[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3368-3369]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



TIME FOR CONGRESS TO ACT TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FROM PROFITEERING ENERGY 
                        PRODUCERS AND MARKETERS

  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, last summer I was on the floor many times as 
the Congressman from San Diego, California, with a grave electricity 
crisis and said, ``The rest of California better watch. The rest of the 
West of the United States better watch. The rest of the United States 
better watch, because they are next.'' Sure enough, they are next. Let 
us talk about this electricity crisis today and how we are going to get 
out of it.
  Let me remind Members that San Diego, California, was ground zero in 
this crisis. Our county became the first area in California where full 
electricity deregulation occurred in both retail and wholesale prices. 
Within 60 days, Mr. Speaker, our prices to families, to those on fixed 
incomes, to small business doubled and then tripled. There was no end 
in sight.
  In fact, dozens of small businesses were forced to close their doors. 
Panic literally engulfed San Diego, and the State legislature responded 
with a deferred cap on retail prices; that is, a cap on the real cost 
of electricity that would be deferred for several years. So each month 
since last August the debt for San Diego consumers, the debt for San 
Diego businesses, has mounted monthly.
  What caused this incredible price increase? Yes, supply was tight, 
but demand was less than the previous summer had been. The cost of 
production had not even risen at that point significantly.
  The answer, Mr. Speaker, the answer was market manipulation, in my 
view criminal manipulation by a wholesale energy cartel. There is 
evidence that has been supplied to the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, the Attorney General of the United States, the State of 
California Attorney General, our local district attorneys, evidence of 
supply illegally withheld,

[[Page 3369]]

transmission data falsified, and ``laundering'' of electrons to avoid 
California price cap.
  Based on such evidence last December the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, known as FERC, found wholesale prices in California to be 
illegal. Yet, incredibly enough, up to last week no action, no 
corrective action, was taken. Last week FERC said, hey, we know there 
has been some overcharge in California. In fact, $69 million should be 
refunded.
  I say to FERC, that is way too little, way too late. That is the 
price we are now paying in California for electricity in a day and a 
half; in a day and a half we pay the $69 million.
  What FERC is saying to the energy cartel is, go and rob the State 
blind. Boy, did they do it. Today's crisis is still fundamentally all 
about obscene and illegal wholesale prices. Yes, we all know we need 
new generating capacity. Yes, we need more conservation. Yes, we need 
to focus on renewable resources.
  But the State of California, Mr. Speaker, is today paying $2 billion 
an hour, $45 million a day, $1.5 billion per month, for electricity. 
Our major utilities are in de facto bankruptcy, and the energy cartel 
has sucked almost $20 billion, that is $20 billion with a B, out of the 
State economy in just less than a year.
  California is just part of a regional electricity grid. The obscene 
prices have spread to Oregon and Washington. Idaho and New Mexico are 
next, and the rest of the West will soon follow.
  What has been the response of this administration to what will surely 
be a national disaster soon? They say, drill for oil in the Arctic 
National Wildlife Refuge and let the markets work.
  I say, Mr. Speaker, there is not a market in electricity. The 
President's corporate friends, like Enron of Houston, now control our 
electricity future. Since the administration cannot or will not act, 
Congress must by immediately passing my legislation, H.R. 268, the 
Electricity Consumers' Relief Act.
  What this bill does is require that FERC set immediately cost-based 
rates for electricity, and require that energy producers and marketers 
that profiteered from their illegal rates in California refund the 
overcharge to our consumers and our utilities.
  Only this legislation will make California whole again economically, 
and give us time for the Governor's longer-term program to take effect. 
We know from evidence in San Diego that there was power in California 
during our whole electricity crisis. Even at stage 3, turbines were 
taken out of circulation when businesses in San Diego were being shut 
down. It was not being provided because the energy cartel wanted to 
make the market work for increased prices.
  They have gouged California consumers. They have forced small 
businesses to close their doors. They have brought our utilities in our 
whole State to their knees. Yet their quarterly reports show increased 
profits by nearly 1,000 percent.
  It is time for Congress to act. We must hold this cartel accountable 
and provide the relief that Californians and all Americans so 
desperately need and deserve.

                          ____________________