I smell a taxpayer bailout coming! I just hope it is the state taxpayers and not the federal taxpayers. The state taxpayers consumed the power so let them pay for it. Let's see: $10 billion distributed over 33 million people = $303 for every man, woman and child in the state. OUCH!
Edison `May Not Make It' Through Week, California Governor Says
By Daniel Taub
Rosemead, California, Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Edison International, owner of California's second-largest electric utility, ``may not make it through the week,'' Governor Gray Davis said in an interview with cable television network CNBC.
Davis didn't expand on the comment during the interview. Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for the California governor, wouldn't say where the information came from, except to say that it came from ``a utility'' in the state. An Edison spokesman wouldn't say if the information came from the company.
``We're declining comment right now,'' said Steve Hansen, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, the utility unit of Rosemead, California-based Edison International.
Edison has racked up more than $3.5 billion in losses because it has been buying power for more than it is allowed to charge customers. Under the state's deregulation laws, its customers' power rates are temporarily frozen.
San Francisco-based PG&E Corp., owner of California's No. 1 electric utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, has more than $4.6 billion in uncollected power-buying costs. Representatives of both utilities have been meeting with Davis's staff about their financial problems, Maviglio said.
Analysts have said that PG&E and Edison may face the threat of bankruptcy if they're not able to recover power-buying costs.
The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled Thursday to consider the two companies' difficulties. Both PG&E and Edison also have filed suit in federal court for permission to pass their power costs on to customers.
``To fund the $3.5 billion deficit and to finance the additional procurement of electricity, Edison has had to borrow huge sums of money in the commercial markets,'' Edison Chairman and Chief Executive John Bryson said in a statement last week. ``This situation is not sustainable.''
Edison shares rose 19 cents to $20.19 today. The shares of PG&E, based in San Francisco, fell 44 cents to $23.63. Davis's interview on CNBC came after the close of regular U.S. trading.
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