Davis energy plan doesn’t go ‘far enough’

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT-MESA -- It’s just not good enough.

In simple terms, that’s the local response to the cures for

California’s ongoing energy crisis Gov. Gray Davis outlined in a speech

Thursday.

When you set aside long-term solutions such as additional power

plants, electricity rate increases of up to 34.5% won’t avoid rolling

blackouts, said Richard Luehrs, the president and chief executive officer

of the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce.

And blackouts worry business owners the most, he said. The way things

stand, power will certainly go off in May and June since additional

energy supplies won’t become available until later in the summer.

“This isn’t going to cover it,” he said. “The governor hasn’t gone far

enough.”

State legislators agreed that blackouts represented a bigger threat to

the area’s businesses than higher electricity prices.

“I’ve had business owners tell me, ‘Rather than blackouts, I’d

operated my business four days a week,”’ said Assemblyman John Campbell

(R-Irvine), adding that the uncertainty of sudden outages had people

worried the most.

“From what I’m hearing in this district, people are saying, ‘Let’s get

some certainty,”’ he said.

Besides, he added, Friday’s decision by Pacific Gas & Electric

officials to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy showed that Davis’ proposal

to help ailing utility companies get back in good financial shape had

immediately failed.

“[Davis] almost has to go right back to the drawing board,” Campbell

said. “I think it continues to show his inability to get trust from the

people involved in this problem.”

In his speech, Davis proposed to give state money to utility companies

to keep them from going bankrupt. But the offer would come with some

strings, including an agreement to sell power to the state at a low cost

for the next 10 years. The companies would also have to agree to selling

California’s power grid to the state and abandon lawsuits that seek to

double consumer electricity rates.

“It’s looking bleak,” said Ed Fawcett, the president and chief

executive officer of the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce. “We’re getting

political statements rather than solutions . . . I don’t think [Davis]

added anything yesterday. He’s just trying to give the appearance that

he’s got things under control when he’s not had control from the outset.”

The governor’s plan would also exclude more than half of all consumers

from price hikes and set up a tier system, where cost for electricity

would increase for big power users.

“Here’s the point: The more you use, the more you pay,” Davis said in

his speech.

“If you believed [Davis,] the little guy wasn’t going to be impacted,”

said John Burkhard, the president of the Mesa North Community Assn.

But to solve the overall problem will take more than that, he

stressed.

“There’s no easy answer,” Burkhard said, adding that he’d been working

hard to reduce his own energy consumption. “Either you have the money to

pay the electric bill or put solar cells on the roofs and tell the

electric company to stick it or move out of California. What else is

there?”