Electricity Rate-Cut Initiative Launched

Supporters of a proposed initiative that would reduce electricity rates for residential and small-business customers by 20% have begun collecting the approximately 600,000 signatures needed to qualify the measure for the November ballot. The proposed initiative would alter the state’s new deregulation law, which begins a restructuring of the state’s electricity market on March 31. Customers of Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric, who received a mandated 10% rate cut on Jan. 1, will be able to buy electricity from any provider they choose after March 31. The 10% rate cut “was more than underwhelming,” said Nicolette Touissant of The Utility Reform Network, or TURN. The initiative would replace that rate reduction, would bar taxes, surcharges and other assessments from electricity bills, and would provide for public review of state Public Utilities Commission decisions. The California Chamber of Commerce, which is part of a coalition opposing the initiative, believes the measure would open the state to lawsuits and would eliminate competitive electricity pricing. It contends taxpayers would be “on the hook” for $6 billion in bonds sold to provide the 10% rate reduction, said President Allan Zaremberg.