State Still Seeks to Veil Portions of Power Pacts

Despite statements from Gov. Gray Davis that full disclosure of the state’s long-term power contracts was imminent, attorneys for the state balked Wednesday at disclosing the contracts until key details are removed.

The attorneys also opposed making public any short-term “spot market” contracts for at least six months, warning that to divulge those contracts now would undercut the state’s negotiating stance and ensure summer blackouts.

Attorneys for several news organizations and Republican state legislators accused the governor’s attorneys of stalling and making the issue needlessly complex.

On Tuesday, Davis dropped his earlier opposition to making long-term contracts public and indicated that the contracts might be made public as early as Wednesday.

But Deputy Atty. Gen. Tim Muscat, representing Davis, asked Superior Court Judge Linda Quinn for two weeks to prepare redacted versions of the 38 long-term contracts that total nearly $43 billion.

Opposing attorneys, who had sued to make the contracts public, complained that the facts that Davis wants to keep secret are key to understanding the contracts and to determining whether the governor has obligated taxpayers to pay inflated prices.

“They’ve conceded the public interest [in disclosure] and no matter how thin they slice the baloney, that concession is really deafening,” said Sacramento attorney Charles Bell, representing 10 legislators who assert that keeping the contracts secret violates the California Public Records Act.

Quinn ruled that the long-term contracts must be made public by noon Friday although she will allow the governor to keep certain portions secret at least until June 27 while she considers legal arguments from both sides.

She expressed annoyance at the slow pace of negotiations between the two sides and the apparent slowness of the attorney general’s efforts to alert private companies that their contracts with the state might be made public.

“This is an amazing situation,” Quinn said.

Eric Landau, Orange County attorney for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., the Wall Street brokerage firm that serves as an energy marketer, said he had only recently learned that the contracts might become public. “All we are asking for is the ability to review the proceedings,” he said.

Muscat said the governor wants to avoid details including indexes that would link the price of electricity to natural gas prices, delivery points and transaction costs.

Disclosure of those terms, he said, would provide information to competitors of the companies that have signed agreements with the state and allow for market manipulation.

The Times reported Wednesday that the state has committed to buying power at prices up to $154 a megawatt-hour during peak demand periods and more than $95 for power at times when demand is low.

By comparison, the state recently purchased peak power for less than $100 an hour and less than $20 an hour at night.