Lawyers for locally owned utilities challenging proposed amendment cite public admission that measure intends to ‘greatly diminish’ voting, rather than encourage it
Prop 16 challenge presskit, which includes the verified petition for Modesto Irrigation District et al. v. Bowen (March 18, 2010).
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. (March 18, 2010) — A coalition of locally-owned public utilities from throughout California today filed suit in Sacramento County Superior Court to disqualify Proposition 16 from the June 8 statewide ballot for being false and misleading, and for concealing its true nature and purpose from voters. Proposition 16 is PG&E’s attempt to lock in its monopoly in its existing territories. Even though PG&E spent millions of dollars to qualify the initiative and has committed to spending tens of millions more on the Proposition 16 campaign, the lawsuit points out that PG&E carefully omitted any mention of its name in the measure, and concealed that the true nature, purpose and effect of the initiative would be to protect PG&E from competition from public providers of electric service.
