Utility Referendum Hits Signature Goal

Consumer activists trying to overturn parts of California’s utility deregulation law said they delivered more than 700,000 signatures to county clerks around the state, well beyond the 433,000 needed to qualify for the November ballot. Now the county clerk’s offices will check if the signatures are valid and will report to the secretary of state, who certifies ballot initiatives. The referendum would change the law so that consumers would not be responsible for paying off bonds that were sold to refinance nuclear plants and other investments that utilities say they must eliminate to compete in an open market. The initiative also would mandate a guaranteed rate reduction of at least 20% for consumers and small businesses compared with the 10% cut in electricity bills such ratepayers currently receive. A group opposing the initiative called it “a misguided effort to dismantle and jeopardize California’s deregulated electrical market that has already brought about greater customer choice, free market competition [and] lower electricity rates.” The group, called Californians for Affordable & Reliable Electrical Service, or CARES, is composed of utilities, the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Business Roundtable, among others.