Jones Lays Out 5-Point Energy Plan

Arguing that uncertain energy supplies threaten California’s economic growth and stability, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bill Jones called Thursday for increased cooperation between state and federal regulators to build refineries, natural-gas ports and pipelines aimed at diversifying and increasing the state’s energy sources.

Jones, an investor in a Central Valley ethanol company, offered a five-point plan to address the state’s energy problems, including a renewed call for a massive federal effort to develop alternative fuel sources.

Jones did not present a cost estimate for his proposal, some of which he has discussed publicly before. But he told commissioners of the Northern California Power Agency that he would rely heavily on removing regulatory barriers and inconsistent rules that he said dissuaded private investment in gasoline plants, pipelines and other key energy infrastructures.

“This is really about investment, as we all know,” Jones said. “It’s about Wall Street knowing they can come in and build something, or investment can be brought in, and the messages are going to be consistent over a period of time so they can get a return. It’s not all that complex.”

Roy Behr, a strategist for incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, dismissed Jones’ proposals as gifts to energy corporations.

“The Bill Jones energy policy is designed to benefit big energy companies and polluters,” Behr said. “The Boxer energy policy is designed to benefit consumers and businesses that use energy.”

He said Jones’ call for new refineries ignores the political reality that government officials would be hard-pressed to find a community that would accept one.

“It’s an impractical solution that benefits only oil companies, and certainly not neighborhoods,” Behr said.

Jones, a former state Assembly leader and two-term secretary of state, offered a 19-page position paper in which he blamed California’s 2000 electricity crisis in part on flawed and incomplete deregulation, resulting in a system that was “neither fish nor fowl.”

“We have not achieved a truly competitive and efficient market,” he said. “We no longer operate within the regulated monopolies of the past. We are saddled with a hodgepodge of measures cobbled together through the whims and acts of desperation by the Davis administration.”

The state began deregulating electricity in 1996, during the tenure of Republican Gov. Pete Wilson.

Jones also renewed his criticism of Boxer, saying her prescription for resolving the energy shortage was to “write an angry letter” while failing “to recognize the looming crisis.”

Boxer offered her own nine-point energy proposal last month. It included dipping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce gas prices, developing alternative fuels, pressuring the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production, expanding federal antitrust laws to include OPEC and urging Shell Oil to keep its aging Bakersfield refinery open or sell it.

Jones sought to tie his proposals to efforts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, including his “hydrogen highway” project to push fuel-cell technology. Jones did not specify projects he believed should be undertaken but said the threatened closure of Shell’s Bakersfield refinery generated contrasting approaches to dealing with energy issues.

Boxer, Jones said, has called for an investigation into Shell’s decision and threatened legal action. Jones commended California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, another Democrat, for his decision to contract with a merger specialist to find a buyer who would keep open a facility he said was outdated and in need of “tremendous modifications.”

“The problem with this plant has been known for a long time,” Jones said. “Yet what Barbara Boxer has done to help keep it open is a puzzle to me. I have not heard her say one word about this in past years.”

Behr said Boxer had done all a senator could to persuade a private firm to continue operating part of its business. “There are obviously limits to what government can do,” he said. “But she has certainly done her very best to call attention to the issue and to encourage and cajole Shell into keeping the refinery open, which is a heck of a lot more than Bill Jones would do.”