While signing the state’s $40 billion budget deal last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called for consolidating the state’s energy agencies into a Department of Energy. His proposal appears to revive his unsuccessful bid for agency revamping in 2005. Consolidation is unlikely to save the state any money, but could create administrative efficiencies that make California’s energy programs more effective, according to Mark Newton, Legislative Analyst Office director. He added, however, that he has not seen specific proposals, but said the governor may develop one in the coming months. In 2005, Schwarzenegger sought to place the California Energy Commission under an umbrella state DOE and transfer to it some of the key powers of the California Public Utilities Commission. The crux of the reorganization was to give the Energy Commission the CPUC’s current transmission siting authority. The plan met with stiff resistance from the CPUC and ultimately failed because it would have taken a constitutional amendment, rather than simple legislation the governor backed. That’s because much of the CPUC’s power is based in the state’s constitution. The Little Hoover Commission in 2005 warned the governor that the consolidation proposal as constituted was legally vulnerable. The Legislative Counsel and Attorney General separately concluded that the governor was precluded from transferring the authority over transmission line permitting from the CPUC to a new agency (Circuit, June 24, 2005). Critics immediately questioned the governor’s latest proposal. Insiders agreed that taking transmission siting power from the CPUC and giving it to the Energy Commission, which is responsible for power plant siting, would not save the state any money. The Energy Commission directed inquiries about the proposal and its estimated cost impacts to the governor’s office. Queries to the governor’s office were directed to the Resources Agency. “Greater coordination and focus of the state’s energy actions should produce ratepayer benefits over time,” Chris Mowrer, Resources deputy secretary for legislation, wrote in an email.