Power Crisis Puts Lawmakers in Hot Seat

SACRAMENTO — State Sen. Don Perata had had enough.

Nearly a month had passed since lawmakers took up the California energy crisis. Yet there Perata sat Tuesday, in a stale committee room, listening as Davis administration officials defended a much-amended bill that would put the state in the long-term power-buying business.

“No sufficient case has been made that this bill we have before us is going to solve the magnitude of this problem!” the Alameda Democrat exploded, his voice rising with each word. “If I’ve got to walk out of here and fall down a flight of stairs in the dark, I want to know damn well that I’ve done all I could.”

Perata and other shell-shocked legislators are dealing with a problem they do not pretend to fully understand, under a strain unseen since the Proposition 13 tax revolt two decades ago.

This week alone, they will consider legislation that also could rescue California utilities from financial ruin and raise rates for many of their constituents to pull it off.

On Tuesday, they continued debating--for hours--the power purchase plan. They also continued to fret over how to inflict the least pain on consumers if rate hikes are inevitable. No action was taken.

If they fail to act quickly, California will have to keep spending taxpayer money--already $540 million and counting--to avert blackouts and economic disaster. If they fail to act wisely, they risk angering Wall Street and rabble-rousing consumer groups.

These are not decisions politicians like to make. And the stress of being trapped in a political no-win situation is taking a personal toll.

State Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) pops four melatonin tablets a night, yet still lies awake with nagging thoughts of megawatts. Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), whom one consumer group is calling “Bailout Bob,” is living out of a Sacramento hotel room, too busy meeting with bankruptcy lawyers to house hunt.

Sen. Jim Battin (R-La Quinta) has dreamed of cogeneration, the arcane issue that fills his waking hours. Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey), who has become quite attached to a pack of Rolaids, coined a term for the on-the-job course lawmakers are all taking--”Economics 432: Electricity Systems, and By the Way the Future of the State Is in Your Hands.”

Complicating matters is the fact that 30 lawmakers--a fourth of the current Legislature--voted for the disastrous 1996 deregulation bill they are now being asked to fix. Another fourth, thanks to the revolving door created by term limits, consists of rookies elected in November.

Is this Legislature up to the task?

“I think there is a shot,” said Burton, a blunt-spoken veteran of more than 35 years in California politics. “There has never in my life been anything like this.”

The consequences of this problem, Hertzberg noted, ripple far beyond California, which boasts the world’s sixth-largest economy.

“Everybody’s plugged in; the whole economy. You’ve got this magic of California, which has just captivated the attention of the world,” Hertzberg said, referring to the Internet, “and it’s all plugged into that little outlet in your wall.”

Outsiders have their own doubts.

“Part of this I am convinced is the fallout from term limits on a couple of levels,” said political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe. “Legislators who knew they were going to be around for a while would have been following this [electricity problem]. . . . If you’re going to be gone in six or eight years, what you look for is the easy fix.”

California’s dysfunctional electricity market, the Byzantine finances of the utilities, the powerful energy companies that dominate the supply of power--all are complex topics that most legislators knew nothing about only a month ago. Lawmakers have had to put all other business aside to focus on them at a time when they are usually introducing bills and getting their collective act together.

“All of us are just reading and learning,” said Assemblywoman Carole Migden (D-San Francisco). “The stakes are tremendously high, and there is a fair degree of frustration.”

Their ideas range from conservative Republican proposals to fire up nuclear power plants to liberal Democratic plans that would force the biggest energy users to bear most of the crisis’ cost.

Though they have publicly worked in tandem, and talked about the importance of a bipartisan solution by lawmakers and Gov. Gray Davis, not everyone has embraced that approach.

Just three months after being chosen to lead his caucus, Assembly Republican leader Bill Campbell (R-Villa Park) could be in trouble: Some of his members are grumbling about his tendency not to criticize Davis. Leaders of the Assembly’s minority Republicans have had a short shelf life for years, with little room for error.

But Campbell countered that: “This issue is bigger than partisan politics; my members understand that. There was some frustration, but my members have coalesced behind me.”

Thirty of the Assembly’s members are fresh-faced rookies who have been on the job just three weeks. “We kind of walked into this mess,” said freshman Assemblyman Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto).

By their own admission, the newcomers are still learning the ways of Sacramento as they take a crash course in electricity policy.

By contrast, 26 of today’s senators and four Assembly members were in the Legislature four years ago when it unanimously approved the electricity deregulation bill. It was an unforeseen blunder that they fear making worse now.

“I’m very gunshy,” conceded Assemblyman Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino), who voted for deregulation as a member of the Senate. Among his colleagues, Leonard said, there is pervasive concern that “no matter what decision they make, it will be criticized.”

“I get to choose which way I am going to be criticized,” he said with a half-laugh.

The deregulation bill was largely crafted by Sen. Steve Peace (D-El Cajon). But he has mostly stayed out of the current fray. And last week, he abandoned his exploratory campaign for secretary of state in 2002.

Some politicians whose careers stretch back to the mid-1960s agree with Burton that no bigger, more urgent issue has struck the Legislature since Proposition 13, the revolutionary 1978 initiative that capped property taxes.

Former Assembly Speaker Leo T. McCarthy, a Democrat who helped navigate the state out of the Proposition 13 aftermath, sees a troubling similarity between the two situations: In each case, the governor and Legislature didn’t read the early warnings.

Then, it was homeowner anger over skyrocketing property taxes that failed to capture the attention of legislators. More recently, McCarthy said, it was inattentiveness to energy developments and the workings of the utilities.

“In both instances, the elected governor and the elected Legislature didn’t get into the act soon enough,” McCarthy said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Who Voted for Deregulation in 1996

SENATE

Of the Senate’s 40 members, 26 were in the Legislature in 1996. All voted for the bill that authorized California’s failed deregulation of electricity. Most are former Assembly members who have moved to the upper house.

Richard Ackerman (R-Irvine)*

Dede Alpert (D-Coronado)*

Jim Battin (R-La Quinta)*

Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey)*

John Burton (D-San Francisco)*

Jim Costa (D-Fresno)

Martha Escutia (D-Whittier)*

Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont)*

Ray Haynes (R-Riverside)

Maurice Johannessen (R-Redding)

Ross Johnson (R-Irvine)

Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica)*

William “Pete” Knight (R-Palmdale)*

Mike Machado (D-Linden)*

Bob Margett (R-Arcadia)*

Bruce McPherson (R-Santa Cruz)*

Dick Montieth (R-Modesto)

Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside)*

Kevin Murray (D-Culver City)*

Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo)

Steve Peace (D-El Cajon)

Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles)

Chuck Poochigian (R-Fresno)*

Byron Sher (D-Stanford)

Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough)*

John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara)*

* Voted as member of Assembly

ASSEMBLY

Only four of the Assembly’s 80 members were in the Legislature in 1996 and voted for the deregulation bill.

David Kelley (R-Idyllwild)*

Tim Leslie (R-Tahoe City)*

Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino)*

Carole Migden (D-San Francisco)

* Voted as member of Senate.