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Watchdog Group Issues Warning Over California Clean Energy Plan

SACRAMENTO (CBS/AP) -- A California government review panel said the state's clean energy strategy will saddle ratepayers with soaring utility bills unless officials act soon to organize state energy agencies.

In a report released on Monday, the nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission lauded California's effort to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. But it described the state's collection of energy agencies as dysfunctional and balkanized and said their lack of organization threatened to make the state's clean energy push an expensive failure.

Among the report's recommendations was a single agency or entity to coordinate the state's energy policy.

A spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown told the Los Angeles Times the governor would review the report.

California has mandated that state utilities derive a third of their power from wind, solar and other renewable sources by 2020.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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