From the SN&R blogs.

What’s PG&E got against reporters?

The utility has hired local political consultant David Townsend—the man who got Kevin Johnson elected mayor—to pimp its Proposition 16, the measure PG&E put on the June ballot to make it nearly impossible for public utilities like SMUD to start up or expand.

Late last month, Townsend agreed to a debate with state Sen. Mark Leno about the merits of Prop. 16, to be held in the Sacramento at a meeting of the Northern California Power Agency, which represents public power providers in California.

The weekly newspaper San Francisco Bay Guardian figured the meeting—of public power providers, about a public ballot measure, with public officials in attendance—would be, you know, public.

In fact, Sen. Leno invited the Guardian’s reporter, Brady Welch, to drive up to lovely Sacramento to check it out.

But Townsend had the poor reporter kicked out of the meeting, and the NCPA let him do it. A perfectly newsworthy—and did I mention public?—event, but PG&E didn’t want media coverage, so that was it.

Leno later told the Guardian, “With all due respect to David Townsend, I don’t see why a consultant wouldn’t want to discuss the themes of his campaign in public. I think his decision not to allow the press to hear him speaks for itself.” SN&R did try to contact Townsend for his version of this story. No response.

Compiled from Snog.

Hinky measures

Speaking of hinky ballot measures, conservatives are beginning to gather signatures for a ballot measure that would suspend California’s landmark climate-change law, Assembly Bill 32. The initiative, backed by Assemblyman Dan Logue, just got its official title and summary from the California attorney general, and it’s a doozy.

The description that will be presented to voters: “Suspends air pollution control laws requiring major polluters to report and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming until unemployment drops below specified level for full year.”

Helps “major polluters?” Who wouldn’t vote for that?

Initiative backers were furious about the stark language of the A.G.’s description, and threatened to sue the A.G. to get a more favorable title. Apparently, Logue wants to call it something like “The California Jobs Initiative.”

Too bad, says Steve Maviglio, a Democratic campaign consultant working for Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs, a group of environmental and business organizations that is already mobilizing to stop the Logue initiative. “The A.G. is just telling it like it is. This measure is a polluter’s dream and will kill a clean-energy economy for California.”

Compiled from Snog.