TURN introduces Electric Reform Ballot Measure

Consumer Activist group TURN--The Utility Reform measure--will be circulating a petition to change the way we get electricity in California:

The Utility Reform Network has filed a ballot measure for circulation that would prohibit Californians from buying and selling electricity except from monopoly utilities and prohibit the state from billing residential customers using real-time meters and rates.

The stated goal is to encourage the construction of new generation--but it seems an odd way to go about it. Limiting consumer choice can never be good, and in order to average out the higher costs of peak-hour demand, consumers will probably pay on overall higher average rate per kilowatt hour. A better idea for building new generation might be to, say, run a ballot measure to build more generation.