LOS ANGELES -- Energy deregulation got the blame for California's power crisis five years ago, but a ballot measure intended to ratchet up state oversight of electric utilities failed to connect with voters.

Californians overwhelmingly rejected Proposition 80 on Tuesday, dashing the hopes of consumer advocates who argued it would have helped prevent a replay of the power fiasco by restoring key regulations scrapped a decade ago as part of the state's deregulation effort.

A majority of voters didn't buy it.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Proposition 80 was rejected by 66 percent of voters.

Both sides agreed the complexities of the electricity reregulation attempt likely confounded many voters.

"Unfortunately the details are very complicated and that was definitely a problem," said Mindy Spatt, communications director for The Utility Reform Network, which sponsored the measure.

Spatt suggested voters' negative feelings about the special election in general also hurt the initiative. Supporters raised just $300,000 for the campaign and were heavily outspent.

"Clearly the other side had a lot more money than us," she said. "It was a David and Goliath battle, and unfortunately Goliath won this round."

The initiative would have prohibited direct-access contracts, a key element of the 1996 deregulation act that allowed large commercial energy users such as factories, malls and universities to shop around for cheap power.

It also would have moved a deadline from 2017 to 2010 for regulated utilities to use 20 percent renewable energy; placed private energy companies under the jurisdiction of the California Public Utilities Commission; and prohibited utilities from charging higher prices when demand is greatest to supposedly encourage conservation.

The proposition was opposed by a coalition of energy companies, trade groups and renewable energy proponents who said it would lead to less competition and higher prices while making it harder to build power plants.

"Voters recognize that energy policy is a complex matter, and they basically rejected the idea of having to vote on it on the initiative," said Jan Smutny-Jones, executive director of Independent Energy Producers, a trade association representing independent power companies.

"Voters were genuinely confused (about) what the initiative would do, why it was on the ballot in the first place," he said.

The state's nonpartisan legislative analyst's office said it was impossible to determine the proposition's effect on electricity rates.

John White, director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technology in Sacramento, which opposed the initiative, said its approach to fixing the state's energy problems just wasn't right.

"The defeat of Proposition 80 should really cause us to turn our attention to the very substantial challenges on energy this state faces," White said.