To the editor:

Thanks for exposing the “campaign” of anti-PUD signs sprinkling our island, most placed on public property, as the work of “Strategies 360,” a political operative firm hired by Puget Sound Energy.

In the current parlance, this is what is termed an Astroturf group, i.e., fake grassroots, and is a widely used ploy when deep-pocketed corporations take the low road to persuade the public away from something that hurts the corporate bottom line. Similar attacks are being staged in Skagit and Jefferson counties that are also intent on escaping the tightening corporate economic chains that currently encircle our power supply.

Power company public scare tactics have been going on ever since 1941 when Puget Sound Power & Light opposed with scary billboards the formation of the very successful Seattle City Light.

As the PUD campaign “heats up” for the next two months, expect to see more of things like Astroturf organizations, astronomical estimates of the worth of PSE property on the island (an inflated $130 million), warnings that elected power commissioners can tax us to death, warnings of hyper-inflated power bills, “information” offices set up in our towns, etc.

Don’t be fooled. Get informed and inform your neighbors.

Come to the Exchange Forum in the Clinton Community Hall 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday to get down-to-earth reassuring information from the “People for Yes on Whidbey PUD” that this can be done (as many PUDs in the state have found out) and with some initial effort we can regain control of years of our energy future.

And just in time, as PSE gets bought off by MacQuarrie of Australia, even more profit oriented, a corporation that locals even refer to as their “Enron.”

Mark Wahl

Langley