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.