Steve:

You had asked us to check the following CERA numbers:

No new major power plants built in past 10 years
CA economy grew 29 % over past 5 years
Electricity consumption grew by 24 % in same period

Jennifer Thome looked into the numbers and has provided the following:

Most of the media and wire stories use the CERA numbers
According to Margaret Carson, there are two main problems with CERA's 
numbers:  1) consumption includes the entire WSCC region; 2) economic growth 
figures are in 1996 dollars
CEC and other CA state agency sites do not provide much updated information 
and Margaret indicated that the state is reluctant to highlight its high 
growth and consumption rates.
Margaret is finalizing a presentation for Rick that provides the following 
figures for 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000:
CA Economic Growth:  5.6%, 6%, 4.5%, and 8.7% respectively
CA Electricity Demand: 3%, 0%, 4% and 9% respectively