Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-TX) emergency legislation for California and FERC’s decision last week to rein in prices on emergency spot transactions in the state’s wholesale power market were broadsided by Democrats on the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee Tuesday.

Nearly every Democrat assailed the legislative and regulatory actions for the out-of-control California electric market on the grounds that they would not provide any effective price relief for the state this summer. Republicans, on the other hand, applauded Barton’s and FERC’s efforts to help the state, and sharply criticized their Democratic colleagues for not stepping up to the plate with alternative solutions.

As evidenced by its price-mitigation order last week, the Commission “has been doing quite a good job at implementing the Bush policy of aggressive indifference towards California’s crisis,” said Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) during the Tuesday hearing that was called to consider Subcommittee Chairman Barton’s legislation for California, The Electricity Emergency Act of 2001.

Markey called the Commission the Bush administration’s version of The Mamas and the Papas, a ’60s pop group whose biggest hit song was “California Dreamin’.” To the tune of that song, he sang, “All the days are dark; blackouts every day; FERC just takes a walk and lets the gougers play.”

Markey commended Barton for recognizing there is a problem in California and a need for federal action, but he quickly added, “Sadly the Bush administration does not appear to share your concern or your desire for action” in the state. The fact that no one from the Bush administration was present to testify on the Barton bill Tuesday seemed to bear this out, he and other Democrats pointed out. Administration agencies — such as the Department of Energy — either weren’t invited or refused to appear before the subcommittee, they said.

The Barton bill in its current form also obviously lacks bipartisan support from subcommittee members, and likely will not get through the Senate, said Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) of the full Committee on Energy and Commerce. Barton expects to move his initiative to mark-up next week and then quickly to the House floor. But judging from the reaction of Democrats to the existing bill, that may not be an easy task.

Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) of the full House committee also praised Barton for his efforts, noting that “you’ve gone out of your way” to help California more than most at the federal level. “Unfortunately, [your legislation] does nothing to resolve the crisis.” While the Barton legislation may be the “only train leaving the station” at this time, Eshoo said it was “critical” for Congress to add another “cart” that would provide for cost-based power rates in California.

“…..I’m not sure that bringing FERC before us today [to testify] is going to much help in this particular matter,” noted Rep. John Dingell (MI), ranking Democrat on the committee and a sharp critic of the Commission for its inaction to restrain power prices. There’s a “fairly simply solution” for many of the problems in California, he believes, and that is for FERC to carry out its statutorily mandated duty to establish just and reasonable prices in the West. But “I am reminded by a statement that my Dad used to say, and that is ‘you can take a jackass to water but you can’t make him drink.”

Acknowledging that while there was a “pressing need for congressional scrutiny” of California’s power problems and that Barton’s legislation was well intended, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) said that the “substance” of the bill was “fundamentally flawed.” For starters, it fails to address runaway wholesale prices, he noted, adding that Congress must enact legislation now to prevent price gouging in the West this summer. In addition, Waxman said the legislation interferes with California’s actions to resolve its own problems and could undermine those efforts, creates “massive loopholes” in the nation’s environmental laws and fails to adequately promote energy conservation.

The outspoken lawmaker presented a detailed critical analysis of the Barton measure, saying he consulted with both the Bush administration and California officials on the legislation, and “they told us this bill does them harm.”

“Our state needs help. [But] this bill doesn’t do it. Let’s get [a] bill that does,” he told subcommittee members. Rep. Rick Boucher (VA), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, agreed, saying that a “major revision of the bill before us will be required” to have any effect in California.

While the majority of Democrats were criticizing and/or laying blame with the Bush administration, FERC or the Barton legislation, Rep. Ralph Hall (D-TX) turned to Congress itself. Here it is approaching the hot summer months, he said, and “really we haven’t done hardly anything” since January to aid California. By now, Congress ought to have had legislation passed and on the president’s desk, he noted.

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