San Diego, California — Consumer advocates Ralph Nader, Harvey Rosenfield, Harry Snyder (Consumers Union), Michael Shames (UCAN) and others will discuss plans to fight the imposition of a 40%, $28 billion utility tax imposed by the legislature though last year’s “deregulation” bill, approved in Sacramento, and a companion bill this year, both engineered by Senator Steve Peace (D-San Diego).

Rosenfield, who authored insurance reform Proposition 103 and organized the campaign for its 1988 passage, will announce the formation of a new project, “Californians Against the Utility Tax,” or CUT. CUT will work against the utility deregulation bailout in which residential rate payers will bear the largest proportion of the $28 billion cost of costly utility management mistakes like nuclear power plants, while big, corporate commercial energy customers are largely let off the hook and the utilities reap the savings.

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