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What do you do to relax?
"What do you do to relax?" I try not to think about what the FBI, EPA and US Attorney's Office told us about IT Corporation, asbestos handling, and what Sempra Energy's Jackie McHugh promised at a 2001 city council meeting but never delivered on in Lemon Grove. If that fails, I just go with the flow, fire up the video games, and virtually kill things. Lots of things. No, I have no access to small parked airplanes waiting to be stolen.— February 26, 2010 1:05 p.m.
Let It Grow
This compares favorably to La Mesa's stance against poultry preening within its city limits. One wonders if there will be a community garden on top of the high school over the proposed San Diego main library that may or may not have San Diego's permanent homeless shelter in its basement.— February 26, 2010 12:55 p.m.
JP Morgan Will Buy Part of Sempra Trading Business Tuesday
RE #2: I have had a deep suspicion for awhile now that RBS Sempra Metals being a leading trader at the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange, where Royal Bank of Scotland is also the lead underwriter of Dubai World debt and Sempra Energy's main partner in RBS Sempra Commodities, has more than a little bit to do with the profitability of Sempra Energy's non-utility unregulated businesses. Conclusive evidence that RBS Sempra Metals is a purchaser of conflict gold smuggled out of the Congo through Uganda is hard to come by, but it would make for a good accounting for some portion of roughly $300 million annually in smuggled nuggets in that commodity pipeline.— February 26, 2010 12:41 p.m.
San Diego is a services economy
RE #32: I guess the recent SDG&E 3% rate increase makes Sempra Energy a more attractive investment now, where next quarter's SDG&E pass-through of profit to its corporate parent must be well in excess of $107M. If not, then I'm missing something...— February 26, 2010 10:50 a.m.
Council's convention center cash
I am wondering if Sempra Energy does or does not want to see a convention center expansion that includes enough solar panels to make it energy-independent... along with the rather large hotel next door as part of a PUC-approved electricity cooperative. Convention center energy independence seems to be a point on which the City of San Diego's 1970 electricity franchise ordinance is rather silent.— February 26, 2010 10:09 a.m.
Local Lead Indicators Continue Rising
I am motivated by the above report to start a new business in San Diego. Motivation to make some Internet sales also comes in the form of a $70K bill from SDG&E and Sempra Energy. Unfortunately, I don't actually plan on hiring anybody. If I see a need to expand my fledgling software company, I'll just entertain offers from people who, like worker bees in the insurance industry, only wish to be known as independent contractors.— February 26, 2010 9:59 a.m.
San Diego is a services economy
As good as this article is in pointing out how limited our economy can be when we turn out few products beyond a few ships, flying drones, and aerospace components for sale elsewhere, we must also consider how much money is siphoned off by Sempra Energy from everyone who happens to be plugged into the grid. Sempra Energy receives sums approaching half a billion a year from local electricity franchisee SDG&E (based on quarterly reports of SDG&E earnings to Sempra Energy in excess of $100 million every three months, where SDG&E was recently granted another 3% rate increase by CPUC). And what does Sempra Energy do with this pot o' gold? Between 37% to 40% of Sempra Energy's retained earnings gets paid out as dividends to stockholders, most of whom are institutional investors not based anywhere near San Diego County. Of the rest, none of it goes to putting power lines underground to reduce our threat of wildfires, as the Governator proposes another property fee to address the wildfire threat. From the Corporate Viewpoint: Who said bribing people to hold onto stock is a bad thing?— February 23, 2010 9:49 a.m.
JP Morgan Will Buy Part of Sempra Trading Business Tuesday
There is an interesting story in how an Enron commodities trading unit became Sempra Energy, and how Sempra Commodities then became part of RBS Sempra Commodities (http://public.sempra.com/newsreleases/viewpr.cfm?…). In 2000 during the great California electricity crisis, SDG&E vehemently denied being involved in any electricity feedback loops where cheap California electricity was sold out of state and repurchased here at inflated prices... and SDG&E was probably right. It didn't have to be involved as long as its parent Sempra Energy had its division Sempra Commodities to handle the dealings. Remember the SIMPLY STATED: SEMPRA ENERGY 2000 ANNUAL REPORT comments on page 6 regarding Sempra's sophistication in making trades of the greatest complextity, along with its prediction that by 2003 a third of Sempra Energy income would be from unregulated business transactions.— February 19, 2010 10:12 p.m.
Well Insured
One wonders if there are cross-purposes involved in the numerous Vargas supporters cited above and SDG&E's inability to find enough wildfire insurers for the Sempra Energy-owned public utility to withdraw its Wildfire Expense Balancing Account (WEBA) application, now pending before the California Public Utilities Commission as a stealth rate increase to consumers of unknown size... "And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand" (Mark 3:25).— February 13, 2010 11:47 a.m.
The Big Payoff
"Committee chairwoman Donna Frye asked staff to produce figures on the actual cost of the pickups over the previous two years, and when they couldn’t, the committee voted to postpone the matter until February 24." Has the mayor or anyone else in city administration provided the media with any hard numbers where members of the public can plainly see any advantage to this outsourcing plan? If so, do the alleged savings significantly outweigh the reported political contributions?— February 13, 2010 10:50 a.m.