San Diegans electric bills have doubled and tripled compared to last year s rates. Priests are picketing the skyscraper of the utility s corporate parent, Sempra Energy. A.B. 2290, the bill that would roll back rates to 1999 levels, is not assured of passage in the Assembly. In the Senate, it passed by only one vote more than the two-thirds majority needed for an emergency measure. The vote was 28-0, with many of the state s 40 senators abstaining.
Consumer groups favor the rollback.
But critics of the measure wonder who would pay for the retroactive price cut. But we have to stop the hemorrhaging in San Diego. CPUC Commissioner Richard Bilas said the rollback passed by the state Senate might be illegal and would probably be challenged by electricity suppliers. Gov. Gray Davis has proposed his own version of a rate cap for San Diego. Sen. Steve Peace, D-El Cajon, the chief architect of 1996 law that deregulated California s electricity market, has blamed the CPUC for a large share of the current troubles.