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Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 18:29:10 -0500
From: "Tracey Bradley" <tbradley@bracepatt.com>
To: "Justin Long" <jlong@bracepatt.com>
Cc: "Aryeh Fishman" <afishman@bracepatt.com>, "Andrea Settanni" 
<asettanni@bracepatt.com>, "Charles Ingebretson" 
<cingebretson@bracepatt.com>, "Charles Shoneman" <cshoneman@bracepatt.com>, 
"Deanna King" <dking@bracepatt.com>, "Dan Watkiss" <dwatkiss@bracepatt.com>, 
"Gene Godley" <ggodley@bracepatt.com>, "Kimberly Curry" 
<kcurry@bracepatt.com>, "Michael Pate" <mpate@bracepatt.com>, "Marc F. 
Racicot" <mracicot@bracepatt.com>, "Paul Fox" <pfox@bracepatt.com>, "Ronald 
Carroll" <rcarroll@bracepatt.com>, "Scott Segal" <ssegal@bracepatt.com>
Subject: Bush, California Gov. Davis to Meet on Power Crisis
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FYI

Wednesday May 23 4:31 PM ET

Bush, California Gov. Davis to Meet on Power Crisis
By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With sparks flying between them over California's 
electricity crisis, President Bush (news - web sites) and California Gov. 
Gray Davis (news - web sites) agreed Wednesday to meet when the president 
visits the state next week.

Davis, who requested the meeting after accusing Bush of ignoring the state's 
energy woes, will renew his request that the president help give California's 
consumers relief from skyrocketing electricity bills and rolling power 
blackouts caused by power shortages.

``We look forward to the meeting ... where the governor will bring up the 
issue of short-term price relief,'' said Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio.

Details of the meeting have not been set. ``It's good news that the president 
will finally discuss the issue that's on the mind of every Californian,'' he 
said.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said, ``The president 
has invited Gov. Davis to meet with him, to get together to talk about issues 
important to California, including, of course, energy. And the president 
looks forward to meeting with Gov. Davis.''

Bush, who lost the nation's most populous state by a large margin to Democrat 
Al Gore (news - web sites) in last year's presidential election, is to make 
his first visit as president to California next week.

Arriving late on Monday, he will visit the Camp Pendleton Marine base on 
Tuesday to highlight federal efforts to cut energy consumption in California, 
and speak in Los Angeles on the economy. On Wednesday, Bush is to visit the 
Central Valley city of Fresno.

Davis, a Democrat, requested the meeting in a telephone call to Bush on 
Tuesday and a letter dated Wednesday.

``You and I don't agree on everything. But here's something we do have in 
common: we both inherited an energy mess,'' Davis' letter said. ``I look 
forward to putting ideology aside and working together toward practical 
solutions and an affordable, independent energy future.''

Davis has blamed a botched deregulation of wholesale electricity markets in 
California and price gouging by out-of-state providers for the crisis. Davis 
has accused Bush of allowing power companies, including some in Bush's home 
state of Texas, to ``get away with murder'' in California.

Davis has also engaged in a bitter series of exchanges with the Republican 
administration over wholesale energy price caps, which Davis says are needed 
to rein in price hikes of as much as 1000 percent in power costs over the 
past year.

Bush administration officials have repeatedly rejected price caps, saying 
they would discourage the new investment in generating capacity that 
California needs.

Maviglio noted that four California Republican congressional representatives 
supported price caps.

``This is not a partisan issue,'' he said.

The political stakes for both leaders is high. A poll released Monday by the 
non-partisan Public Policy Institute of California showed that a majority of 
Californians disapproved of both Bush's and Davis' handling of the 
electricity crisis.

The poll, conducted May 1-9, showed Davis's approval rating plunging to 46 
percent from 63 percent in January.

Davis said he wanted to introduce the president to some of the Californians 
who have been affected by the crisis.

``A crisis of this magnitude is an economic earthquake,'' Davis said. ``Yes, 
its epicenter is California, but its widening impact will soon affect 
businesses and consumers all across this country -- this is a national 
economic issue.''

Davis said he agreed with Bush that long-term solutions were necessary to 
resolve the nation's energy problem. But he said that California needed help 
now.

``Californians can't afford to wait four or five years for a permanent 
solution,'' he said. ``We need relief today.''