[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 71 (Tuesday, May 22, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H2549-H2550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             ENERGY CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, before I begin the speech I had planned, I 
would like to comment on some of the comments made by other speakers.
  I want to add my voice to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior) 
when he spoke about how Federal employees, particularly those at the 
IRS, are doing the work of this country and doing it in a professional 
manner. He quoted from a rather vicious attack that proposes that 
somehow if we have a flat tax, that all problems of tax administration 
will be solved and the IRS could be dismantled.
  Mr. Speaker, I headed the organization that collects the largest flat 
tax in America, the California sales tax, and let me assure my 
colleagues that flat taxes involve some of the same contentiousness, 
some of the same enforcement concerns as does any other tax or a 
progressive tax. And the IRS employees were professional and 
responsible, just as were our auditors, just as were our tax collectors 
with the California State Board of Equalization.
  Let me also comment about the speech of my friend, the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), where he said that one company, Reliant, that 
made $500 million, increased its profit by 2,000 percent. The gentleman 
from Oregon said, well, they did not do anything creative to raise that 
money. I have to disagree. Reliant, along with some of its sister 
corporations, invented a new definition for the term ``the plant is 
closed for maintenance.'' ``Closed for maintenance'' means closed to 
maintain an outrageous price for each kilowatt. A new definition and 
true creativity.
  They invented new ways to gouge California consumers, and they 
invented new ways to seek power here in

[[Page H2550]]

Washington so that they would have the impunity to turn off the power 
in California. It is this inventiveness that led to Reliant's 2,000 
percent increase in its profit.
  Mr. Speaker, last night, several Members from the other side of the 
aisle came down to this floor to attack me personally, and that needs 
no response, and to attack my State. They came down here to say that 
the problems California faces are our own fault; that we prevented the 
building of electric plants in California, which is totally false and 
which has not one scintilla of evidence behind it.
  They talked about how our opposition to offshore oil drilling is 
somehow responsible for electrical shortages in California without even 
knowing that we do not use oil to generate electricity in California, 
nor are we about to, nor do any of the other States with similar air 
pollution problems. They came down here in total ignorance of what is 
happening in California.
  Now, I do not blame them for their ignorance. After all, I am not 
terribly knowledgeable of what is happening in all the other States. 
But what bothers me is that someone with so little knowledge of what is 
happening in California would come down here and say that our misery 
represents justice and that our efforts to solve our own problems 
should be barred by Federal law.

                              {time}  1815

  But of course that is what is happening when Federal law prevents 
California from imposing even the most reasonable of regulations on the 
price of these independent energy producers.
  Mr. Speaker, imagine that your home is burning down. The gentleman 
might have a neighbor who for one reason or another does not tell. That 
might be okay. But imagine the most malevolent of neighbors who seizes 
the hose while the house is burning, and then gives a lecture how it is 
the gentleman's fault because the house is on fire, while continuing to 
hold onto the hose.
  Mr. Speaker, California is burning and the hose is the right to 
regulate the price of electric generation, and the hose is being held 
captive here in Washington, DC. We have an administration which is 
hosing us down with self-righteous declarations that our misery is our 
own fault.
  Mr. Speaker, if you want to know where something is made, check the 
tag on the bottom. California consumers are going to look at their 
electric bill, they will look at the tag, and it will say ``Made in 
Texas under license from Washington, DC.''

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