TURN TO LITTLE HOOVER:
Governor's Plan "Rides Roughshod Over Checks and Balances"

Sacramento, CA --TURN executive director Bob Finkelstein today told the Little Hoover Commission that the Governor's Energy Agency Re-Organization Plan is a blatant power grab that would make policy decisions less independent and cut off public participation. He said the plan does nothing to lower rates or create the stability and predictability California needs to put the deregulation disaster behind it. TURN, a statewide nonprofit membership organization with 30 years of experience in representing California's utility consumers, supports an integrated approach to energy policy over a political one.

The plan "rides roughshod over checks and balances" by eliminating inter-agency review of large, expensive projects like transmission lines, Finkelstein said. "The proposal would concentrate power in the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the newly anointed Secretary of Energy, eliminating the California Public Utilities Commission's vital cost/benefit analysis of ratepayer impacts and opportunities for consumer input." "In addition," he said, "concentrating power in an appointee serving at the Governor's will would exacerbate conflict-of-interest issues inherent in the Governor's acceptance of political donations from energy companies with financial interests in state policy."

TURN believes Schwarzenegger's plan would elevate his own political agenda at the expense of expert analysis. Eliminating independent review can lead to decisions like the recent one by the Governor to support the Frontier multi-state transmission line prior to any evidence that its benefits justify its costs. Such a "data-free approach," Finkelstein warned, "could become the hallmark of the Schwarzenegger energy policy."

Finkelstein said TURN also objected to the plan because it:

• Cuts off the CPUC's ability to stand up for California consumers at FERC.
• Cuts off CPUC review of gas facility siting.
• Was developed without consumer input.
• Would divert scarce resources from more important matters.

Finkelstein added that any re-organization plan was premature given the absence of a coherent state energy policy, and that at this point the re-organization is "a solution in search of a problem." At the very least, he said any changes should be put on hold pending the outcome of a likely special election during which Californians will have the opportunity to vote on the Repeal of Deregulation and Blackout Prevention Act, which, unlike the Governor's plan, will set the state on a clear course toward lower rates and a more reliable electric system.