Utility Issue Will Make Ballot, Petitioners Say

California activists trying to overturn the state’s utility deregulation law say they have enough signatures to force a referendum in November.

The consumer groups say they have about 650,000 signatures, more than the 433,000 needed to be on the November ballot. They want 700,000 signatures to compensate for duplicates and other invalid names, and will end the drive this weekend.

“We’re in spitting distance of our goal,” said Bill Gallagher, signature-drive coordinator for the consumer groups.

The activists want to change the law so consumers won’t be required to pay off bonds used to refinance nuclear-plant debt and other long-term obligations that utilities say would cripple them in a competitive market. They also want to double the residential rate cut to 20% from the 10% that deregulation provides.

The initiative is led by a consumer-group coalition, including the San Francisco-based Utility Reform Network and Californians Against Utility Taxes, based in Santa Monica. Consumer activist Ralph Nader supports the effort.

Consumer groups argue that California’s law, which opened electricity markets to competition on March 31, gives the bulk of savings to large businesses and forces consumers, rather than stockholders, to pay for bad decisions utilities made about building nuclear plants.