Consumer Federation of California

Prop 16 was DEFEATED by a vote of 52.5% no to 47.5% yes!!!

One wealthy utility ‘ PG&E ‘ put Prop 16 on the ballot to guarantee that its electric monopoly will never be challenged. Prop 16 locks in the high rates that PG&E charges for electricity. It makes it almost impossible for consumers to save money on their utility bills through bulk purchasing arrangements with electric suppliers.

Environmentalists oppose Prop 16 because it reduces access to green renewable electricity options. Unions and local businesses oppose Prop 16 because legal experts believe that in areas served by municipal electric utilities (LA Department of Water and Power, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and many others) it would stop housing sales and job creation.

Prop 16: A PG&E Power Grab

Individual customers have no bargaining power with PG&E or other for-prot utilities. PG&E sets the rate. You pay the bill. End of discussion.

PG&E is spending $44.5 million on Prop 16 to make sure this never changes. PG&E wants to lock in its high rates and electric monopoly. If YOU owned a power
company, would you spend $44.5 million on an initiative unless it would
increase your profits?

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s
Office, the California Attorney General and the California Tax Reform
Association all agree ‘ this measure does not protect taxpayers. If this
measure passes, it won’t change: state sales taxes, property taxes,
capital gains taxes, income taxes, gas taxes, car taxes, estate taxes,
corporate taxes, payroll taxes or local education taxes. If this measure
isn’t about taxes, then what IS it about?

Prop 16 Stops Competition

PG&E customers, who are forced to pay some of the highest rates in
the nation, are about to see another rate hike. But it doesn’t end there
‘ PG&E has another FIVE rate increases pending. But PG&E has a
problem ‘ their customers are starting to leave to buy their power on
the open market.

A new law lets cities negotiate better rates directly from companies that generate electricity. Using the combined purchasing power of thousands of residents, cities can bypass PG&E to save customers money.

Prop 16 requires a two-thirds vote before any city can negotiate better electric rates for residents. If Prop 16 passes, any time local government wants to get residents a better deal, PG&E will do exactly what they are doing right now with Prop 16 ‘ spend a fortune on ads to mislead voters. And PG&E will only need to trick one-third of voters in any city to stop price competition.

Hurts Green Energy

A state law passed in 2002 allows California cities and counties to
combine their citizens’ purchasing power to buy electricity, reducing
consumer costs and enhancing local control and consumer protections.

Several cities are negotiating to buy green power from generators of wind, solar and other renewable electricity. But Prop 16’s 2/3 vote requirement will halt cities from moving faster to clean green energy, leaving millions of Californians locked into PG&E’s fossil fuel power generation.

With
a level playing field, California-based green energy producers will be
able to compete with out-of-state dirty power. PG&E would rather
enshrine their monopoly in the California Constitution than compete
fairly with other energy companies.

PG&E: Taxpayer Bailout King

Before Wall Street
investment firms, multinational banks and car manufacturers received
their billions in taxpayer bailouts, there was PG&E. PG&E
received the largest bailout of a private company in the HISTORY of
California. That money still hasn’t been paid back, but they have
millions to spend on an initiative that locks their customers into high
power bills FOREVER.

Who Opposes Prop 16?

Nearly every daily paper in the state has editorialized against Proposition 16:

Sacramento Bee Editorial:” Prop. 16: Recipe for higher utility bills”

Lost Angeles Times Editorial: “PG&E’s misguided proposition”

San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: “No on Proposition 16”

Other Prop 16 Opponents:

AARP
Sierra Club
League of Women Voters
TURN (The Utility Reform Network)

Check out the
complete list of opponents of Prop16 campaign.

The PG&E ballot measure is another troubling example of the initiative process going dangerously awry in California, of a powerful special interest seizing the initiative process for its own narrow benet.’

– Sacramento Bee Editorial, January 19, 2010

Suggested Press Articles

For the full story, read the article by Yasha Levine entitled “PG&E’s Audacious Attempt to Enshrine Its Energy Monopoly In the California Constitution“.

Michael Hiltzik, a Los Angeles Times columnist, wrote “PG&E ballot measure is a stealthy power play…This measure proves that California’s initiative process has become “a plaything of powerful interests using deception and misdirection to line their pockets’The Taxpayers Right to Vote Act is a dagger aimed directly at a movement to enable municipalities to offer renewable green power to their residents in competition with private utilities.”

You can also read the
article by Beyond Chron’s Paul Hogarth in the
California Progress Report entitled, ‘Prop 16 is Worst Measure on June Ballot’

Say no to yet another corporate power grab. Vote No on Proposition 16.