The purpose of the fund is to achieve a clean air or fuel efficiency benefit for California consumers.

To comply with a state law, the company allowed California consumers to cancel the service at any time.

Right now California consumers are trapped in an endless game of blame shifting between state and federal regulators.

Taking temperature into account, California consumers are using between 5 and 10 percent less electricity this summer than expected.

"Rather they will only lock California consumers into whatever private deals the utilities arrange with the private power generators."

California consumers could end up paying more for their energy and struggling to find enough, Mr. Segal said.

"It occurred to us no one asked the average California consumer what he or she thought."

California consumers will now pony up about $35 billion to pay off the speculators and generating companies.

The benefits will not immediately be felt by California consumers.

"The way you do this is to make cars lighter, smaller and less powerful, and that's not what California consumers want."