The record has not been favorable to either. It's easy to say the utilities didn't spend all the money. But if you look carefully at all those things, I don't think the charges are supported. Edison said that some money parked in its conservation account went unspent because it had been earmarked for customers who had pledged to save electricity but never did. For that money not to have been spent last year borders on criminal.
Records show that conservation began falling after the plan's implementation.
The new system made it easier for the utilities to earn so-called incentive bonuses from ratepayer bills. The bonuses were created in the late 1980s as a way to coax utilities into backing conservation without taking a financial hit from lower sales. But under the new system, the standard was lowered, making it easier for the utilities to reap bonuses. Today, the once highly touted market transformation program is gone. I care about whether the homes are weatherized, not whether we subsidize people to get into the energy-efficiency market.