Gray Davis’ Edison problem

Tue, 31 Jul 2001 20:58:00 +0000

Ever since his January State of the State address, in which he dwelled on the state's power crisis but neglected to mention private utilities' central role in devising the deregulation scheme that caused it, California Gov. Gray Davis has been searching for a way to bail out the insolvent Southern California Edison, which has contributed more than $350,000 to Davis' campaign coffers. Now his drive to save the battered utility, which claims nearly $4 billion in debt and is no longer creditworthy enough to buy power, has gone into overtime, with no solution yet in sight. An attempt to bring the California Assembly back from its summer recess to vote on a new bailout bill Friday was just the latest such effort to fall apart.

The drive to bail out Edison, one of the biggest proposed corporate rescues in U.S. history, remains very troubled, despite a flurry of high-level activity over the past two weeks. The Aug. 15 deadline for legislative approval of some semblance of the very sweet deal negotiated last spring by Davis looms, yet the California Legislature is in recess until Aug. 20. One bill pronounced unacceptable by Edison, backed by Senate President John Burton, the fiery San Francisco liberal, and Sen. Byron Sher of Palo Alto, passed the Senate last week before the Legislature went on recess.

The unlikely populist

Fri, 01 Jun 2001 19:27:00 +0000

Now that Gov. Gray Davis and President Bush have had their summit, which changed absolutely nothing, one question remains: While Davis has escalated his rhetoric recently, declaring that California is "at war with greedy power generators from Texas," does he plan to wage a real war? Or will it merely be, to borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill, a "phony war," designed to prop up his sagging poll numbers but leaving the energy mess and those "greedy" Texas profiteers essentially untouched?

Davis says he wants federal price caps on sales of wholesale electric power to California, which now costs more than 10 times what it cost two years ago. Bush won't grant them. Which isn't exactly a shock: Neither would President Clinton, and he wasn't an ex-governor of Texas close to the firms now reaping record profits from California's power crisis.

For all Davis' attempts at seeming outraged at Bush's attitude, of course it should surprise no one. After all, Bush's Florida recount consigliere, former Secretary of State James Baker, is on the board of Houston's Reliant, one of the most controversial Texas firms in the power crisis. And Bush's close friend and frequent host for campaign plane trips, Ken Lay, is both head of the nation's leading electricity marketer, Enron, and the leading advocate for continued deregulation of the California market.

Salon.com > William Bradley

Gray Davis’ Edison problem

The unlikely populist