Community Commentary -- John Campbell

It’s spring in the year 2000, and San Diego Gas & Electric prepares to

double rates to all of its customers due to increases in the company’s

cost of electricity. The legislature passes a bill to spread this

increase over several years, but does nothing to deal with the root of

the problem. Gov. Davis is silent.

It’s now August 2000, and the two largest suppliers of electric power

in the state ask Gov. Davis’ Public Utilities Commission for the right to

purchase long-term contracts to lock in lower electricity costs as rates

appear to be rising. The request is denied, and Gov. Davis is silent.

Later in August, Scott Baugh, leader of the Republicans in the State

Assembly, writes a letter to Gov. Davis asking him to call a special

session of the legislature to deal with the impending energy crisis

before it gets out of control. Again, Gov. Davis and the Democratic

leaders in the legislature are silent.

It’s September 2000, and the realization comes that California has not

constructed a single major power plant in the last 10 years. Demand for

electricity has risen by 31% in recent years due to population increases

and the growing technology economy, but the supply of that energy has

only increased by 2% in the same period. Texas, by comparison, under

then-Gov. George W. Bush, has constructed or permitted some 30 power

plants in the last four years, including 25% of all the renewable-source

environmental plants in the entire country. In the same four years,

California, its governor and its legislature do nothing.

Present day -- January 2001. The energy crisis deepens with rolling

blackouts, daily third stage alerts and a $400-million rate increase

using taxpayer dollars.

There can be no doubt that the severity of the current crisis can be

traced directly to months of inaction by Gov. Davis and the

Democrat-controlled legislature. Yes, the restructuring law passed in

1996 had its flaws. However, those flaws became apparent more than a year

ago, and our leaders did absolutely nothing. Let’s set that record

straight. Had they acted then, California would not be in a state of

emergency now. But they didn’t act, and now we are left to pick up the

pieces.

So what now? We must take bold and decisive action in three areas. We

must first act through short-term government intervention to stabilize

the current market. This is a step that would not have been necessary

just a few months back but is now a reality.

Second, we must begin immediately to eliminate bureaucratic red tape

and restrictions to building environmentally clean sources of electric

power. These include gas turbines, hydroelectric, wind, biomass and

cogeneration. An obvious first step is to immediately allow any existing

power plant (many of which are decades old) to refit itself to be more

efficient and less polluting without requiring an expensive and

time-consuming environmental report. Why would anybody want to slow down

the process of getting cleaner, more efficient power to Californians?

Third, we must take steps to move toward a truly open retail market

with customer choice. If the long distance telephone company you

regularly use pays too much to buy phone time and passes that price on to

you, you have the ability to go get another long distance company.

Unfortunately, if your power company does the same with your electricity,

you have little choice. In a free market, no one would be a slave to a

given power company. If Edison makes a bad deal on power, they will lose,

not you, because you will find your power from another company.

Only when there is a truly open market for electricity to businesses

and consumers, coupled with an unrestricted ability to add supply, will

the unseen hand of the market work for all of us. As it has with so many

products, those market forces will drive innovation and enterprise, lower

prices and better service.

Will Gov. Davis and the Democrats controlling the legislature have the

fortitude to do all this with celerity? Their actions of the past year do

not make us hopeful.

Their silence has not served Californians well. It’s time to speak and

time to act.

* JOHN CAMPBELL is a state assemblyman representing the 70th District,

which includes Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, in Orange County. He is a

member of the Assembly Special Committee on Energy Cost and Availability

and the Joint Oversight Committee on Energy.