Our daily conversation, our newspapers, our television news, and even our family dinner table conversations are filled with the energy crisis. Rolling blackouts brought the issue home to some of us earlier this year. A nine-percent rate increase in retail energy costs got our attention, along with uncapped natural gas price increases. Our local utility,

PG&E, filed for bankruptcy protection. We’ve been told to expect an overall 46 percent retail rate increase, though we don’t yet know what this means to us as rate-payers or as consumers.

The Governor promised the energy crisis would be addressed without rate increases deferred meaningful action, and then embraced huge rate increases imposed by the State’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The Governor told us all that the problem was "well in hand" last March. Today we face statewide rolling blackouts and will for the next several months. The Governor negotiated long term contracts with energy suppliers at the peak of the price curve, ensuring California’s ratepayers, and its taxpayers, will be paying for today’s energy for many years into the future. The Governor has done all of this behind closed doors, and has not shared with those paying the bill the cost of contracts for future electricity needs.

California’s crisis is of its own making. The implementation of the 1996 law by state officials and the Public Utilities Commission, and a lack of leadership from the Governor continue to hamper California’s solutions.

However, I believe that there are solutions that the Governor can implement to abate our situation. These solutions include:

• The California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) needs to fold itself into a stronger, broader organization known as Regional Transmission Organization (RTO-West), which includes Bonneville Power Authority and utilities serving Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and California.

• The California PUC needs to set valid energy and distribution rates that will allow public utilities to become credit worthy and the state to recover its bond rating, while allowing energy producers to continue to provide California’s energy needs.

• The California Energy Commission needs to more aggressively site and permit the power plants, transmission lines, pipelines and refineries California so desperately requires.

• California needs to implement an effective conservation plan built on achieving industrial-sized results instead of catchy retail programs like "20/20."

• California emergency management agencies, with the help of FEMA, need to prepare for the possibility of blackouts this summer should conservation efforts not be sufficient.

• The California Legislature needs to correct the flaws of AB 1890 and re-establish retail competition and direct market access on a more sound footing.

• The California Air Quality Board must correct their over-commitment to a single solution for energy production (natural gas) due to air quality concerns. The alternatives analyses performed by the Board must take more seriously the impact of the cost of air quality regulations on lower income consumers and marginal businesses.

• The California Department of Water Resources must abandon its policy of secrecy and shine the light of disclosure on profit taking, including revealing the current price structure and sources for California electricity.

• The Department of Justice and the Government Accounting Office need to resolve allegations of price gouging.

• Biomass, co-generation, wind, and other types of generators (called qualified facilities or QFs) are important to electrical generation, and policies should be in place to ensure that QF operators continue to provide electricity from existing plants and to develop new resources.

• Business consumers need to install conservation and additional supply measures, such as more efficient appliances or distributed generation built on solar, wind, geothermal, fuel cells, microturbines and other technologies.

• The Governor needs to redirect his attention to providing leadership to assist California to overcome its electricity supply problem, and to abandon foolish efforts to overpay for transmission lines and invest otherwise much needed taxpayer resources in a state power authority.

I have asked the Department of Justice and the General Accounting Office to resolve the allegations of price gouging. I have asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to challenge the wisdom of the state purchase of the transmission lines. I have asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to actively help prepare for the blackouts expected this summer. As your representative, I will continue to work to diligently to show the Governor this path.

But most of the necessary actions require the Governor to exhibit leadership – leadership that has been sadly lacking on this issue to date.

Congressman George Radanovich represents California’s 19^th District and serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Word Count: 752