Marin Energy Freedom

After deliberations that didn't end till after midnight Tuesday, the Mill Valley City Council agreed to buy electricity for city services under the "light green" option of the Marin Clean Energy plan.

The city - the last member of the Marin Energy Authority to decide where and how to acquire its own energy to power city hall and other municipal accounts - met Monday evening to discuss the costs and risks of the clean energy initiative and whether to opt out entirely and stick with Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

TOTAL CONTROL* from No on Prop16 Films on Vimeo.

Belvedere and Fairfax have become the first two municipal governments in Marin to sign up for Marin Clean Energy's so-called "deep green" option, which guarantees their electricity will come from 100 percent renewable sources.

The power is for the two cities' government uses, such as at city hall and for other municipal services, and is separate from the power sources private households and businesses might select.

"The item took all of 14 minutes," said Belvedere City Manager George Rodericks, who said the City Council voted 4-1 on Tuesday to pay a small premium for 100 percent renewable energy. Councilman John Telischak cast the dissenting vote.

The largest electricity provider in California has now committed $35 million to a campaign to essentially crush any dreams of public utilities. Pacific Gas & Electric has a measure on the ballot for this June that would require a two-thirds vote for public utilities to open up shop or solicit new customers. Since that kind of majority is hard to finagle, Prop 16 could be a death sentence to competition against PG&E.

PG&E spends millions of dollars each year to defeat a public utilities option, but every few years it becomes an all-out rhetorical faceoff. The company calls its 2010 measure the "Taxpayers' Right to Vote Act," though the state attorney general made them change its official title. It was considered too misleading.