Only UCAN and TURN refuse to support the legislation. Other consumer groups decline to get involved. It passes unanimously. Gov. Pete Wilson signs legislation to open up California's electricity market to competition. The Public Utilities Commission spends the year making bad decisions or deferring important decisions necessary to make deregulation work.
Utilities begin taking steps to divest themselves of their generation plants.
Rates they can charge consumers are capped until the utilities complete that task. UCAN declines to support Proposition 9 on the basis that it doesn t provide a suitable alternative to the flawed legislation. By mid-summer, those customers' bills have tripled. The California Independent System Operator declares the first of 36 Stage Two alerts, when power reserves drop below 5 percent. The blackouts are caused by slim power supplies due to several Northern California power plants shut down for maintenance.