Edison bailout -- In a battle that pitted the yellow armbands against the
dark suits, an Assembly committee yesterday approved a plan it hopes will
keep Southern California Edison out of bankruptcy. Consumer advocates -- who
wore yellow armbands to make sure they stood out in a room filled with
well-dressed lobbyists -- said the plan would be a disaster matching
California's original 1996 electricity deregulation law. They vowed to
launch an initiative campaign to overturn the plan if it is approved by the
Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis. Lynda Gledhill in the
San Francisco Chronicle
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/08/30/MN217797.DTL>
Jim Sanders in the Sacramento Bee
<http://www.capitolalert.com/news/capalert02_20010830.html> Vic Pollard in
the Bakersfield Californian
<http://www.bakersfield.com/local/story/672138p-714574c.html> Michael Marois
at bloomberg.com

Edison Bill Leonard -- Vowing for months that California Assembly
Republicans wouldn't support legislation to rescue utility Southern
California Edison from the brink of bankruptcy, one of the GOP's members
crossed party lines to help push through a bill during a key committee
hearing Wednesday that puts the utility one step closer to solvency. State
Assemblyman Bill Leonard, R-Rancho Cucamonga, was one of two members of the
Assembly Energy Costs and Availability Committee who changed his vote in
order to advance the rescue bill out of the committee. Leonard was the only
Republican who voted in favor of the legislation. He left from the committee
hearing after voting for the bill and was unavailable for comment. Jason
Leopold, Dow Jones Newswires
<http://quicken.excite.com/investments/news/story/djbn/?story=/news/stories/
dj/20010830/BT20010830001113.htm&symbol=EIX> -- 8/30/01

Shaver land out of utility measure -- An Assembly committee agreed to allow
Southern California Edison Co. to hang on to thousands of acres of Sierra
Nevada land around Shaver Lake in its vote to keep alive a hotly contested
$2.9 billion rescue plan for the beleaguered utility. Lesli A. Maxwell in
the Fresno Bee
<http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/725724p-786679c.html> -- 8/30/01

Surplus power and MWD desalination plans -- It is a dramatic example of how
California's electricity forecast has morphed from shortage to surplus: The
giant Metropolitan Water District has restarted plans to strip salt from
seawater as a new source for Southern California's taps. For decades,
desalination has been talked of as a solution to the Southland's water
needs. And for decades, it has been dismissed as too energy-intensive to be
affordable. Nancy Vogel in the Los Angeles Times
<http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-000070196aug30.story?coll
=la%2Dheadlines%2Dfrontpage> -- 8/30/01

Direct access -- Electricity marketers said Wednesday that they may sue
state utility regulators over their latest plan to end customers' ability to
shop around for power. The marketers, which compete with the traditional
utilities to sell power to business and residential customers, said they
were stunned by a draft decision by the California Public Utilities
Commission to suspend "direct access" retroactively to July 1. The marketers
have been rushing to sign up new customers in recent weeks, assuming that
the PUC decision would not take effect before Sept. 1. Nancy Rivera Brooks
in the Los Angeles Times
<http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-000070055aug30.story?coll=l
a%2Dheadlines%2Dpe%2Dbusiness> -- 8/30/01

PG&E asks lawmakers to block shift of power costs -- PG&E Corp. unit Pacific
Gas & Electric Co. Wednesday