California’s debacle followed by Enron’s scandal has cast a broad shadow over state and federal energy initiatives this year, according to former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA), speaking Thursday at a two-day industry conference in Seattle, “Buying and Selling Power in the West.”

California’s failures with electricity restructuring are “influencing very profoundly what is going on in Congress,” regarding the debate over a comprehensive energy bill, Gorton told an audience of more than 100 industry representatives.

In addition, the former senator said that both Enron and the long-winded debate on motor vehicle fuel-saving standards (CAFE) further cloud the prospects for an energy bill getting out of Congress in 2002.

At the state level, aside from Texas, which thinks it has learned how to avoid all of the pitfalls of restructuring through California’s experience, lawmakers are postponing or abandoning moves toward de-regulation, he said. The state of Washington’s legislature was reluctant to implement retail electric competition even before California’s crisis, but now the troubles of the past 18 months has “reduced to zero the chances of retail competition being approved” this year or any time soon, Gorton said.

Gorton said he is not optimistic about energy federal energy legislation getting out of Congress in 2002, and if it does, he thinks it will not include the most controversial provisions covering the opening of ANWR in Alaska, reforming power marketing regulations, and changing the motor vehicle CAFE standards.

“More likely, we will see gridlock and the blame game being played,” Gorton said. “Congressional processes are extraordinarily slow, and they give great advantage to those who would prefer to do nothing.”

The only energy-related legislation that passes may be in budget bills, such as an increase in the borrowing authority for the Portland, OR-based Bonneville Power Administration to $700-750 million, Gorton said, noting that the large federal power producer/marketer asked last year for an additional $2 billion in borrowing, but got nothing.

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