but what's happening over there is that the utilities, the baseload utilities have lost like $800 million in market valuation over the last 15 months or so. and so as you go to renewables and you try to -- you have to place more emphasis on distribution at the local bubbles, there's not enough capital and utility industry there to meet those needs. and so they have a real conflict in europe right now, and interestingly enough, they have my fault 30 gigawatts of electricity -- plants producing electricity from natural gas in europe because of the high cost of natural gas coming out of russia. and we had our largest export market of coal last year in recent memory, and the europeans took 45% of that. because when germany closed down their nuclear power plants, they realized, and other countries over there, realized they had to use them goal. to this administration talks all the time about all the above policies is in effect in their greenhouse gas going to prohibit even the option of building a new coal fired plant in the future. so if a going to talk about and all of the above policy, and

well but utilities kill us -- tell us? >> it will take a little bit different shape and region indicated is highly reachable by nature and in some regions like the midwest you have a renewable standards and in other parts you have regional utilities and states coming together and talking about some of those issues and other regions like the southeast, you have a much different situation you don't have access to the renewables and you have a different structure in those states. i just believe they have to be open to understanding the differences in accommodating those. >> at this time we recognize the gentleman from new york for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chair. you know t noted that improvemet between the years 2011 and 2012 in the number of minor weather-related covemayanweathem transmission related outages come as you know we have several other related issues that can country due to the reliability problems. older or transmission lines and equipment that needs to be upgraded or replaced and increased in severe weath

we worked and looked at ways that we can utilize the building for an office building.build an icon i can building that will house a lot of city departments. >> the san francisco public utilities commission has an important job. we provide clean, pristine public drinking water to 2.6 million people in the san francisco bay area from the hetch hetchy regional water system. with also generate clean renewable energy for city services like public buses, hospitals, schools, and much more. and finally, we collect and treat all the city's wastewater and stormwater making it safe enough to discharge into the san francisco bay and pacific ocean. >> in 2006 the puc was planning a record number of projects. >> the public utilities commission is a very infrastructure-rich organization. we're out there rebuilding the water system. we've budget working on power generation in the country. we've been doing sewer for the city. we're looking at a brand-new rebuild of all watt systems in san francisco and we haven't had a home that's been other than mental. >> they staff over 900 people.

they are above and beyond what you would predict for utilization. now as far as the average, as you remember, uhs is a length of time of average length of stachlt -- stay. it's 6.5. it far exceeds the norm for northern california, in the sense that it's usually expected to see it under 5. we did want to point out but just in passing because we don't know the amen of the maternity for individuals. this was surprising the age is 48 so you would expect higher risk pregnancies which means longer days of stay. we don't know the age of the people that had the babies. we can't say much. again, looking at heche which is what you would expect having admits in 3 of the four last quarters. their average stay is under one day.1 day. moving on to page 9, what is the total cost per day. it's 42 percent per year. this corresponds to 75 percent of that cost increase due to several high cost claimants. as you can see you have one that's almost $500,000, another slightly over $300,000, one about $300,000 and the last one for $120,000. what that results is that the av

i'm the general manager of the san francisco public utilities commission. i have been with the city for 32 years. one of the themes that i had a passion was to provide opportunities to san franciscans in participating in city contracts. so for 16 years, i have been working closely with the now mayor on how we can get that done. so, there has been a series of events that we've been able to accomplish together. i think that this is really one of the major events to open up a center in this community to help local businesses to get opportunities on city projects. one of the things that i wanted to say about the center is that one of the themes when we are were looking for a spot for the center is available parking. you notice that you can actually park. the other thing is that given the fact that, the 49ers are leaving, we thought this would be an adequate replacement for the stadium. so one of the things that we wanted to focus is how can we provide opportunities to local businesses, businesses that are doing work in san francisco and also hiring local reside

that presented a threat of competition to the private utilities.stify the expenditure required to build these dams, electricity had to be sold. that would be produced by these hydroelectric units which were to be installed in the dams. that feature disturbed people who opposed tva. they thought that was a function the government ought not to engage in. the private utilities were successful in their opposition until 1933, when a newdministration with an activistiew of government's role came into power. franklin delano roosevelt created e tennesseelleyuthority. wiiam jennings randolph was a member of congress during the roosevelt administration. the tennessee valley authority was a product of the new deal. it was not doling out money here and there. it was the planning of an area in the united states where there would be a development. hydroelectric power was a part of it. the plan to provide economic development to the appalachian region began with the construction of the norris dam on the clinch river. began with the construction the tva plan was a

shut off utilities if it's safe to do it. you report it. we can cordon off the area just to make sure nobody else goes in the area. definitely tell the fire chief or whoever and we can go in there and try to do it safely. when we talk about search and rescue, i really want to make a distinction between searching and rescuing. searching is really basically looking for people; right? once we find a person we switch modes and go into this rescue mode. when we talk about search and rescue, try not to get it too mixed up because you think dfrpbtly based on what you are doing. if you are searching, you think about certain things and if you are rescuing somebody, you think about other things. the first rule, of course, would be do not become a victim yourself. whenever you do a search, you have to preplan. you have to understand who is doing what. we suggest that you work in two teams of at least two people, so that's at least four people doing a search at the very, very, very least. you want a team on the outside and a team on the inside. proper

going to be and we have a lot ahead of us in what is planned in terms of how we are going to be utilizing our streets that we make sure that there is a really clear means, either in our municipal codes and communication, education, and so that we all understand it. recommendation four is to establish a pay and paint policy so that we are not doing or building out permitly recycled tracks or bike lanes or permanent ones, especially in the neighborhood commercial corridors or areas where we have our business districts but a lot of development is happening. and this a pave and paint approach and you have the most ability to be nimble to adapt and change as things change and you are able to understand the dynamics of an area. recommendation five is to conduct with the businesses directly adjacent so that installing the bus shul shelters and and to work with the businesses that the bus shelters are going to be the plans to install are close to. and again, the storefront is an incredible is incredibly important for our businesses on the street front level and it really does effect a business's

, there are some that are not as heavily utilized in certain areas, and some of that from our commission has noted is due to signage. and number 12, develop occupantcy reports of all sfmta parking lots to inform the board whether the existing hours of operation is appropriate in certain areas, especially in areas in or near the extensive night life activities and how can we utilize the parking garages more for those areas and i apologize i didn't add that our commission is very interested in having a discussion at some point or, tonight, about what we can do about adding parking garages i know that it is not, there are issues around that, but if they are going to be substantially removing parking then and we are adding a lot of new residential buildings, this may be xhg that we may need to bring back on to the table and take a look at. and what can we do together to deal with that? and then lastly i want to acknowledge what you have done over the years. you are probably, i would say that you are the most stellar, department, in terms of utilizing technology, to improve its delivery of sy

and then, also to assess the number of locations of loading zones, and have a loading zones are utilized for deliveries and the number of businesses that require the deliveries and i want to stress that the deliveries are not just ups and all of those type of delivery vehicles and we have small business and florists and caterers and so we have, hardware stores that have smaller vehicles, and so, to do an assessment of the type of deliveries and sort of the days the hours and the frequencies so that we also get a good understanding, of that transportation need, and dynamic. and the projects impact the loading zones and or the deliveries must include the proposals to mitigate the impact and assess and analyze the green zones and any impact resulting in the loss of those green zones, the green zones are usually businesss that have a high in and out for the customer base. and where can they go in and out quickly. and then determine if the project area will effect any other city initiative such as partlets and things of that sort, because sometimes the neighborhood and both the neighborhood a

if the supervisor feels that the number of hours per day the legislative aide is utilizing of the extra language or languages, in some cases, then the supervisor will let me know that the aide is in fact utilizing premium pay and meets the standard of the premium pay requirements. >> so, we currently have the ability to do that, but just haven't enacted premium pay? >> supervisor avalos, we don't have the funding in our budget, but this is the first year since i've been the clerk of the board that it has been requested of the department's budget. so, we'd like to provide that service if supervisors would like us to. >> and i think it's worthy of supporting. >> chair farrell, if i could just thank joe [speaker not understood] for all of her work on the department's budget. i wouldn't be able to stand before you without her good work and that of deborah landis. >> thank you very much. if with there are no other questions, we'll open this item up to public comment. seeing none, public comment is closed. before we adjourn, i was just informed this is mr. victor young's last meeting as our c

welcome to public utilities commission meeting. for those of you who know what we do during the day a lot of it is construction, contractors and infrastructure and those that represent farming and gardening and what we talk about is how we can give assistance to folks who want to have contracts with the public utilities commission. i think it's great news that we are going to have a grand opening for the contractors assistance center. it's a free service by the puc and they are going to be working with business people within the community and outside of the community and they are going to have a grand opening. that grand opening is monday december 16th, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.. for those of you who are able to attend, please join us on that day. it's a great service and something we can all be proud of and staff hitting it out of the park with that one. commissioners, anything else on communication? seeing none, is there any further public comment on the communication? seeing none, public comment is closed. other business madam

utility managers have been making due by firing off thermal and hydro generators.till, they are urging people to conserve because they expect power reserves to dip to dangerous lows this winter, especially in hokkaido. the grid connecting hokkaido offers the lowest amount of energy compared to other lines. if supplies dwindled, replenishing them would take time. so utilities and government officials have started an energy conservation campaign for winter. >> translator: this year we are expecting severe cold weather. we need to have multiple prevention measures in place in case of power station failure. >> reporter: one of those measures involves requiring their most energy hungry clients to cut consumption. the utility offers rate reductions and in return, the high demand users must save electricity. more and more of those users have been installing something called a demand monitor to track their energy consumption. it advises people to switch off electronic devices when power consumption rises above a set limit. >> translator: we believe we are responsible for c

you already had classes on utility controls, correct? how about medical? did medical?s i said, my name is alec, i'm on truck 11. let's go into some light search and rescue. before you start, what do you do? stop, look, listen and think. any time you pull up to an incident or you see something, you take a breath, assess the situation, use all your senses and think about what you are going to do. those are all components of what we call the size-up. there are many components to size up. what's one of the components to size up? gathering facts. you want to assess the type of damage there is. what kind of situation is it? what is the issue? is it a medical problem? if it's a medical, is it a big hurt or a little hurt? is it a rescue situation and if it's a fire, do you have the resources to control or extinguish that fire? how about your situation, do you have all your people? do you have all the resources that you need? have you collected all the material that you need if you are going to start doing a lifting exercise because someone is trapped? because you never start a

utilities are looking very carefully at expansion and retirement plans. that is true for gas, coal, nuclear. in our reference case, we project natural gas price to gradually rise to the point where it makes it attractive to maintain and keep most of these plants around, but that is a very uncertain future. many of the things adam pointed out about demand growth and all those things could affect that and we will be running, and we have for the last several years because the uncertainty makes us look at alternative cases. what if it doesn't make sense to keep the plants running another 20 years beyond their 60 year life? it is a big issue, and if it is replaced, it will be replaced by very efficient natural gas. the emission impacts, although positive it is not as large as , one might expect because of that. >> a question on nuclear if i may. based on what you said, is it correct to surmise that your forecast for nuclear includes no additional new construction? beyond the four or five lance currently? >> no additional new construction. there are couple of p

so it's just a great opportunity for me to lead the public utilities commission, but i would like to introduce you my boss. he's the president of the commission. he's a labor guy, he really understands construction. he has been working closely with me when i have any issues about the building trades or any other unions he's been working closely with us with the puc and in fact he's been helping mohammed and i on other issues. he's been a great asset. i would like to bring him up here. [ applause ] >> i won't take up too much time. good evening, everybody. thank you for having me. i'm excited to be here for a number of reasons. i did want to touch on a few. no. 1, what i saw when i came in is i saw more evidence of government working for people in delivering and making opportunities for folks that we represent to make plays. it's critically important that you have all the opportunities in every community that are perceived to be under served, but every community. i'm excited to be standing here with clift on birch, a man that i went to college with. that's what san francisco is about

they say the utility company linked to the disaster is responsible. here's a abc's aditi roy. >> reporter: 24-year-old single mom lindsey cooper struggles with fear every day. >> my biggest fear is not knowing what's going to happen afterwards and not being able to take care of myself and my daughter afterwards. >> this former navy sailor said she suffered from a thyroid condition and fights issues related to overwhelming stress. she believes her health issues are a result of the radiation at the fukishima nuclear power plant. >> 51 in are part of a lawsuit filed earlier this year against the tokyo electric power company which operates the plant. >> this was an accident waiting to happen. if a nuclear reactor cannot with stand an earthquake andives location, it is operated by the people, the tepco people they are responsible. >> the judges missed the original lawsuit because of procedural issues but gave the plaintiffs until january 6th to make changes to the lawsuit and are have her reconsider it. the suit claims that tepco created an impression that

into now because he's been is here, if you have a question please utilize the microphone. think you. [applause] >> go-ahead. the first mental defectives. [laughter] >> of all of these millions or billions of names on the database what claims have been made by the government of actual interceptions of terrorist activities? or something like that? >> i think the argument the government has used post edward snowden the collection was justified because we caught terrorist was a stupid argument on the part of the government. money explain why they make stupid arguments. it is important. part of the problem is they don't want to say what they're really doing. the news media the american aesthetic choice is that they are surveiling everyone for the government to say no is like it is a little late because they are not to. they are collecting all information. they don't really know what to do with that information yet to. they pull it through the algorithms to do data mining and analysis is and they have programs like b.r.a.g. in which they utilize the information is there are one

utility crews from all over new england are working around the clock to help. >> this is not the cs k christm they imagined for themselves. after the messy weekend storm, utility crews are exhausted as they race to restore power. >> we work 17 on, 7 off. i go home at 6:00 at night, i'm back in at 1:00 in the morning. >> reporter: but eat getting some help from new england utilities including the new england company of new hampshire. >> we have a lot of kids who don't have any power, no christmas lights. >> reporter: this lineman volunteered to help, working through the holiday. adding urgency to thatsjiÑ big temperatures were expected to drop into the single digits across maine. >> a lot of people don't have heat. pipes are going to start freezing. so the sooner we can get up there and sooner we can help, the better for everybody. >> to west, in vermont, where several thousand people still have no electricity for most of christmas eve, firefighters in some towns were going door to door to check on residents. you have power here? >> they were letting people know about shelters and urgi

they are imposing restrictions that would severely limit san franciscans ability to utilize ggnra and result in a shift from many dogs from the federal urban recreation areas to already over crowded city parks. board of supervisors recently unanimously passed the resolution that i authored to oppose this proposal by the national parks service. congresswoman jackie spears has been very supportive in the opposition to the park services plan and our federal representative democratic leader, nancy pelosi recently sent a letter to the park service asking the park service to extend the public comment period which it subsequently did and also take into account the recreational needs of dog walker's and dog owners at the g gnra. mr. mayor, do you agree that the ggnra plan goes too far in restricting dog access? will you work with the board of supervisors and our federal representative to encourage the national park service to alter the plan, to take into account of the needs of dog owners and dog walker's to use these properties? mayor edwin m. lee: supervisor wiener thank you for the questio

after gathering the data, utilities can assess the need for rehabilitation. sinha: you have to choose the rehabilitation technique so that the life of the pipe can be extended 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. allbee: any asset has an optimal investment strategy. if you're making investments in that asset too early, or too late, you're wasting money. it costs about three times as much to fix a system once it's failed. so it's all about finding that right point where the dollars should flow toward that asset. narrator: but finding the funds to evaluate and rebuild these assets is an ongoing struggle. johnson: there is a gap between what's being spent by municipalities and water supply systems and what needs to be spent. and somehow that has to be made up. so there's a good bit of lobbying through congress to get funding. oberstar: we need to restore the construction grant program. we need to invest substantially more, on the federal government side, as an inducement to states and local governments to make the investments they need to make. man: but the federal rol