Imposes New Two-Thirds Voter Approval Requirement for Local Public Electricity Providers
State of California
Initiative Constitutional Amendment – Majority Approval Required
Should the California Constitution be amended to require two-thirds voter approval before local governments can start up or expand electric service?
Requires two-thirds voter approval before local governments provide electricity service to new customers or establish a community choice electricity program using public funds or bonds.
Ever since the State of California deregulated electricity the consumers have been overrun with ever increasing electric rates. The delivery of electricity is now about making a profit and nobody makes more money than the utilities such as SDG&E and the Los Angeles utility PG&E, which by the way is banking rolling this proposition to the tune of $35 million.
The best way to maintain the high cost of electricity and the unbridled greed of these utilities, who can forget Enron, is to have a monopoly over these services and that is what Prop. 16 is all about limiting the opportunity of local cities to provide this service.
When the deregulation was first proposed the giant utilities pushed hard for deregulation arguing that deregulation would foster competition and in turn make the cost of electricity a bargain. Now that they have deregulation the giant utilities are now singing a different song and want to limit the competition by making it next to impossible for any city or local government to provide electric service.
Let’s tell the giant utilities no thanks and let us not make a bad deal even worse by limiting our options.
Vote NO on Prop. 16.