California Gets the Short End of Power Politics

Stanley Hulett’s “Light at the Tunnel’s End? No, Not Yet” (Commentary, Aug. 6) blamed California’s legislators, regulators, environmentalists, politicians and energy companies for the electricity crisis that tore our state apart the last two years. Fair enough, but where is the leadership to get the problem fixed now, once and for all? We still have no sensible plan for making sure that necessary power plants are built or transmission lines constructed, even as we watch our population grow from 35 million to 40 million by 2010.

It appears that the only real strategy now in place is beating up on the energy companies while closing our eyes and wishing real hard that they will invest billions of their shareholders’ dollars to keep the lights on. No progress is being made on fixing our terrible electric transmission problems either. All the effort is going into demonizing the only entities with the resources to keep the lights on. With so much at stake, where are the candidates for governor?

Joel R. Price

Thousand Oaks

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Hulett cites a statement by Rep. Doug Ose (R-Sacramento): “Certain politicians in California have tried to convince the public that there is no real shortage of [electricity] supply.” Gov. Gray Davis has repeatedly noted that we are not yet out of the woods regarding the energy challenge. That is why he implemented the 20/20 energy conservation program. The Davis administration has also expedited the plant-siting process and added more than 5,000 megawatts to the state’s power grid since 2000.

However, it is critical to differentiate between the need to add more power to the grid and the primary cause for the energy crisis: the gaming of the electricity market, which Hulett downplays. Berkeley professor Severin Borenstein has shown that the energy crisis was largely due to market manipulation by energy generators that withheld power to drive prices up to astronomical levels. Borenstein and other experts have also made clear that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission failed to uphold the law during the height of the crisis, imposing a huge cost burden on California consumers. Davis continues to fight for the billions of dollars in refunds our consumers deserve.

Richard Katz

Senior Energy Advisor to Gov. Gray Davis

Sacramento

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Re “Proposal Defies U.S. Power Plan,” Aug. 6: Good for state Sen. Steve Peace (D-El Cajon). Somewhere we must stop the Bush administration in its efforts to take away from the states what are properly the people’s resources.

No more deregulation! No more privatizing our highways, our water, our beaches, our parks, our transportation. This insidious pursuit, for 40 years, of enhancing the power and wealth of the few must end. Deregulation has proven to be unreliable, inefficient, dangerous and, in the end, costly in every way possible.

Gene Geary

Garden Grove