Undetermined

Even with the ink still not dry and final allocation still undetermined on California’s record $5 billion electricity rate increase approved last Tuesday, state officials are already worried that the added revenues and state-backed bonds that will follow will not be enough to pay for power over the next 12 to 18 months.

Even with the ink still not dry and final allocation stillundetermined on California’s record $5 billion electricity rateincrease approved Tuesday, state officials are already worried thatthe added revenues and state-backed bonds that will follow will notbe enough to pay the state’s wholesale power bill over the next 12to 18 months. However, those dire forecasts assume little or norelief from relentlessly high wholesale prices.

After several weeks of field testing, sponsors of ahigh-profile, deep-drilling project in the southern end ofCalifornia’s San Joaquin Valley reported Thursday (June 22) “pure,sweet oil” with an API gravity of 48.6 degrees and associatednatural gas with a very high net Btu content of 1,460 with nowater. However, definitive information on the projected volumes isstill several weeks away, according to Tri-Valley Oil & GasCo., operator of the Project Ekho No. 1 well about 45 milesnorthwest of Bakersfield, CA.