by Lance T. Izumi, Fellow in California Studies
Pacific Research Institute
May 1, 2001

Announcer lead: Time for Perspectives. Lance Izumi says that Gov. Davis recent behavior shows that he is losing control over the electricity crisis.

Gray Davis is a desperate man. Through his inaction, procrastination, and bad policy choices, Davis has turned a very solvable electricity problem into the worst disaster that has ever hit California. Davis knows this, which explains his increasingly bizarre behavior.

Take, for example, Davis’ recent tantrum in front of the State Senate’s Republican Caucus. Davis wanted the senators to support his nearly $2.8 billion plan to have the state purchase Southern California Edison’s transmission lines. Davis claims that state ownership of Edison’s lines is necessary in order for the utility to avoid bankruptcy, and to upgrade the lines to meet consumers’ increased power demands. The senators, though, weren’t buying Davis’ arguments, and with good reason.

First, government ownership of the transmission lines does not create any new supply of electricity, nor does it reduce demand. Also, state purchase of the lines would require federal approval that could take up to two years. Further, PG&E’s bankruptcy filing takes that utility’s transmission lines off the bargaining table and Davis himself has said that it makes little sense to buy only Edison’s share of the grid. That’s because without PG&E’s lines, the state couldn’t make key upgrades of the grid since many of the worst transmission bottlenecks are in PG&E’s territory.

In response to the senators’ opposition, Davis went beserk. According to Senator Tom McClintock, Davis completely lost control and launched into an obscenity-laced tirade. Senator Bill Morrow observed that, “The f-word was prominent and repeated.” Morrow also noted that Davis, focusing on saving his own political skin, said that he was not going to take the fall for the crisis.

The truth is, however, lawmakers, journalists and the public are correctly blaming Davis for the hemorrhaging electricity debacle. California is headed for an energy and economic train wreck this summer and Gray Davis is the engineer. Unfortunately, we Californians are passengers on Davis’ train.

With a perspective, I’m Lance Izumi.

Lance Izumi is the Director of Center for School Reform at the California-based Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. He can be reached via email at lizumi@pacificresearch.org.