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Proposition 16, originally called "The Taxpayer Right to Vote" and amended to "Two-Thirds Requirement for Local Public Electricity Providers Act" is on the June 8, 2010 ballot in California as an initiated constitutional amendment.

Pacific Gas & Electric is the primary financial sponsor of the initiative, having contributed $15.5 million through the end of February 2010. PG&E has set aside up to 35 million dollars of Rate Payer money to pass Prop 16, a blatant political end run to kill community choice aggregation, and bypass the energy competition intended by AB117.

Prop. 16 is about the most anti-democratic measure you can imagine. It mandates that any local agency that wants to sell retail electricity to customers first get the approval of two-thirds of the local electorate.

If the initiative is approved by voters, it will make it virtually impossible for local entities to form either municipal utilities, or community wide clean electricity districts called Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs).

The proposed constitutional amendment would require a two-thirds majority vote of local voters before a local government could:

Establish a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program.
Use public funding to implement a plan to become a CCA provider
Expand electric service to new territory or new customers.

 

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