Yo, Ed,
I hope you don't think I'm one of the California bashers. I love California, especially the Bay Area. As for a short & long term solution to the problem, I think the easiest one is clearly the most obvious one. Sell State of Calif. bonds to refinance the utility debt and get creditworthy again, change the law so that utilities can enter into long term supply contracts (yes, today they will be pricier than they would have been 12 months ago but that's life) and pass on the rate increases, slowly but surely, to the consumers so they can understand the true cost of the power they crave and alter their usage patterns. I don't have any problem if California wants to "import" all its energy from Utah and Nevada, anymore than I have a problem if California wants to "import" all its cars from Detroit and the Rust Belt, its oil from the Gulf of Mexico and Prudhoe Bay or its financial services from NY and Boston. No one claims that because many of the goods bought by Californicators are manufactured in places less pristine (Detroit, Houston) that those places are manufacturing colonies for the Big Bear State.
But GWB is correct, the problem is a state made problem and the solution needs to be a state made (flick of the pen) solution. Unless California's credit rating is so poor that it needs a Federal guarantee, there really is no role for the Feds in this, imvvvvho.
Regards,
Kb |
