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PoliticsOL.com Editorial - Week of June 10, 2001
Blackouts and the California Legislature
To understand the nature of California's energy crisis, you have to understand the nature of politics in Sacramento. The crash course: whatever big business wants, big business gets.
Are you the insurance industry and afraid of another populist state insurance commissioner like John Garamendi? Easy. Just phony up $2.5 million and help elect some obscure, young, good-looking state legislator who will do as he's told.
Next!
Want to cap your potential earthquake insurance losses? Easy. Get your man in the commissioner's office to introduce an industry-crafted state bailout scheme. So what if future earthquake victims get only dimes on the dollar for their losses?
But, it still has to pass in the legislature, right?
Easy. Muster a summer-long lobbying blitz...and write some fat campaign contributions checks along the way. But, what about the Democrat-controlled State Senate? No problem. After all, even the Senate president pro tem at the time, Bill Lockyer, (now state attorney general) admitted, "The insurance industry has twenty-one votes on [a majority] any day it needs them."
Next!
Energy your game?
Easy. Concoct a de-regulation scheme and get it passed the same weekend as the earthquake bill. No one's paying attention. Why not? Because what little coverage the state's newspapers give to the shenanigans in Sacramento is focused on the earthquake insurance issue.
So little attention, in fact, that AB 1890 sailed through both houses of the legislature without even one single nay vote. Senate vote ... Assembly vote
Such is politics in Sacramento, which has seen about a dozen former state legislators and lobbyists over the past two decades go to jail on political corruption charges.
Now, the state energy system is in shambles, thanks to State Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles) and the other 115 legislators in 1996 who unanimously voted for the deregulation bill.
What's Kuehl do now? Perhaps atone for her mistake by at least authoring a bill to re-regulate the industry?
Not a chance. That's evidentally not worth her time. She's too busy crafting legislation to allow Universal Studios and its theme park to purchase its power needs from the City of Los Angeles (whose municipally-owned energy grid is not part of the deregulation boondoggle) instead of from financially crippled Southern California Edison, whose rates are skyrocketing. Kuehl says she's concerned about potential summer blackouts that might leave visitors stranded on rides. But, Universal will save big bucks in avoiding the cash-starved utility's higher rates. Her bill, SB 1172, sailed through the Senate this past week, 29-4.
Universal Studios is one of the many big campaign donors in Sacramento. They've given to Kuehl and dozens of other Sacramento politicians. Kuehl, like most of the thin-skinned legislators in the state, expresses indignation at even the thought of any "implication that I, of all people, am carrying a bill for rich businesses." [Los Angeles Times, June 8, 2001, "Universal May Get Break on Electricity Bills"]
But, the simple fact remains that if some corner deli or clothing boutique had approached Kuehl asking for the same opportunity afforded Universal, they likely would have been laughed out of her office (that is, if they could even have gotten an appointment in the first place).
Kuehl also won't get much heat from energy reform advocates because she's a reliable vote ally on many totally unrelated issues that these same groups advocate on -- and Sacramento is chock full of legislators who inquire as to how some groups stand on specific issues just so they can exact revenge by voting the other way. These groups no doubt figure there's no sense in testing to see if Kuehl might be one of them later on.
We don't mean to necessarily pick on Kuehl (who, incidentally, was one of only about two dozen legislators to buck the insurance industry on the earthquake bill). But, the point is that big business in California already pays less than half the rate that residential energy users pay. What about the safety issue for the theme park? Well, what about motorists who get involved in accidents because traffic signals are out? The safety concern is nothing but a red herring. It's all about cutting Universal Studio's energy costs and assuring minimal loss of business thanks to Los Angeles' more reliable source of power.
So long as legislators in the state succumb to crafting further bailouts as crisis management for only the big energy users, they will never solve the crisis for the whole state.
PoliticsOL.com reserves the right to shorten or to edit letters for clarity. Only signed letters will be considered for publication. (i.e., include name, city & state of residence)
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Energy your game?
