As the electricity crisis rolls on in California, the prospects are growing for a summer of blackouts. That could bring brief disruptive power outages at homes, schools and small hospitals.
It could also shut down the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios. So, the studio and its lobbyists are quietly negotiating with lawmakers to add Universal to Assembly Bill 54X. The bill would allow Los Angeles public schools and community colleges to buy all their power from a municipal utility believed to have a more secure supply than Southern California Edison Co. Legislative aides working on the bill confirm that Universal wants the same deal.
Universal, a unit of Vivendi Universal SA, won't comment on the matter. And it isn't the only one looking for some summer shade. At least 180 energy-related bills are now moving through the California Legislature. Staffers say about half of them are designed to "cordon off" or at least protect everyone from shopping malls to theme parks from blackouts, power interruptions and other problems in a state whose demand for power exceeds its supply.
"Everybody's out to protect their own bacon," says State Sen. Debra Bowen, a Democrat from Marina del Rey, who heads the Senate's energy committee. She says this is a time for Californians to cooperate instead of "fighting over the last cracker." But that isn't how things are shaking out.
Consider the broiling desert communities of Riverside County, where State Sen. Jim Battin says his older constituents and the summer's triple-digit temperatures don't mix well. "People need to understand," says Sen. Battin, a Republican from La Quinta, "that senior citizens cannot sustain long periods of time in very hot temperatures." He has introduced a bill to prohibit state authorities from ordering blackouts in places like Palm Desert, Palm Springs and any other community when temperatures exceed 105 degrees.
In California's vast Central Valley, home to the state's $1 billion citrus industry, five assembly members spooked by the recent winter's cold-weather blackouts have introduced a resolution of their own. It would exempt from blackouts all "agricultural ratepayers in citrus-producing counties" where the temperature is below freezing or "expected to be below" freezing.
Since January, the state has suffered through just four days of rotating blackouts, but energy analysts are forecasting many more this summer. During the outages, which are ordered by state grid operators, utilities sequentially shut off electric service to blocks of customers for approximately 90 minutes. Already, about half the state's electric customers are exempt from rotating outages, generally because they share a circuit with "essential services" — a fire department or police station, a hospital or air-traffic control.
Others are busy now trying to earn their own exemptions, or at least a status that puts them at lower risk of being shut off.
Oil and gas producers and the airline industry are pushing a proposal that would create an exemption for any business engaged in the production, manufacturing, transportation or storage of critical fuels. And what's critical? Gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuels, fuel oil and natural gas. Under the bill, AB57X, those businesses would be the last to have their power shut off or interrupted.
Then there's AB109X. It would prohibit the state from ordering blackouts for blocks of customers who display an exemplary record of conservation. AB12X exempts public and private schools. SB3X would allow schools to be shut off, but only after the end of the school day.
"Most of these bills just move the pain to somebody else," says Bowen, while her goal is "to reduce the overall amount of pain that there is."
Lawmakers and supporters of the bills and similar regulatory efforts don't see it that way. Consider AB22X, a bill advanced by three assembly members that would order the lights in state buildings to go out before power goes out for anybody else. And Battin says his hot-weather bill (SB68X) isn't about special interests but "about health and life safety. I think it falls into a different category. This is about keeping people alive."
Tell that to the Association of California Water Agencies. The group, in Sacramento, represents 438 public water agencies fighting with the California Public Utilities Commission for its own blackout exemption. Water agencies need electricity to pump water and run treatment plants. But in a draft decision earlier this month, the PUC refused to classify water utilities as "essential facilities," like fire stations and police departments, which are exempt.
So Dan Smith, director of regulatory affairs for the association, says he's appealing. "Water," says Mr. Smith, "is even more essential and basic to human life and endeavors than electricity."
Beyond the legislative and regulatory efforts to "opt out" of this summer's pain and suffering, there's the approach of the Central Valley city of Lodi. The city-owned Lodi Electric Utility is part of a power grid control area that lumps it together with San Francisco's Pacific Gas & Electric Co. But earlier this month Lodi Electric simply refused to obey when state authorities ordered rotating blackouts on March 19 and 20.
Both Ms. Bowen and PG&E officials condemn what they consider the selfish actions of the Lodi utility. "If we all aren't willing to make reductions, we run the risk of putting an entire electric transmission system in jeopardy," says Jeff Butler, a PG&E vice president.
But Alan Vallow, director of the Lodi Electric Utility, which serves about 26,000 customers, says he kept the lights on because he felt the cause of the blackout was "more political than it was technically based," and was prompted by PG&E's own bad management. What's more, Lodi officials figured they went to the expense of securing enough power this year to cover their demands, and PG&E didn't.
Representatives of municipal utilities in the cities of Roseville, Alameda and Azusa say they might just say no to rolling blackouts this summer.
If the problem is that PG&E "didn't buy the resources necessary to meet its needs," says Tom Habashi, director of Roseville Electric, "we will need to go back to ask ourselves whether this is the right day to do blackouts or not."
Via The Associated Press