Section 391 Of Article 11. Information Practices From California Public Utilities Code >> Division 1. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 2.3. >> Article 11.
391
. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Electricity is essential to the health, safety, and economic
well-being of all California consumers.
(b) The restructuring of the electricity industry will create a
new electricity market with new marketers and sellers offering new
goods and services, many of which may not be readily evaluated by the
average consumer.
(c) It is important that these customers be protected from unfair
marketing practices and that market participants demonstrate their
creditworthiness and technical expertise in order to engage in power
sales to these members of the public.
(d) Larger commercial and industrial customers are sophisticated
energy consumers that have adequate civil remedies and are adequately
protected by existing commercial law, as demonstrated by the absence
of significant amounts of contract litigation between commercial and
industrial natural gas users and natural gas marketers in
California.
(e) It is important to create a market structure that will not
unduly burden new entrants into the competitive electric market, or
California may not receive the full benefits of reduced electricity
costs through competition.
(f) It is appropriate to create a system of registration and
consumer protection for the electric industry, designed to ensure
sufficient protection for residential and small commercial consumers
while simplifying entry into the market for responsible entities
serving larger, more sophisticated customers.
(g) It is the intent of the Legislature that:
(1) Electricity consumers be provided with sufficient and reliable
information to be able to compare and select among products and
services provided in the electricity market.
(2) Consumers be provided with mechanisms to protect themselves
from marketing practices that are unfair or abusive.
(3) Pursuant to the authority granted to the commission in this
part as to registration and consumer protection matters, the
commission shall balance the need to maximize competition by reducing
barriers to entry into the small retail electricity procurement
market with the need to protect small consumers against deceptive,
unfair, or abusive business practices, or insolvency of the entity
offering retail electric service.
(h) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this act to
further the policies of AB 1890 (Chapter 854, Statutes of 1996)
relating to electric industry restructuring.