S.F. sues over PG&E-backed ballot measure

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco and a group of government-owned utilities from around California took their campaign against a Pacific Gas and Electric Co.-sponsored ballot measure to court Thursday, arguing that Proposition 16 is a power grab dressed up as an expansion of taxpayers' rights.

The proposed state constitutional amendment on the June 8 ballot would require a two-thirds voter approval for any local government to enter the electricity business or expand its electric generation. PG&E funded signature-gathering for the initiative and has said it will spend as much as $35 million on the campaign.

In a suit filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, San Francisco and other local governments that would be affected by Prop. 16 asked a judge to remove it from the ballot, saying its text is full of falsehoods designed to mislead petition-signers and voters.

For example, the suit said, the measure is titled, "The Taxpayers' Right to Vote Act," but it would affect electric rates, not taxes.

The measure's true purpose, lawyers for the local governments said, is "to lock in PG&E's monopoly over its existing service areas," but the text does not refer to that subject or even mention PG&E.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/18/BATB1CI2TQ.DTL

[msongs]

1. PG&E is a criminal enterpise IMO, aided and abetted by the PUC nt