A California Senate panel voted out a measure Tuesday to make the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) into an elective body with each of its five commissioners elected from a separate state district. Industrial customers opposed the measure, which would be a constitutional amendment (SCR 6), saying it would make regulatory decisions even more political. But state utilities so far have voiced no opinion on the bill.

Committee members voting to pass it along indicated they didn’t necessarily support the concept, but thought the idea should be debated further among state lawmakers. According to the latest changes in its language, the measure would call for concurrent four-year terms with two-year term limits. The elections would be partisan, and the first election of commissioners would start in the gubernatorial general election of 2006. Elected commissioners would be subject to recall by voters.

The CPUC originally was created by a reworked state constitution as a reform measure against the powers of the railroads in California in 1911.

“It is the people of the state that suffer the consequences of [the CPUC’s] poor decisions, and they should decide its representation,” said the amendment sponsor, Sen. Jim Battin, who said the current CPUC has refused to respond to three requests he made to it recently. “Energy, water, transportation and telecommunications issues vary among regions in the state and this would assure that those regions would have a greater voice by having a CPUC commissioner to represent their valid concerns.”

The California Manufacturers and Technology Association, which represents the largest energy users in the state, expressed its opposition to the measure. The large industrials “appreciate what the author is trying to do” but it would make the regulatory process even more “politicized” than it is currently.

Battin said that 13 other states, including neighboring Arizona, have elected state regulatory commissions.

The chair of the energy committee, Sen. Debra Bowen said she was surprised that although the proposal has been in print since Feb. 21, “none of the regulated utilities have taken any position on this bill, meaning they don’t care if the regulators are elected or appointed. I am curious on how that could be the case.”

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