Universal May Get Break on Electricity Bills

Over protests of special-interest favoritism, the state Senate passed legislation Thursday to give Universal City a break on its electricity bills during the California energy crisis.

Bipartisan approval of the measure contrasted starkly with the defeat last month of a similar bill that would have cut the power costs of public agencies in Los Angeles County.

“The public got shafted while the private interests got taken care of,” complained Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who fought for the bill that would have benefited the local government entities.

The bill, SB 1172, introduced by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) on behalf of Universal Studios and its theme park, would allow Universal and several other businesses to switch from Southern California Edison to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, whose electricity is cheaper.

The bill cleared the Senate on a 29-4 vote despite the objections of Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey). Its future in the Assembly is uncertain.

Kuehl said saving money for Universal, an influential enterprise that makes political contributions, was not the foremost issue. She said Universal was more concerned about safety during a blackout because visitors might get stranded on rides.

Chances of avoiding a blackout with the DWP seem better than with Edison, she said, adding, however, that there is no “guarantee the DWP won’t have blackouts.”

Bowen warned the Senate against approving a bill that she said would feed a perception that special interests can get what they want in Sacramento “if they just have enough political clout.”

She said that if Universal’s power bills were to go down, bills for other electricity customers throughout California would go up.

“How do we expect other businesses and other residents of California to conserve and sacrifice, if not everyone has to do it?” Bowen asked.

Universal and about a dozen other businesses straddle the service boundary between Southern California Edison Co. and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Those customers are hooked up to both utilities and pay two electricity bills.

The legislation would enable Universal and the other customers, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, to buy all their power from the DWP, a municipal utility whose prices are much lower.

However, Bowen, one of the Legislature’s energy experts, noted that the electricity sold to Universal at low cost would no longer be available to the state Department of Water Resources, which is buying power on behalf of bankrupt Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and financially crippled Edison.

“So the bill provides a benefit to these businesses at the expense of everyone else,” Bowen charged.

“How do we tell a child-care center down the street that they are going to be subject to blackout risks, but these businesses are not because they happen to have this power?” Bowen asked.

Kuehl responded that it was “speculative” for Bowen to predict shifts in power costs.

She noted that Universal, a Target department store, the hospital and others would have to pay Edison an “exit” fee. The bill would enable each customer to consume a maximum of 50 megawatts, a relatively small amount of power.

“I resent the implication that I, of all people, am carrying a bill for rich businesses,” Kuehl told a reporter later. “I’m always at least No. 1 or No. 2 on the hit list of the California Chamber of Commerce for not generally voting with the rich and powerful.”

Bowen, who said that “everyone needs to pitch in” to resolve the power crunch, spearheaded the vote to defeat the public agencies’ low-cost power bill in May. The bill failed in her Energy Committee by one vote.

That bill, AB 15x by Assemblyman Roderick Wright (D-Los Angeles), would have allowed five entities in Los Angeles County to purchase the lower-cost power from the DWP instead of Edison.

Bowen argued against the bill, saying it would drive up electricity costs for other consumers throughout California.

Yaroslavsky noted Thursday that the five public agencies face substantially higher power bills that would be reduced, freeing funds for other services, if they could switch to DWP electricity.

The beneficiaries would have been Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Unified School District, a community college district, the county Board of Education and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Yaroslavsky said he and others came up with the idea of government agencies switching to the cheaper city power and rejected efforts of Universal and others to be included in Wright’s bill.

“We end up doing the right thing and get screwed, and they [Universal and Target] get a piece of legislation out of the Senate,” he said.