The Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD) is attempting to expand its service borders west into Yolo County. This expansion attempt will be voted for or against in the election in separate ballot measures by those who will be effected by the new service areas. Those two entities include the current SMUD Customers in Sacramento County, as well as the current PG&E customers in Woodland, Davis, and West Sacramento.

Huge amounts of money are being spent trying to convince the voters to not accept the expansion bid. Not too surprisingly, the ads are funded in large part by PG&E. Could Pacific Gas and Electric be really looking out for their customers in Yolo, trying to prevent both they and SMUD customers from being shouldered by an overbearing amount of debt? Of course not. PG&E is a for-profit company, and their interest is in keeping their customers perpetually. In fact, PG&E will be the cause of the overbearing cost, as they have already stated they will try to maximize the costs for SMUD to acquire the utilities infrastructure in Yolo.

So, basically, the company profiting currently from providing power to Yolo county is taking the lead to...keep their profits rolling in. The other criticisms, much more credibly, come from current and potentially future customers fearing the possibility of increased costs, which would essentially diminish to nothing the expected savings on individual electrical bills.

Why would SMUD want to expand into Yolo? As a publicly owned utility, SMUD is interested in keeping rates affordable and service levels high. With a larger customer base, SMUD would be able to gather more resources to increase power services that would include the creation of more renewable sources. There is a measure of accountability to the customers in entities such as SMUD that are absent in the private sector.

Plus, SMUD was invited to expand into the county by the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, and the city councils of Davis, West Sacramento, and Woodland. Yolo County is geographically and economically tied to Sacramento County, as the two work together in many ways. It makes sense for SMUD to operate in both counties, as well as a portion of Placer County.

Admittedly, there probably will be a large financial impact to SMUD when the acquisition of Yolo County begins. However, even some opponents of the annexation agree SMUD's presence in Yolo will eventually benefit the customers there. While the short-term forecast may seem to much of a burden, over time the decision to permit expansion will probably result in lower rates for customers than PG&E can offer.

ValleyVue urges a vote to enable the expansion of SMUD into Yolo County. Vote yes on H and I in Yolo, and yes on L in Sacramento and Placer.