In a new development, the San Diego Association of Governments Regional Planning Committee has re-arranged the English language to fit the agenda of SDG&E. By a vote of 4 to 1, the Committee twisted its own stated energy goals to support an opposite meaning. In 2003, the other advisory committee of the Association of Governments, the Energy Working Group, formulated an overall strategy in response to the 2001 energy shortages.
The strategy consisted of benchmarks for green energy, as well as securing 65 percent of the countys electricity from within the county by 2010, and 75 percent by 2020.Last week, the Energy Working Group concluded that the powerlink is not consistent with that strategy as it would not reduce the dependence of the county on imported power.
Yesterday, the planning committee voted to support the powerlink, declaring that it meets two of the energy goals, namely using more renewable energy and (heres the kicker) increased the counties ability to import more power. HUH? The basis of the energy strategy outlined in 2003
was the opposite: it set specific goals to REDUCE imported power. So these career politicians inserted a new energy goal that was totally contrary to the spirit and intent of their own Energy Working Group.
They held the meeting and vote on Friday, hoping no one would notice.
How could there be such a disconnect between two committees working under the same organizational umbrella? San Diego has long been Tamminy Hall with sunshine. The laid back county has acquired a well-deserved reputation for corruption that would make Richard Daley and Boss Tweed blush. The backroom deals and good old boy network has been so removed from any semblence of ethical public policy that we now have such spectacles as Mayor Jerry Sanders standing up while wildfires consumed the county, and thanking SDG&E for keeping the lights on, when eyewitness accounts blamed the powerlines for causing the fires. San Diego has become the last resort of petty tyrants and failed bureaucrats. Case in point, Ohios scandalized Registrar of Voters Michael Vu, skipped Cuyahoga county barely ahead of inflamed citizenry and Grand Juries, was greeted with open arms in this 'Americas Finest City'. San Diego sees nothing wrong in hiring Deborah Seiler as Registrar of Voters. Ms. Seiler was formerly the saleperson for Diebold who sold the county ten thousand of the discredited voting machines. The populace has been numbed after years of pension fund malfeasance, Las Vegas and Indian casino parlays and city councilmen who basked in the hospitality of strip bars. San Diego 'government' resembles Alices Wonderland. The weather is still beautiful, but if you come for a visit, check your ethics and reason at the county line.