG&E is being a bully. They are actually trying to protect us from our own, albeit well intentioned, error.
Electricity exists as a electron, moving at the speed of light, and cannot be stored. If it is not used in the instance of its existence, it is either lost or must be converted so it can be stored. Have we any comprehension of the complexity of the USA synchronization project, to sample the national grid 30 times each second, to phase the electrons on the wires in the USA, and save 15% of our production costs. It will cost billions to do this, but ALL the money is economic growth for United States employees, many of whom are out of work Marin engineers. Silicon Valley is the power house of the technology that will make us green, and create the jobs needed to grow us out of the recession we are in.
For example, Silver Sprint Network, raised 100 million in December 2009, and were selected by PG&E to implement 10,000 smart meters later this year.
Have we forgotten that the money to pay for the homes that stand empty in our community, the falling property prices, the lost taxes is going to come from these company execs when their companies IPO
PG&E are not the enemy, they are our supplier, our customer and our partner. We should be asking what we need to do in order to be first to get the new technology being installed. This will save between 15% and 35% per household - and we are the big consumers. We should be asking how we can build more rooftop solar and how to best integrate this with their distributed demand management models. We should be asking how we can plan with them for the demands being made by the electric cars we will soon be buying.
We should be negotiating on what it will take for them to adopt more of our new technologies, for them to be part of all California, USA and then Global implementations. But whatever we do, please can we remember it is PG&E who are at the front of BUYING the technology products that finance Silicon valley, its companies and its VC's
I know they are not perfect, but who could be with the level of regulation California has regarding energy production and supply. And I know they got it wrong in 2001 - I think we are safe from these mistakes being made again.
Why are we inviting a foreign oil company to disrupt the largest buyer of our technology in the world. Can we not see that our efforts are harming our partner in the largest economic growth opportunity Silicon Valley will see this decade? The last thing PG&E needs is another foreign oil conglomerate winkling its way into the supply side of our system. They are not against Marin, they are against an oil company doing an end run into our state of California.
It will take some real courage to admit we have made a mistake. But if we do, we can spend the time and efforts we are about to waste in litigation, in constructive discussions with PG&E on how to employ our residents, accelerate the use our technologies, make our start ups successful, and help us all play a role saving energy.
I have yet to experience a more self defeating decision taken with such blatant disregard for the bigger issues being voiced. The vested interests of Mr McGlashan, and the reasons put forward for PG&E's motives, took this matter one step too far.
May I sincerely request that the board excuse Mr McGlashan for conflict of interests, set aside yesterdays decision, and bring the matter up for a proper and informed discussion.
Further I call for the resignation of Mr Charles McGlashan for his improper conduct in misleading the board and promoting his own interests in the Marin Energy Authority.
Finally, please can you supply me with the access to the public record of when and how the appropriate due diligence for an investment of this nature was carried out by the board into qualifications of the key personnel of the Marin Energy Authority to engage in the business for which this loan is being made.
Alexander Bischoff
use of "chair" clarified - 02/04/2010
- 164 reads
