In a PG&E press release dated May 29, 2026, the company announced a “major power system upgrade” to south Santa Cruz County. PG&E will increase electrical capacity from 4 kV to 21 kV, and install higher capacity electrical cables above and below ground, transformers, and other equipment.
But in a notice to customers June 10, 2026 (p. 1, p. 2), PG&E gave no information on the planned changes, saying only that the company was replacing utility poles.
These upgrades appear to be linked to new battery energy storage (BESS) facilities planned near Watsonville on farmland and near a bird refuge, despite public objections.
All of this will come at an environmental price. And those who live near this equipment will be exposed to higher levels of EMF, which can cause health problems including leukemia.
The hazards of BESS and lack of public protections have been in sharp focus since the fires at the Moss Landing BESS in January and February 2024.
In Santa Clara County, some Gilroy residents found out about a permitted Amazon data center only after it started construction due a secretive permitting process that doesn’t involve the public. NBC Bay Area reports: “A data center is a facility the city can approve for its industrial zone by the city’s community development director rather than through a public City Council process.” A city council meeting June 15 will consider how these type of permits are granted.
Meanwhile, in Monterey Park near Los Angeles, voters approved a ban on data centers after the city council placed it on the ballot, following public input.
Erin Brockovich has taken this on as a focus area with a new website studying and tracking data centers.
A coalition of Wisconsin organizations has provided a data center toolkit called Big Tech Unchecked.
Industry groups aren’t taking this lightly. An pro-data center editorial appeared in the Monterey Herald this weekend and in other California newspapers, purportedly from a “watchdog” group. Unfortunately, the group has long been associated with the tobacco industry and is an arm of the pro-business Atlas Network.
Given all the significant issues around these data centers including high energy use leading to increased electric bills for the public, extremely high water use impacting aquifers, pollution, noise, impact on farmland, and use in surveillance, Monterey Park’s action is a wise step for every community. The money and lobbying influence from giant corporations like Amazon is difficult for politicians to resist, regardless of the impacts.
Will the Monterey Bay region counties and cities to emulate Monterey Park leaders? Or will this region’s leaders allow its land, air, water, and electric grid to be compromised by data/surveillance centers?
Comment deadline: Friday, June 5 EPA Docket No. EPA-HQ-OPP-2025-3951
Experimental use permit for Google to release 64 million bacteria-infected mosquitoes in California and Florida
The EPA opened public comments May 6 but provided no public notice in Monterey County newspapers, despite the potentially serious health and environmental impacts.
The public comment must be extended for minimum30-45 days, afternotice has first been posted in area newspapers by the EPA, paid for by Google.
This experiment could:
— Create more resistant, stronger mosquitoes — Disrupt a vital food source for bats, birds, and fish which could cause devastating effects — Cause illness and death to wildlife which consumed these mosquitoes — Cause severe disruption and harm to the entire ecosystem — Cause damage to agriculture — Cause illness or death in humans bit by these mosquitoes
The docket even fails to state the locations where these engineered insects will be released.
The state of California and the US government has conducted many experiments on nature and humans, claiming that these would have no damaging effect. Sometimes these experiments have been secret and only discovered years later.
The EPA has come under intense criticism for its suppression of information and acting against the public interest in East Palestine, the Fukushima disaster, and most recently, at the Moss Landing Battery Storage fires, where they used inappropriate sampling methods which diluted toxins, with the results that they found no significant exposure [see Moss Landing Monterey County Board of Supervisors hearing 3/17/26 under the Energy/Utilities tab]
Copperline landlines are essential infrastructure. They work in power outages and in most disasters; the lines are powered, including making your phone ring, so you can reach 911 and your doctor, receive evacuation notices, stay connected to elderly and ill loved ones, and have others connect to you. This stellar service provides pinpoint location data to emergency responders when seconds count – a house invasion, a fire, someone is choking, has a heart attack, or stroke. Historically, the phone network was so reliable it was said to have “five nines” reliability — 99.999% reliable– meaning you had a dial tone for all but 5 minutes per year on average. The voice quality is superior, it’s secure, and it doesn’t drop calls. The lines also provide DSL internet. Plus, Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) status requires AT&T to provide service to everyone who asks without discrimination.
VoIP and wireless require batteries. When the battery dies, there is no connection. They have problems with reliability. They are not available everywhere or are not consistently available. Wireless devices including wireless VoIP have health and safety problems.
Lifeline is a special program for that subsidizes low income customers.
Critical Deadlines
June 2, 12:00pm PDT – Opposition statements due to CA Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee on Assembly Constitutional Amendment 9
June 3, 3:30pm PDT – Opposition statements due to CA Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee on Assembly Constitutional Amendment 9
June 15 – Comment deadline for FCC dockets 26-120 and 26-121
June 22 – Comment deadline for FCC dockets 26-123 and 26-125
AT&T petitions to discontinue landline and Lifeline – 26-120, 26-121, 26-123, 26-125
AT&T filed the following petitions to the FCC to eliminate landlines and Lifeline in areas of California including in the Monterey Bay region. These petitions will be automatically granted if there is no opposition.
Deadlines for filing comments/opposition: June 15 and 22, 2026
Be sure to put the docket number and the Comp. Pol. File No. on your comments for 26-120 and 26-121.
Because the FCC streamlined the process to allow carriers to discontinue landline service as part of a “technology transition”, these requests are automatically grantedin most cases. Filing oppositions is the only way to protest AT&T discontinuance plans; it stops the FCC from automatically granting the applications. If they receive opposition, the FCC will remove AT&T’s application from “streamlining” and perform a review.
These applications contain the notice mailed 5/20 to customers.
Filing Oppositions or Comments is not difficult. To submit them to the FCC, you can prepare a letter and upload it (ECFS Standard Filing) or type/paste a comment into ECFS Express Filing.
Instructions for the longer Standard Filing form: Proceeding: Start typing the docket number such as 26-121 and the docket title will pop up . Click on the title and it will fill in the docket name. Fill in starred lines. Type of Filing: Click on the box and choose Comment or Opposition (the FCC says either category is okay) Address of: Click on box and choose whichever is correct Fill out remaining red starred items. Upload your document(s). Click in yellow box. Click blue “Continue to Review Screen” and submit from there.
ACA-9 would eliminate key CPUC regulatory functions over utilities, remove telecom companies from being considered public utilities and remove them from CPUC regulatory oversight in the California Constitution, and create a new expensive agency for broadband and telecom. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260ACA9
Senate hearings start June 8June 9; deadlines begin this week to submit position letters of protest. Each committee gives the deadlines for submitting position letters before each hearing. The current bill may be amended. If amended, the committees will only accept letters that are based on the most recent version. Check the link above for any amendments.
1) CANCELLED Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee hearing June 8. Opposition statements must be sent in by June 2 at noon. https://seuc.senate.ca.gov/committeehome
2 CANCELLED Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee hearing June 9, 9:30 AM.
The Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications analysis is the most thorough review of questions and issues with ACA-9. After the hearing was cancelled, it was taken down from the Senate website, presumably because the bill might be amended. You can read it here.
Contact senators, particularly those on the committees and educate them. Constitutional amendments require a 2/3 vote to pass.
CPUC R.24-06-012 docket on COLR and telephone service
AT&T has requested to eliminate its COLR obligations. The CPUC is in its final stages of reviewing COLR rules to set new rules or possibly discontinue all or most Carriers of Last Resort (COLR) in California. COLR means that these companies are required to provide basic phone service to all who request it. That service has meant landlines.
If AT&T’s COLR designation is eliminated, there will be no protection for the public because there are no functionally equivalent alternatives to the traditional landline phones, especially in rural and remote areas, but also in urban areas. “Reception” is not an issue for landlines, but it is a problem for wireless systems. Fiber isn’t available in many places, and those systems must have batteries. Non-COLR companies cannot be compelled to offer service to an applicant or offer landline service. Many people may have no coverage at all if AT&T and others decommission copper service, and that also includes those disabled by electromagnetic sensitivity and other EMF-sensitive disabilities who cannot tolerate wireless exposure.
The CPUC Staff Proposal proposes eliminating critical service elements of basic voice service, allowing carriers to more easily fulfill their COLR obligations via alternative services instead of copper. The proposal also significantly de-emphasizes voice and shifts to focusing on broadband connectivity instead.
Submit public comments by clicking the Public Comments tab at the top o the Docket page, and then clicking “Submit Public Comment”. Document files can also be emailed to public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov
Consumer parties include EMF Safety Network, TURN, Center for Accessible Technology, Rural County Representatives of California, and the Public Advocates Office at the CPUC (Cal Advocates). Their comments provide information on some of the important issues and considerations.
The proceeding began in 2024 and a proposed decision is expected at any time. The judge just issued a ruling to AT&T to clarify contradictory statements.
Call the California Attorney General 1-800-952-5225 (916-210-6276 out of state) Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish, then press 7 to leave a message for the Attorney General. For example: I am asking the attorney general to defend the rights of hundreds of thousands of Californians to reliable phone service by challenging AT&T’s petition to disconnect 200,000 customers and also fight AT&T’s lawsuit against you and the CPUC. The alternatives that AT&T claims are sufficient are inferior and inadequate (and not even functional everywhere), and if AT&T wins this lawsuit, thousands of Californians may never have reliable phone service again, so we need you to make this issue a top priority. Please also challenge the FCC order asserting preemption of state rules like COLR.
–
Extensive information is available on these and other landline dockets in the United States at https://phreaknet.org/action
Monterey Bay Matters 
