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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (146191)	5/17/2001 5:45:52 PM
From: Ish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

<<I don't believe we are in an energy crisis that is real >> You might want to tell that to California senior citizens when they are gasping for breath with no air conditioning.

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (146191)	5/17/2001 6:17:28 PM
From: Gordon A. Langston	Respond to of 769670

Pat Gas issue is partly linked to the energy crisis but may have some distinctly different culprits. There are victims already. Anaheim Mills runs out of gas Energy • The fabric-dyeing business shuts down after its monthly natural-gas bills rise five-fold in the past year. May 16, 2001 By DANIELLE HERUBIN The Orange County Register Anaheim - Anaheim Mills Corp., a fabric dyer, has closed its doors, saying it can no longer afford to pay rising natural-gas prices. The closure, completed Friday, puts about 120 workers out of work. "Our (gas) bills used to average $30,000 to $40,000 a month, now $150,000 to $200,000 a month has been the average," said Steven Lieberman, vice president of Anaheim Mills. Lieberman said the company, which has annual revenue of more than $6 million, is trying to find an alternative source of natural gas. If it can't find an alternative, Anaheim Mills will declare bankruptcy, he said. Most of Anaheim Mills' customers have moved their business to East Coast companies. Like other dyeing companies in Southern California, Anaheim Mills had been buying natural gas on the spot market and having it piped directly from a Texas supplier. Southern California Gas, the company's old supplier, discourages larger users such as Anaheim Mills from buying directly from them, Lieberman said. For more than a year, the price of natural gas supplied to Southern California users has been climbing. Lieberman said the company was able to absorb the early cost, even finishing 2000 in the black. But the company has been losing money steadily each month this year as the gas needed to run fabric dryers and ovens skyrocketed. Anaheim Mills isn't alone. U.S. Dyeing and Finishing in Garden Grove closed its Vernon fabric-dyeing facility recently, laying off about 80 people. The Garden Grove plant also laid off about 50 workers. And Pico Rivera-based L.A. Dye & Print Works Inc. is also closing its doors, laying off about 1,500 people. Scott Edwards, president of the Association of Textile Dyers Printers and Finishers of Southern California, said gas prices for textile companies have gone up eight-fold in the past year. He said although prices have risen elsewhere in the nation, California is the worst. "What has been hurting us is the unprecedented rise in transporting gas to the California border," Edwards said. The textile industry, which includes dyeing, printing, cutting and sewing, was once nearly nonexistent in Southern California. The entire textile industry has grown to about 115,000 people. There were about 15,000 textile dyers and printers employed in the area at the beginning of the year. The sector serves Southern California's burgeoning fashion-design industry.