FYI.  Rep Dan Burton's House "Government Reform" committee is touring 
California to get info on CA's energy crisis. Yesterday, they met in 
Sacramento.  Today, there in San Jose (Edison, PG&E and some Silicon Valley 
businesses are witnesses), and tomorrow they're in San Diego.  The hearing 
was widely covered on local TV news.  As the following story reflects, it was 
very partisan.


	Political shots traded at U.S. power inquiry 
	By John Hill
Bee Capitol Bureau
(Published April 11, 2001) 
	It was billed as a nonpartisan inquiry into the roots of California's energy 
crisis. 
	"We're not here to assign blame," Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., said Tuesday at a 
hearing in Sacramento of a House subcommittee. "We're not here to point 
fingers. We're here to listen and learn." 
	But by the end, blame had been doled out in heaping portions and the fingers 
had come out of their holsters. 
	Rep. Doug Ose, the Sacramento Republican who is chairman of the panel, 
blasted Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, for keeping secret the details of the 
state's long-term electricity contracts. He raised the possibility of issuing 
subpoenas. 
	So did Burton, who sharply questioned Loretta Lynch, president of the 
California Public Utilities Commission, about whether the commission 
prevented investor-owned utilities from signing long-term contracts for cheap 
electricity. Lynch was appointed to the commission by Davis. 
	Lynch said the utilities were given permission and did sign contracts, but 
declined to give details, saying she was legally barred from doing so. 
	"We represent the Congress of the United States," Burton fired back. "We want 
that information." 
	The panel of the House Committee on Government Reform consists of 13 members, 
but only three attended, all of them Republicans -- Ose, Burton and Rep. 
Steve Horn of Long Beach. 
	All 13 were invited, as well as members of Congress whose districts are being 
visited by the subcommittee, which also plans to hold hearings this week in 
San Jose and San Diego. 
	"I'm frankly surprised they're not here," said Yier Shi, a spokesman for the 
subcommittee. "This is a bipartisan issue." 
	But if Democrats weren't on the podium, some were in the audience, including 
state party campaign adviser Bob Mulholland. He called the hearing "a 
Republican sham to protect the Texas energy companies," and circulated quotes 
from former Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, praising the legislation that 
created deregulation. 
	Much of the testimony focused on whether the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission should impose price caps on wholesale electricity prices. 
	Lynch said it was the only way to impose rationality on a "dysfunctional 
market" in which electricity generators and marketers are free to drive up 
prices far beyond what they would be in a competitive market. 
	Others, including FERC's general counsel, Kevin Madden, called caps a bad 
idea that would encourage sellers to go elsewhere, reducing California's 
power supply. Madden also said a cap imposed by FERC would only cover about 
half the power bought and sold in the West. 
	
The Bee's John Hill can be reached at (916) 326-5543 or