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Pastimes : The California Energy Crisis - Information & Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Knowlton who wrote (257)	5/2/2001 12:22:43 PM
From: gamesmistress	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1715

Another example of the Fantasyland approach to the energy crisis. Latest electric idea: Bill the U.S. By Carrie Peyton Sacramento Bee Staff Writer (Published May 2, 2001) The scent of revenge has begun to rise from electric rate-setting hearings in San Francisco. In the curving halls of the Public Utilities Commission, where the state regulates electric rates, they are not happy with the federal government. It's also occurred to them that that government -- the one that has spurned calls for price caps, balked at major refunds and leaned on California to turn over more control of its grid -- pays electric bills like everyone else. It's only fair that it should pay much, much more, snipes state lawyer Jason Zeller. "The commission should establish a special federal utility (FU) rate for all federal facilities in California," Zeller wrote in an otherwise staid brief filed Monday with the PUC. This might be good for more than a laugh. PUC President Loretta Lynch has indicated she is interested in the idea, sources said. It could mean higher prices for post offices and military bases, national parks and research labs, said Zeller, who works for the PUC's Office of Ratepayer Advocates, the state-funded voice for California's electric consumers. "Why should California ... be subsidizing these agencies that don't believe in controlling prices?" Zeller asked in an interview. "Maybe we ought to let them taste their own medicine and see how they like it." His notion has tapped an anger shared by Gov. Gray Davis' office, regulators, consumer groups and utilities. While taking no position on the idea's merits, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. likes Zeller's style. "In an industry that is dominated by acronyms and jargon, this proposal stands out as refreshingly clear," PG&E spokesman John Nelson said. The feds are not impressed. "It sounds more like they're trying to get back at FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) than to deal with the issues," said Marc Rosen, assistant counsel for the Navy, which has been trying to persuade state regulators to use a rate plan that goes easier on big power users. "The federal government paying higher rates ... is really the taxpayers," he said. "I'm not sure that's what they want to do." Zeller's idea emerged amid the days of hearings and reams of legal briefs aimed at helping the PUC decide how to parcel out the pain of its latest rate hike. The five appointed commissioners voted unanimously in March to raise rates an average of 29 percent but ordered hearings into how that should affect different groups of customers. An administrative judge is expected to make her recommendations next week, and the commission is scheduled to vote on the new rates May 14. If Zeller's idea survives the howls and chuckles it has provoked from utility and government offices, it could become part of the judge's recommendations or alternatives proposed by different commissioners. "It's an interesting perspective," Commissioner Carl Wood said dryly. "But I think ... when we reach decisions, they'll be made on a serious basis and on the basis of what's in best interests of the people of this state," he said. Some federal operations could be spared because they have contracts for their electric supplies with alternative providers. The rest pay current rates, sometimes as low as about 5 cents a kilowatt-hour. Zeller said his plan could add 80 cents or more to each kilowatt-hour used by the federal government at peak times. He wants federal agencies to pay their regular rates plus a varying surcharge pegged to full market prices. "If the federal government truly believes that the free market is the solution to California's energy woes, the federal government should have no objection," he wrote in a 31-page brief. "Perhaps the FERC will not be so sanguine about the free market when other federal agencies begin seeing their budgets cut in half when they are exposed to the wholesale prices the 'efficient' private market is delivering to California."