Energy Regulation Measure fails big

On a day where California voters uniformly rejected eight ballot measures, they saved their greatest smack-down for a measure to roll back the clock on electricity regulation.

Proposition 80 would have changed energy policy by spelling out market rules for how utilities buy power, barring most consumers from contracting directly with energy providers and encouraging nonpolluting energy sources like wind and solar.

The measure trailed by nearly 30 percentage points all evening and was opposed by voters in every county in the state except San Francisco.

Consumer advocates and labor unions put the measure on the ballot, arguing that it would spur power plant development and increase the electricity supply, preventing future blackouts.