Posted on 10/11/2003 8:32:00 AM PDT by Pokey78
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:44:20 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing a push to deregulate the state's electricity markets -- a move embraced by business leaders and some energy analysts but criticized by many Democrats and consumer advocates as a return to the failed policies that sparked California's energy crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Really?
1/30/01 Page B7 Editorials
Daniel Weintraub The Sacramento Bee
Deregulation bill author has dodged the bulletJim Brulte is hard to miss. As leader of the Republicans in the state Senate and a close California adviser to President Bush, Brulte is one of the Legislature's most visible members, in more ways than one. With a massive physique that might qualify him for a spot on the offensive line of a National Football League team, Brulte doesn't exactly slink his way through the Capitol.
But somehow he has escaped serious scrutiny for his role in shaping the bill now widely considered the state's biggest self-inflicted wound of the last decade, if not the century. Brulte was the author of the 1996 law that restructured California's electricity industry.
The senator from Rancho Cucamonga doesn't like to talk much about the bill that bears his name. But back then he was a proud father beaming over his new baby.
"This is a bill that I think will go down in the history books as one of the most far-reaching and forward-thinking pieces of legislation," Brulte said as the measure cleared the Assembly floor in August 1996.
Well, Brulte's bill is making the history books. But not in a chapter titled "Forward Thinking." Instead, the law has been blamed by many for unleashing the forces that ruined California's electricity industry and brought consumers, and the state, to their knees: rolling blackouts, price spikes and perhaps a load of debt as far as the eye can see.
The outcome has all but ended the political career of another legislator, Sen. Steve Peace of San Diego County. Peace, who was chairman of the Assembly-Senate conference committee that crafted the bill, has become known as the architect of electricity = deregulation. He has dropped plans to run for statewide office and is hardly involved, at least in public, as the Legislature grapples with the crisis.
But there's Brulte, still in the thick of things. As Republican leader, he has been one of four legislators working closely with Gov. Gray Davis to hammer out a rescue plan. Davis is so enamored of Brulte's help that the governor's press secretary said the other day he'd like to outfit the lawmaker with a Superman costume.
Brulte is unapologetic. Although he once proclaimed AB 1890 one for the history books, he now says his bill was overrated. By the time the Legislature got into the act, he says, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) had already voted to deregulate electricity. The governor at the time - Pete Wilson - threatened to veto any bill that more than tinkered with the PUC's plan. Brulte provided a copy of a letter Wilson wrote to federal regulators that backs up this claim.
"The Wilson administration was at the table with us the entire time, and they let us know the parameters under which we could operate," Brulte said in an interview. "We knew exactly what we could put in and what we could not. We could not deal with any structural changes to the PUC order."
Brulte, though, didn't exactly march into Wilson's office and demand more leeway. He and the other members of the conference committee made a few changes to the PUC plan, winning the support of environmentalists and labor unions, and neutrality, rather than opposition, from several consumer groups. Then they sent it on its way.
"It was absolutely the right thing to do," Brulte said. "Deregulation was a fait accompli. It was just a question of mechanics."
The problems, in Brulte's view, came after his bill was signed into law. California's economy, and its demand for energy, grew faster than legislators expected. A consumer group, meanwhile, qualified an initiative for the 1998 ballot that threatened to repeal much of the new law. The uncertainty kept investors from pushing new power plants until the measure, Proposition 9, was defeated.
The energy shortage was compounded by two PUC decisions not envisioned by lawmakers, he said. One came when the commission encouraged the old monopoly utilities to sell all but their nuclear and hydroelectric power plants. The other was when the PUC held religiously to its view that the utilities should not buy power under long-term contracts as a hedge against future price increases. This lethal mix of policies left the utilities, and consumers, far too vulnerable to the private companies that bought the power plants and quickly learned how to play the market to their advantage.
Brulte concedes that, in hindsight, perhaps the Legislature should have intervened to fix the PUC's mistakes.
"Everyone in the Legislature wanted to believe that the PUC commissioners, these five experts appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, knew more about the utilities and the electricity markets than we did," he said. "In retrospect, it's kind of clear in some cases they didn't. In many cases they didn't."
So there's Brulte's story: The governor made him do it. Projections were wrong. The experts screwed up. All these things are true. But Brulte is supposed to be the smartest Republican in Sacramento. Smart people ask questions. Now he's got another chance. Let's hope this time he does more than simply go with the = flow.
Daniel Weintraub's column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. He can be reached at (916) 321-1914 or at = dweintraub@sacbee.com.
Funny, I didn't see one mention of being "hijacked" or "herded" by anyone but Pete Wilson and his appointee's.
Did I ever say Sen. Peace wasn't a part of it?
Assembly Bill 1890 was Assemblyman Brulte's bill, not Sen.Peace's bill...Brulte wanted credit for it, he deserves to get it.
BTW, I'll bet if it had turned out to be a brilliant plan you wouldn't be interjecting Peace's name into the discussion...would you.
You won't even admit that Steve Peace had a role, much less that he drove the bill through the Senate and took over during the conference committee. That wouldn't be convenient to your agenda.
I've never denied it. Steve Peace had a roll, the legislation was introduced by (R) Assemblyman Brulte, then signed into law by (R) Pete Wilson...One Democrat "having a roll" in a disaster is hardly worth mentioning.
Electricity deregulation is, in my opinion a fraudulent act. To begin with there is NO deregulated market without price controls of some kind...it just happens the push for price controlled electricity deregulation is a Republican thing...I give credit where it's due.
Thanks for the compliment, you must think my words have some power. However, I hate to disillusion you but I don't have an "agenda". I do however have well thought out opinions you can't seem to grasp...or maybe you fear.
Yes, consistently.
BTW, I'll bet if it had turned out to be a brilliant plan you wouldn't be interjecting Peace's name into the discussion...would you.
Try citations to fact, please. You know that I excoriate Republicans when they deserve it, as did the unanimous caucus that endorsed the original deregulation bill. Brulte's name may be on it, but Peace made it happen. He took credit for it too, until it blew up in his face. Since then he has been was damned thorough about removing the evidence. I used to be able to find articles with him crowing about deregulation. All the links to such pages as I had are now dead.
Who controls the present, controls the past...
When you come out of the Santa Cruz fog look at post #41 to see who "made it happen".
In your hatred for me you resort to idiocy to appear to make your point. My condeming of the ones responsible for the debacle isn't an endorsement for the other side...that kind of thinking is idiocy at best.
It wasn't introduced by Peace nor was it signed into law by Peace...Care to counter that?
Who controls the present, controls the past...
The same is true of the Wilson and Brulte links...Everyone plays the game by the same rules.
Yes, consistently.
That's a blatant lie BTW, I've posted the actual bill and highlighted (then) Senator Peace's name under "principal co-author" too many times to remember to make my point that he was/is NOT the author of the Assembly bill.
Your idiocy is turning to lies now.
Not to me. What I've seen you highlight is Brulte's name, and I've had to shove this factoid down your gagging throat every time I saw you lay blame exclusively upon Brulte and Wilson (which can't be every time you've posted it). You've also stated, repeatedly and falsely, that it was under a Republican control of the Assembly. You did it so many times I had to keep permanent linkz on file here and here to put in front of you whenever you repeated that bogus story.
I have never denied that the Republicans had a significant role in crafting and passing the deregulation bill, but in my judgment (and his), Peace is primarily responsible for the final article.
Your idiocy is turning to lies now.
I see that, seeing as Dog Gone already announced your BS in advance, I'll need others to confirm it for you. Fortunately, your loose and shrill rhetorical habits are well known.
SAN DIEGO -Governor Pete Wilson today signed historic legislation,AB 1890 by Assemblyman Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga),which will break up California ’s utility monopoly,open the state ’s $21 billion electricity market to competition and guarantee a 20 percent rate cut for residential and small business customers by the year 2002.”
Governor Wilson press release,9/23/1996
The 1995-96 legislative session marked the first time since 1970 when Republicans took control of the California State Assembly. Many State Capitol insiders are watching the Assembly races closely to see if the Republicans will maintain their control over the lower house in the 1997-98 session.
Which part is false exactly?
Your ping list of you lie amd I'll swear to it friends is yet another example of your idiocy can't you at least find someone who lives in California?...One from Texas, one from N.Carolina and Pappy Yokum from Dogpatch.
My understanding is that's not as easily searchable by sub-topic.
Don'tcha git it? Lewislynn is a die-hard peaceant!
Here was the first stone you threw after bandying a childish comparison:
Think about it.
As if I hadn't. It was you who condescended and assumed superior knowledge with your reference to the breakup of AT&T as if it were equivalent to the bogus deregulation of the California power market. I showed you how it wasn't a valid comparison. You don't like it.
It's your mentality that needs to be thrown out.
This is why California is in such a mess. You berated me and others and put yourself above those that know issues better than you. So, you expresed the desire to kill the messenger.
Argue with facts and principles. If you can't win on those, change your thinking.
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