California May Give Up a Lot of Freedom to Join Western Power Grid

Source: KTUV Fox 2 News  |  By Tom Vacar

Governor Gavin Newsom wants California to join a power grid covering the western states. The governor says, "Over $1 billion in economic benefits to our state is on the line and failure to get this done will mean higher electric bills, more pollution and a less reliable power grid.” Now a bill is being considered called SB 540. But, under the original bill, there were guard rails, built-in protections to forbid price gouging as well as market manipulation by traders. Without guardrails, critics say California would also give up many of its environmental controls, power choices, the requirement that power supplies make maximum supplies and minimized prices, including coal plants of which the western states have many.     

"And, the fact is, no one has presented a convincing argument that this is gonna save ratepayers a dime," said Mark Toney of the Utility Reform Network.