@reyjaysolares. Reyjay Solares

Brewer Kyle Harrop stands before a rack of barrels at his brewery, Horus Aged Ales

The hits keep coming

From the article on Horus Aged Ale’s first bottle release, Oceanside 11 [“Horus Aged Ales gone in two seconds,” San Diego Beer News], it does not seem accurate based on what was written to state that “50,000 vie for 480 bottles,” as the subhead suggests.

The article clarifies in the body that “the bottle-sale page received 51,000 hits.” If hits is what is being measured, then each of those hits does not represent a user vying for bottles. A hit is just a call for a file, of which each page often has multiple files being requested. One pageload is often multiple hits. With BPT struggling under the demand during Tuesday’s sale, it leads to multiple “refresh” attempts from the different people trying to get bottles, each refresh resulting in multiple hits.

So if the metric measured is indeed hits, the number of people vying for bottles would certainly be far, far less than 50,000. Without knowing the number of hits each page view generates, and without knowing how many of those page views were unique users, it’s impossible to say how many were vying for bottles.

Kyle’s sale was a great success in any case, but with what’s given, we just don’t know the demand.

• Ian Osdale
• Carmel Valley

Egging people on

I came across an article posted on your website in regard to the assaults that have been made on people while walking around the neighborhoods [“Egged in the City,” Neighborhood News] of North Park and Normal Heights by having raw eggs being thrown at them.

Two people were targeted while walking down Meade Avenue.

I was a victim myself on February 2 around 8:15 p.m. while walking my dog along with my husband. At least three to four eggs hit the back of my head with such force that I initially thought it was a tree branch or palm tree that had fallen down on us.

I was in complete shock and in pain, and when my husband figured out what had just happened he gave chase on foot after the car but was unable to get the license plate number. Since I didn’t have my phone with me at that time, I made my way back to the apartment and decided to file a police report…I was surprised to read that their statement said they “they hadn’t heard of any reports,” when I made mine.

Perhaps the purpose of this message is so you can encourage others to come forward and for police to start taking some of these events more seriously. The vehicle we described was a dark silver/grey 2003-2005 Toyota Corolla with tinted windows, and the event happened on Hamilton Street and Monroe, a few steps away from the apartment’s entrance. We weren’t able to see who or how many people were involved.

I do hope these events get stop soon, as now it is only eggs being used but next time it could be something worse. Again, I just wanted to comment on the article in hopes that it serves a purpose, and as always I thank the Reader for keeping people informed.

• Yazmin A.
• North Park

Ready to go door-to-door for this cause

Re: “SDG&E, Edison take hit for us,” News Ticker.

Dear SDReader:

As a SDG&E ratepayer turned ratepayer revolt proponent, I cannot give my blessing to any settlement which leaves us on the hook for any of San Onofre’s problems.

Obviously, filing lawsuits is not going to curb the utility’s propensity for thievery. Just take a good look at your monthly bill. I remember when all those fees and surcharges were only a few pennies each. These days, SDG&E customers are being charged the same amount on these fees as the electricity actually costs.

Why are there separate charges for Delivery, Distribution, and Transmission? These are all the same thing, and even the definitions given on the back of the bill are exactly the same. “Includes poles, transformers, power lines, etc.” The distribution charge should be removed, especially in the city of Oceanside. I read a report about a smart-meter-compatible Omni Mesh Wi-Fi network where it mentions that the city is actually the one distributing our electricity through a network of cables hooked into those red blinking lights atop the streetlights. Is this money collected for delivery costs being repaid to the city, or is it just pocketed the same way the money for those replacement steam generators was?

There is a DWR revenue adjustment that is supposed to offset the delivery charge. Of $17.79 on my bill, the delivery amounts to $17.14. The DWR adjustment only amounts to 4 cents, so if SDG&E is collecting delivery fees for the city, they are making out like bandits.

There’s a fee for Winter Care Electricity Generation and Winter Care Electricity. Aren’t these the same thing? Why is there always Winter or Summer Care? Is SDG&E aware that there are two other seasons? I get charged Summer rates in November and Winter rates in March (plus their generation costs, so I actually pay twice).

The reason there is a separate charge for generation is so that when they give you the low-income discount, they do not actually have to subtract it from your bill. They charge you twice, then subtract the discount so the utility company does not end up owing you and you really are not getting any discount at all.

The local generation charge it is defined as a fee “to recover the costs associated with generation power suppliers that the CPUC has determined shall be recovered from all benefiting customers.” Where are these generating power suppliers, and how do they benefit me? Are we paying for Edison-owned nuclear power plants in other states? I hope not, but given the way SDG&E customers seem to always foot the bill for whatever Edison cannot get away with charging their customers for, I do not doubt it.

San Onofre has not generated anything since 2012, and I do not recall any great benefits when it did. My friend would want me to mention that leukemia is not actually beneficial. Neither is nuclear waste on the beach. Dead whales washing up are not beneficial to beach goers or the tourism industry. That is why boat crews now go out looking for floaters in the water before their corpses get a chance to wash up on the beach.

The ocean environment will further deteriorate now that the decision has been made to bury the nuke waste on a seaside cliff without even strengthening the sea wall. Thanks, Coastal Commission! What would we do without you? Thanks for hand-selecting this bunch, Governor Brown. Thanks for appointing those winners at the CPUC.

“CPUC” stands for California Public Utilities Commission, but SDG&E is not a public utility. They are privately owned, so the CPUC actually has no authority to bill us for anything. We San Diego Gas & Electric customers pay the highest rates anywhere in the USA, and this illegal rubber-stamping commission appointed by the governor is the reason. The CPUC benefits the governor, his family members, and the board of directors at the utility — which are also all the same thing, by the way.

What we need to do is to collect signatures for a petition to make the CPUC and Coastal Commission elected bodies, not hand-selected ones. That is only fair if they will be the ones making decisions that affect everyone. We should also outlaw 1) Having former utility board members on the CPUC or Coastal Commission, as this is a blatant conflict of interest and enables a monopoly and 2) the practice of billing ratepayers for bad decisions made by private companies. This would take care of all the injustices SDG&E delivers if voters supported this ballot initiative.

Is there anyone out there who is on good terms with the California Secretary of State who might want to back such an initiative? It’s not that I am unappreciative of the lawyers who work hard to get these settlements, but unless there is a law in place to outlaw the theft from utility customers the lawyer fees just get added to our SDG&E bill by the CPUC.

I am ready to go door-to-door for this cause, but I’m going to need some back up and some help gathering signatures. I will do it alone, if necessary, but would have to wait until certain important political officeholders have changed, and I hopefully will not get wildfired in the meantime.

• Laurel Kaskurs
• Oceanside