An Energy Shock Absorber
California risks another energy disaster--this one foreseen and easily avoidable--if the electric power industry succeeds in blocking an increase in solar, wind and other renewable power. Time is running short for a measure in the state Legislature that would slowly step up the tapping of renewable sources.
Assembly leaders need to help pry the measure, SB 532, out of a committee that is far too cozy with utility company lobbyists. The bill, by Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford), has been held hostage to utility opposition for nearly a year after passing the Senate easily. What could give the bill a chance is that Southern California Edison is said to be close to agreeing to support the measure.
The utilities committee, chaired by Assemblyman Roderick Wright (D-Los Angeles), seems more interested in pleasing the private companies than in protecting Californians against another energy shock in which natural gas prices would go through the roof, as they did late in 2000. California is even more dependent now on natural gas than it was then.
The Sher bill would require utilities to boost their use of renewable power sources by just 1% a year until, by 2015, at least 20% of the state’s electric power would come from these sources.
It is a completely practical goal. Cost is not the issue it once was. Power from renewable sources is becoming price-competitive, and the Sher legislation contains price caps to keep costs down.
California pioneered commercial renewable energy but lost ground during the energy crisis. The state, scrambling for energy contracts, spent billions for future power that will nearly all be generated by natural gas.
A Rand Corp. report says the state faces an unstable energy future because of its overreliance on natural gas. And a recent federal report verified that manipulation of the natural gas market was one cause of the 2000-01 crisis.
The utilities have been squabbling about pricing mechanisms, long-term contracts and other details. They need to get over this and accept Sher’s measure. So too should the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which wants to be exempted. There’s no reason that public power generators should get special treatment.
The private utilities helped California get into the power crisis and then had to be rescued by the state. Their credibility is gone. And the Los Angeles DWP has a black eye from taking advantage of the crisis in its sales of power to the state.
The Assembly committee’s job is to protect the state’s people and businesses, not power company executives. Members can do that by approving SB 532 at a hearing scheduled for today.
