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To: flatsville who wrote (55743)	1/10/2001 12:55:48 AM
From: portage	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Hey flatsville - yeah, little wonder, is it ? Sorta reminds me of the Florida election where you pick whatever argument seems to work at the time, no matter who you are. I think Davis is beginning to realize that the box he's in is even more unpleasant than he could have dreamed. He's really the picture of a moderate, and more pro big-business than most democrats. Utlities have greased his palm pretty well over the years. Now he's in a real pickle. His speech's populist twist last night surprised me. By nature, he'd want to bail out the utilities, probably 100% by the ratepayers, but over a long enough period to hide the pain. But I think he's realized the voters won't let him get away with that. He's got big ambitions (I'll bet he thinks he's the man in 2004 - truth is, he's a bore even next to Gore), but here comes this train wreck. So much for presiding over a happy house. He's looked every which way for someone else to solve the problem, but it ain't happening. So now he may have to balance his inclinations against his future. His future may start and end with the governorship re-election in 2002, and he must know that by now. I don't doubt that residential ratepayers would be willing to shoulder some of the burden of this mess, but not the bulk of it. You're talking $600-$800 month bills if caps were lifted, where they used to be $50-$100. And this is in a mild climate ! On top of very costly housing out here, you've just stirred up a hornet's nest. That's revolution time, and people are antsy enough with the growing rich-poor dichotomy as it is. Davis has three choices, the way I see it: try to split the cost difference between utility investors and ratepayers (and there's every reason to justify this), or else face the 25 million man march on his Capitol -- or do something even more radical like eminent domain and a California coup. I suppose he was trying to buy a little time with that speech, and maybe scare the kilowatt cowboys a little bit - but I don't think he was bluffing. He's been dealt a very bad hand, and he's pissed. The sorry thing, which all the schadenfreude from Phil Graham-cracker and his miserable bunch (who no doubt would be riding in to bail out their S&L buddies again in the same situation) will do nothing to help in this situation, is that a lot of small business owners are closing down as their power bills rocket from $1,000 a month to $15,000 a month, or worse. And who knows just whose granny is going to keel over next summer as the a/c kicks off on a 110 degree day. Most of those people had very little say in this thing. What I'd like to know is what kind of contracts the larger companies who pushed this on us in the first place got locked into -- I think many got long term rates locked in at favorable levels - although some had to agree to rolling brownouts if necessary in crunch times. I think we could easily conserve our way through the next few years if there was a better way to coordinate it (and to be able to see the costs with real time metering), but the main drama is going to be over the unbelievable rates that are gamed during the peak time bidding in this crazy spot market system. That is, if Herr Davis doesn't move in with some savior plan before then.