SMUD
Freeman became general manager of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in 1990. He has said that SMUD was an embarrassment at that time, and the district was "reeling from two decades of rate hikes, construction cost overruns, operating failures, equipment outages, worker injuries, poor morale and management scandals". Freeman left SMUD in 1994 and as of 2012, SMUD is considered a model of efficiency, service and innovation. The turnaround began in 1989 when the people of Sacramento voted to close the Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station.
According to Freeman, since opening in 1971, Rancho Seco had "suffered dozens of emergencies, shutdowns, releases of radioactive material and accidents". Freed of this costly, unreliable and dangerous nuclear power station, SMUD went on to earn a worldwide reputation for its affordable, clean, renewable energy programs.
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