[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 73 (Thursday, May 24, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H2683]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CALIFORNIA NEEDS IMMEDIATE RELIEF FROM ENERGY COSTS

  (Ms. SOLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, as a representative from the great State of 
California, I have to tell my colleagues that my constituents are 
angry. We have had to sit through blackouts; we have had to see the 
increase in our gasoline prices, and a loaf of bread, by the way, has 
gone up as well. People are suffering. They are crying out for this 
government, for FERC to do something, the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission. We are waiting for their action. We are not seeing 
anything.
  Last year, California had to pay $30 per megawatt hour. This time, it 
is almost $2,000 an hour. People in my district whose average income is 
about $31,000 cannot afford to live through this summer. We need 
immediate action; we need relief. We do not want to see drilling. We 
want to see clean water, we want to see our energy restored. We do not 
have a problem with the supply, as was stated earlier by my colleague. 
What we see here in California is the very fact that energy producers 
from out of State, from Texas, who are now making these policy 
decisions on energy, are the ones that are robbing our consumers in 
California.
  I ask for my colleagues to vote down this proposal on energy and also 
this infamous tax cut that will not benefit the residents in my 
district.

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