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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: Ginger Dernehl X-To: Richard Shapiro, Steven J Kean, Maureen McVicker, Aleck Dadson, Janine Migden, Jeff Brown, Laurie Knight, Leslie Lawner, Robert Hemstock, Daniel Allegretti, Steve Montovano, Roy Boston, Robin Kittel, Jean R Dressler, Howard Fromer, Lisa Yoho, Frank Rishe, Barbara A Hueter, Susan M Landwehr, Becky L Merola, Sandra McCubbin, Lara Leibman, Bruno Gaillard, Nancy Hetrick, Hap Boyd, Sheila Petitt, Sue Nord, Terri Miller, Susan J Mara, Jeff Dasovich, Linda Sietzema, Mona L Petrochko, Lysa Akin, Sharon D Eley, Bill Moore, Ginger Dernehl, Paul Kaufman, Harry Kingerski, Robert Frank, Joseph Alamo, Patrick Keene, Marchris Robinson, Chauncey Hood, Marcie Milner, Tom Hoatson, Tom Chapman, Donald Lassere, Geriann Warner, Joe Allen, Tracy Cooper, Joe Hillings, Cynthia Sandherr, Carolyn Cooney, Lora Sullivan, Stephen D Burns, Chris Long, Allison Navin, Amy Fabian, Mericha Morrissette, Gloria Ogenyi, Robert Neustaedter, Kerry Stroup, Rubena Buerger, Xi_Xi@enron.net, Alberto Levy, Ricardo Charvel, Thane Twiggs, Damon Harvey, Vinio Floris, Ron McNamara, Joe Hartsoe, Bernadette Hawkins, Richard Ingersoll, Christi L Nicolay, Gloria Solis, Charles Yeung, Sarah Novosel, Mary Hain, Scott Bolton, Tom Delaney, Tom Briggs, Jose Bestard, Lindolfo Ernesto Paixao, Mike G Smith, Guillermo Canovas, ray.alvarez@transredes.com, eidy.catala@transredes.com, susana.del.castillo@transredes.com, jpr@ceibo.entelnet.bo, assad@elektro.com.br, Luiz Maurer, Jose Lucio Reis, Valeria Lima, Cecilia Morellato, cristinah@elektro.com.br, Gisele S Braz, Steve Walton, Dan Staines, Donna Fulton, javier.pantoja@transredes.com, assad@elektro.com.br X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \Steven_Kean_June2001_4\Notes Folders\Discussion threads X-Origin: KEAN-S X-FileName: skean.nsf ---------------------- Forwarded by Ginger Dernehl/NA/Enron on 08/22/2000 12:14 PM --------------------------- Joseph Alamo @ EES 08/22/2000 11:38 AM To: California Government Affairs, Paul Kaufman/PDX/ECT@ECT, Karen Denne/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Peggy Mahoney/HOU/EES@EES, Richard Shapiro/HOU/EES@EES, James D Steffes/HOU/EES@EES, Marcie Milner/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Harry Kingerski/HOU/EES@EES, Roger Yang/SFO/EES@EES cc: Ginger Dernehl/NA/Enron@Enron, Lysa Akin/PDX/ECT@ECT, Marcia A Linton/NA/Enron@Enron Subject: SF Chronicle Article: Partial Electric Rate Freeze OKd for Hard-Hit San Diego/Critics say more relief needed for deregulation Please note for your review the following news article which appeared in the August 22, 2000 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle: [Ginger: please also route/distribute to those whom you deem appropriate. Thanks!] Joseph Alamo Sr. Administrative Assistant Government Affairs - The Americas San Francisco CA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/08/22/M N1901.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- August 22, 2000 (SF Chronicle) Partial Electric Rate Freeze OKd for Hard-Hit San Diego/Critics say more relief needed for deregulation David Lazarus, Chronicle Staff Writer Responding to calls for action from Gov. Gray Davis, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a limited rate freeze yesterday for electricity users in San Diego, where power bills have skyrocketed in recent months. However, the measure was harshly criticized by San Diego officials and consumer activists as being an insufficient remedy for surging rates resulting from deregulation of the state's electricity market. They are now looking for relief from legislators in Sacramento, who are expected to vote today on a bill that would allow them to sidestep state energy regulators and impose more extensive restrictions on how much San Diegans can be charged for power. "I'm extremely, extremely disappointed," said San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who flew up for yesterday's PUC meeting in San Francisco with other local officials. Former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor urged California legislators to scrap the state's electricity deregulation altogether. "To continue the farce so that the whole state is under this terrorist economic endeavor is just ridiculous," she said. O'Connor added that Bay Area ratepayers should be concerned about what will happen when Pacific Gas and Electric Co. lifts a freeze on its own electricity rates, perhaps as soon as next summer. "We already have the train wreck in San Diego," she said. "It's coming your way next." The PUC voted 3 to 2 to approve an immediate "bill stabilization plan" ensuring that most residential customers using 500 kilowatt hours or less in electricity would pay no more than $68 per month through Jan. 31, 2001. Their bills would be capped at $75 a month for the remainder of next year. Business customers using no more than 1,500 kilowatt hours would have their monthly bills capped at $220 until the end of January, subsequently rising to $240 a month. Michael Shames, executive director of San Diego's Utility Consumers' Action Network, acknowledged that the average residence uses 500 kilowatt hours a month in juice, but said this figure is skewed by inclusion of vacation homes, apartments, condominiums and other relatively low power users. Many San Diego Gas & Electric customers use double the amount of power stipulated in the PUC's rate cap, he said. The PUC's measure, Shames said, "does precious little for government, schools, hospitals and businesses who are currently being hit hard by the energy debacle." RESTAURANT'S BILL SOARS One San Diego business owner, Susan Bauman, said her restaurant used 30,000 kilowatt hours last month and that her monthly power bill doubled to more than $10,000. For the entire year, she said, her electricity bills will total more than $100,000. "The commission just doesn't get it," said Mike Florio, an attorney for The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco consumer group. The commission's vote was along party lines, with the three Republican appointees -- Henry Duque, Richard Bilas and Josiah Neeper -- voting in favor and Democratic appointees Loretta Lynch and Carl Wood dissenting. Lynch and Wood had favored an alternative measure that would have applied the rate freeze to a greater number of customers. In speeches prior to the vote, San Diego officials were unanimous in also supporting the more extensive proposal. "We did take some action today," Lynch, the PUC president, said in an interview afterward. "But clearly, this commission is not used to acting on an emergency basis." A special PUC meeting was scheduled after the governor, taking heat for the state's surging power costs, called on the commission to provide relief for ratepayers in San Diego, the first California city to feel the full effects of deregulation. Davis said yesterday that he would have preferred passage of the more sweeping PUC alternative but hailed the approved measure as "clearly a step forward." He reiterated his belief that electricity generators are gouging consumers. Average San Diego power bills have more than doubled over the past four months as the local utility passes along rising wholesale costs to customers. Electricity generators are now being investigated by the PUC, the attorney general's office and other authorities to determine if they are manipulating prices as demand for juice far outstrips available supply. LOBBYING BEGINS After yesterday's PUC vote, the San Diego officials who attended the meeting, including four of five county supervisors and Mayor Susan Golding, piled into cars and headed for Sacramento. They said they will lobby legislators for passage of more far-reaching rate relief. "This is affecting the health, safety and welfare of everyone in our service area," Golding said. "We need relief and we need it now." Earlier this month, the state Senate voted 28 to 0 to approve a plan to roll back San Diego power rates to prederegulation levels. Passage of the bill in the Assembly is now seen as more likely following the outcome of the PUC meeting. Sen. Dede Alpert, D-San Diego, said yesterday that without additional measures, local schools will be forced to pay about $45 million in additional electricity costs using funds otherwise earmarked for structural and academic improvements. E-mail David Lazarus at davidlaz@sfgate.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2000 SF Chronicle
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