According to the California Municipal Utilities Association, PUC Proposal Risks California...

According to the California Municipal Utilities Association, PUC Proposal Risks California Consumers Again

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
Last Friday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)
issued a proposed decision on its recommendations to the California
Air Resources Board (CARB) for greenhouse gas regulation. "The
proposal demonstrates that the CPUC did not learn from the disastrous
restructuring of California's electricity industry and that
artificially created market structures have many unintended
consequences," said Jerry Jordan, Executive Director of the California
Municipal Utilities Association.

"The electricity market crisis in 2000-2001 cost California
consumers $20 billion a year (an extra $13 billion a year) for the two
years of the crisis when previously, the cost had been about $7
billion a year," said Mr. Jordan. "The electric industry restructuring
plan was recommended to the Legislature by the CPUC," he said. "Now,
the CPUC is proposing to the California Air Resources Board that it
adopt a program of auctioning off at least some of the greenhouse gas
allocations. Such auctions can only result in greatly increased costs
to consumers and windfall profits to non-electric industry bidders
such as hedge funds."

The CPUC proposal also suggests that CARB should regulate energy
efficiency and renewable portfolios. California already has mandated
all cost effective and feasible energy efficiency and there is great
competition for renewable resources amongst all utilities. The CPUC
proposal confuses the standards for greenhouse gas emissions with the
tools necessary to meet those standards. Publicly owned utilities are
fully committed to meeting the greenhouse gas emission standards but
must be able to creatively and aggressively manage their portfolio of
tools to meet the standards at the lowest cost to their consumers.

The California Municipal Utilities Association is a statewide
non-profit association of publicly owned electric, water and gas
utilities.

California Municipal Utilities Association
Jerry Jordan or Bret Barrow, 916-326-5800

Copyright Business Wire 2008