NEWS

"Chairman Wolens, the House State Affairs Committee and the House have improved SB 7 significantly for residential consumers. The bill now includes many of the provisions we've been pushing for, such as a more fair allocation of stranded cost charges between large business and residential customers (the Bailey amendment), incentives for new competitors to serve residential customers, assistance to low-income customers, longer term price caps for residential customers, and provisions to clean up the air.

"It's clear these amendments increased support for the bill on the House floor. Despite these improvements, Consumers Union had not yet endorsed the legislation. We ask: 'Will residential consumers be better off with or without the bill?' While consumers would be better off under Chairman Wolens version than under any other deregulation proposal we have seen to date, we still have serious concerns about certain aspects of the bill and about whether consumers will benefit in the long run from electric industry restructuring.

"Electric deregulation is not something consumers in this state are demanding. Consumers will be required to pay billions of dollars in stranded costs and will be asked to take a leap of faith that deregulation will be good for them. The fact is SB 7 is still overly generous to utilities on stranded costs, and the market power protections are insufficient.

"But the political reality is that the Legislature has decided to pass an electric deregulation bill and that this bill has improved substantially for residential consumers. Therefore, we urge the Senate today to accept these important House amendments and concur on the House bill."