TURN threatens initiative if Edison Bill not passed

The advocacy group TURN, aka The Utility Reform Network, appears to have cozied up to Southern California Edison and is threatening to take energy reform to the voters:

Consumer groups said Wednesday that they might push for a ballot initiative that could close the door on attempts to deregulate California's electricity market should Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger veto a key power bill making its way through the Legislature.

The initiative would ask voters to permanently prohibit manufacturers, big-box stores and other major energy consumers from buying electricity at unregulated prices — a key feature of deregulation scenarios favored by the Schwarzenegger administration, which has said consumers should be allowed to "choose their energy providers."

"If we can figure out a way to bring this directly to the people of California, I think the response would be overwhelmingly favorable," said Bob Finkelstein, executive director of the Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco ratepayers advocacy group also known as TURN. "After the [deregulation] experiment blew up in their faces in 2001, they'll say, 'Yeah, we're not going to do that again.' "

...Nuñez and his allies say AB 2006 would protect against shortages by requiring that utilities have more than enough electricity on hand to handle demand on the hottest days — either from their own power plants or through long-term contracts with private generating companies. The bill would ensure that utilities such as Southern California Edison Co. could charge their customers rates that were high enough to pay for the cost of building power plants.

I am not quite sure why "consumer advocates" would want to guarantee higher prices, but I can be sure of one thing: if budgeting at the ballot box is risky, asking voters to make energy policy is an even riskier scheme.