[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 31, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H130-H131]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     MAKING CALIFORNIA WHOLE AGAIN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about my City of San

[[Page H131]]

Diego in the State of California and the incredible energy crisis that 
we are going through. Yes, we are still experiencing it. We have not 
yet solved it. I have heard comments from Members of this body and the 
other body, comments from the White House, which seem to indicate an 
unwillingness to take action to work with California through this 
crisis.
  I say to my colleagues in the Senate and I say to the administration, 
we are all in this together. If California falls, the rest of the 
Nation cannot be far behind.
  We are the largest State in the union. We have experienced rolling 
blackouts, utilities on the verge of bankruptcy. If my colleagues do 
not think this has had an impact on our national economy, listen to 
Alan Greenspan, as he testified to the Senate just last week. He said 
that California's crisis is not isolated. It is not an aberration, and 
it is a problem that the whole Nation must address and must address 
quickly.
  We should pay heed to Mr. Greenspan. And I say to the President, I 
think the President is going in the wrong direction on this issue. A 
hands-off approach by the Federal Government, as the President has 
suggested, is not going to solve this problem.
  Yes, we are increasing our generating capacity. Yes, we are 
redoubling and retripling our efforts to conserve, but an important 
piece of this problem has been the wholesale prices that have been 
charged to our utilities and our consumers. The obscene wholesale 
prices that have been charged.
  And only the Federal Government, I say to the President, only the 
Federal Government, through our Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 
has the authority to regulate this wholesale price.
  For the President to say that California must solve its own problems 
ignores the fact that the generators and marketers of electricity, a 
seven-member monopoly, in fact, that is based in States like Texas, 
have run up huge, huge profits, 800 percent, 900 percent in their 
latest reports.
  While California, and soon other parts of the Nation, will suffer. 
Sacramento alone, California alone cannot regulate these wholesalers, I 
say to the President. This is Washington's responsibility, and it is 
that responsibility that we must take.
  I have a bill just introduced today, the California Electrical 
Consumers Relief Act of 2001, to take that responsibility head on. In a 
case like San Diego and California, where FERC has already found, 
through its investigation, our wholesale rates to be unjust and 
unreasonable, and, therefore, illegal, illegal, I say to the President, 
in that situation, my bill would establish what is called cost-based 
rates. That is the costs of generation plus a reasonable profit, for 
wholesale electricity, not just in California, but throughout the 
western States.
  This is a regional problem. We must tackle it regionally. It sets 
those prices retroactively back to last June when this crisis started. 
This is not a cap. This is not an arbitrary figure.
  This is a reasonable rate based on a market-based formula which 
allows the generators to make a profit, but protects the consumers.
  Mr. Speaker, FERC knows how to set those rates. They have the 
rationale. They have the procedure. They should do it, and we should 
order it.
  For those rates, under my legislation, that were charged above the 
legal cost-based rates that we have in California and San Diego and 
have been paying since last June, my bill requires the refund of those 
obscene profits, the difference between what was charged us and the 
cost-based rates that FERC determines should be refunded, a billion 
dollars to the consumers of San Diego, Mr. Speaker. $12 billion to the 
State of California.
  These were ill-gotten gains by a cartel of the large energy 
generators and marketers, and that money must be returned to the 
Californians who are suffering. And as we watch the news and as we 
listen to what is going on, please remember the Governor of California 
and the California legislature can do a lot about our State's problems, 
but they cannot order refunds. They cannot set wholesale prices.
  We are stuck in California with the economic disaster that that 
implies, a billion dollars worth of debt in San Diego, $12 billion 
sucked out of our State by these power generators. We cannot look to 
Sacramento to solve that; only we can do it. I ask President Bush to 
act, and act quickly. The President cannot take a hands-off approach.

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