MICHAEL FRENCH
Staff Writer
One of the more complicated issues on the special ballot will be Proposition 80. It is a bill that, if passed, will regulate how Californians obtain energy.
It would do five things. First, the bill would ensure that electric companies use renewable energy sources for 20 percent of their energy.
It would also cause an increasing number of energy consumers to pay varied rates based on the seasonal changes. Prop 80 will put all electric service providers (ESP) under the control of the public utilities commission. It would prohibit select energy users from changing from one ESP to another one and enable some energy consumers to use a new ESP.
Lastly, the proposition would mandate long-term procurement plans for all ESPs. They would have to find a way to prove they can provide energy for the foreseeable future.
The bill has so many aspects to it that most voters are confused. Even some noted experts aren’t sure what it does.
Dr. Michael Shires, assistant professor of public policy and director of the Murray S. Craig Digital Democracy Lab, an organization that examines ways that technology can enhance government official accountability, said that he is aware of the ambiguity of the proposition.
“Most of the questions I am asked are about this proposition,” Shires said. “That is because people know the least about it.”
There is fierce debate on both sides of the fence on this proposition. Proponents of the proposition say that Prop. 80 is good for the state and a sensible response to the disastrous attempt to deregulate California’s electricity market.
“It will require electricity providers to have the ability to keep the lights on during peak demand. Market stability, the electric utilities will know how many customers they will have to serve, so they can make long-term commitments to obtain new supplies,” Bob Finkelstein, executive director of TURN, The Utility Reform Network, a non-profit that advocates for consumers, said in a recent article for the San Francisco Chronicle that Prop. 80.
Supporters of this assertion are calling Prop. 80 the “Blackout Prevention Act.”
Shires disagreed.
“I think Prop. 80 is an attempt to undo 1996, but I don’t think that it can be undone,” Shires said, referring to the deregulation of energy industry that the state legislature passed that year.
Opponents of Prop. 80 consider the bill useless and counterproductive to the progress of energy use.
Due to the unstable nature of the electricity supply, it is virtually impossible to ensure anything in regard to energy supply, according to Shires.
11-03-2005