The electricity crisis helped spark the successful recall effort in 2003 against then-Gov.
The change stalled after out-of-state companies manipulated the market in 20, driving up power rates in California by $20 billion or more and prompting rolling blackouts across the state. The idea of transforming the state power grid into a regional, multistate enterprise was first included in 1996, when California lawmakers deregulated the electricity sector. “California has made an historic commitment to be 100 percent renewable while avoiding the mistake of AB 813, which would have transferred renewable jobs to other states,” he said. San Diego attorney Michael Aguirre, who represented the Imperial Irrigation District, agreed. California has protected itself and its clean energy leadership.” This bad bill would have made California’s clean energy future vulnerable to Donald Trump and his coal cronies who would have run amuk not only in our electricity industry but also would have damaged our economy. “Toni Atkins and the Legislature have shown true leadership in beating back this wolf in sheep's clothing. “California dodged a dangerous bullet that would have subjected our electricity market and grid to big-money, fossil-fuel interests who wanted to break down the clean energy protections California has enacted over the past decade,” said Loretta Lynch, a former utilities commissioner and opponent of the bill. They also said it would undermine plans to generate most or all of the electricity consumed in California from renewable sources. A study from 2016 acknowledged the change would likely lead to the loss of thousands of construction jobs.Ĭonsumer advocates and some environmental groups, meanwhile, worried that California was wrongly ceding oversight of the grid to the coal-friendly Trump administration. CAISO projected savings to consumers of up to $1.5 billion a year.