California lawmakers and regulators — testifying in a publicsession two months before the general election — heaped the blamefor the state’s skyrocketing power prices on the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission.

Most of the early witnesses at the San Diego hearing staged byFERC to look into problems with the California market, includingfederal and state congressmen, local mayors and representativesfrom the governor’s office and the California Public UtilitiesCommission (CPUC), stressed that help from Washington was the onlyway the state’s electricity restructuring can be put back on trackand retail prices lowered.

Some of the testimony prompted the FERC commissioners conductingthe hearing to question whether the state has abandoned its goal ofrestructuring its electric industry.

While California officials stressed the need for help instabilizing retail power rates, FERC Chairman James Hoecker, inturn, asked one of the local U.S. congressmen for help in gettingfederal legislation to give FERC more authority to police marketabuse. Hoecker later questioned a California state legislativeleader on whether he was proposing new policies that wouldinterfere in interstate commerce, after the lawmaker recommendedthe state become self-sufficient in generation and abandon anyfuture power exports.

“You need to act now to re-establish control over wholesaleprices,” said CPUC member Carl Wood. “As we in California move tocorrect our mistakes in allowing ourselves to be exposed to yourwholesale price levels, we hope you will take corrective actionyourselves. We expect you do that; it is your duty.”

State Sen. Debra Bowen, while saying she still thinksderegulation ultimately can result in lower retail prices, saidFERC has much more clout to fix the problems than California stateofficials have. “You have a much bigger hammer at your disposal,”Bowen told the four FERC commissioners. Commissioner Curt Hebertsuggested California look at solutions other than just returning tocost-based rates.

Meanwhile, the less politically-motivated conversations in thehallways swung toward getting rid of the California PX and ISO, orgetting rid of the PX and downsizing the ISO. Bets were thatlegislation to that effect would surface soon, although it was notclear how much support it would have.

Another suggestion was to create some sort of public-privategeneration projects in state. It was pointed out thatjurisdictional California utilities no longer have a mandate toprovide adequate power generation, and profit-driven generatingcompanies are not likely to build facilities under a regulatoryregime or one that imposes price caps.

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.