Conservation Sandbags

Natural disasters and crises can be devastating but are relatively simple and easy to grasp. A brush fire you fight with shovels. An earthquake, you clean up the rubble afterward and strengthen buildings in anticipation of the next. But California’s energy crisis is far different and more complex. It’s a quiet disaster on scattered, invisible fronts. Most people see it only when their own lights go out.

There also is no precedent for this crisis in California and no accurate way to forecast how bad it can get, either the blackouts or the financial consequences. But as May approaches, it’s certain that most Californians are not adequately informed about the severity of the problem or what they can do to limit its impact.

Gov. Gray Davis, the utilities and others need to engage in a crash education program that will convince Californians of the seriousness of the problem and motivate them to undertake their own conservation programs in homes and businesses. California has been a pioneer in power conservation, and its citizens will listen to persuasive reasoning.

As the chairwoman of the state Senate’s Energy Committee, Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) deals with problems ranging from utility company insolvency to rate “gaming” by energy producers. “But I’m really worried about this summer,” she said last week, referring to the potential for day after day of rolling blackouts. She told of one businessman in her district who reported he will lose an estimated $30,000 every time his power is cut. Why not at least schedule blackouts so people can plan for them? she asked. Why not?

In San Francisco, the Bay Area Economic Forum released a study indicating that power woes could deliver a $17-billion blow to the state’s economy in lost production, the cost of rate increases and increased product prices. That may be conservative. The study did not include the $5.1 billion the state has spent so far to buy power for the insolvent private utilities.

Republicans in the Legislature are stalling bills that would float a $10-billion revenue bond issue to finance power purchases and keep the state fiscally above water. They have latched onto a powerful issue, Davis’ unwillingness to detail how he’s spending the taxpayers’ billions. Davis says he needs secrecy for competitive reasons as he bargains with power companies, though he is letting out a slightly wider trickle of figures.

Wall Street, already wary about the credit-worthiness of the state, thinks poorly of the delay in issuing the bonds. Republicans should put a temporary hold on their battle with Davis and get the measure to the governor’s desk this week.

Lawmakers were slow in passing an $850-million conservation program, Bowen acknowledges. But Davis put the new program on a fast track Friday and made a smart choice in S. David Freeman, former chief of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, to run the conservation effort.

Freeman, 75, is a canny veteran of electric power politics. Davis may abhor giving out bad news, but Freeman need not shrink from it. Freeman should be on radio and television every day telling California just how bad the problem is and what they can do about it. If this were a flood, we’d be stacking sandbags. Our sandbags are conservation programs. We need to start stacking them now.