San Diego County : Input Sought on Utility Deregulation:

Southern Californians will be able to comment in San Diego on Wednesday on a controversial proposal to deregulate the state’s investor-owned electric utilities. The hearings are being held by the California Public Utilities Commission to gather opinions from ordinary citizens, in contrast to a parallel set of hearings seeking comments from the utility industry and environmentalists. The commission has proposed a competitive marketplace in electricity, something like the existing market for long-distance phone service, that would begin for large industrial ratepayers in 1996 and be available to residential users by 2002. But there is wide disagreement on how to structure this competition and whether deregulation will meet the plan’s goal of dramatically lowering electricity rates in California. The hearing will begin at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers, 12th floor, City Administration Building, 202 C St. Further public hearings will be held in November in Bakersfield, Ventura, Garden Grove, Carson, San Bernardino and Huntington Park.