The author is a very well-know Republican, Dan Schnur. 

Needed - Star to Guide Us
As Gov. Gray Davis gets the state deeper into the energy business, PUC chair 
is no bright light 
Dan Schnur
Wednesday, February 28, 2001 
,2001 San Francisco Chronicle 
URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/02/28/E
D102858.DTL 
IN A DEAL that serves mainly to malign the good name of white elephants, Gray 
Davis last week proposed to solve California's energy crisis by spending 
several billion dollars of taxpayer money to purchase more than 30,000 miles 
of transmission lines from the state's utilities. 
In addition to offering to pay the privately owned utilities more than twice 
the book value, Davis will put the state on the hook for more than a billion 
dollars in desperately needed repairs to the transmission system. None of 
which will do anything to keep the lights on this summer when temperatures 
start to rise and the state's lack of power capacity leads to regular rolling 
blackouts. 
Davis' proposal also raises the question of which state employees will take 
on this highly complex and technical challenge. Since assuming control of the 
purchase of electricity from the utilities last month, state bureaucrats have 
been folded, spindled and mutilated in their efforts to negotiate prices with 
seasoned private sector professionals. 
California is currently paying more than $50 million per day for electricity, 
running up a bill that will exceed $2 billion by the end of February. Not 
reassuring is the prospect of the same negotiators being entrusted with the 
operation and upkeep of the power lines. 
Facing re-election next year, Davis knows that any rate increase would be 
political hemlock. So the governor's other primary objective would seem to be 
identifying other words to describe the rate increases Californians will soon 
pay. 
Doing great damage to Capitol thesauruses, Davis has announced something he 
calls a "dedicated rate component." The practical effect will be the 
expiration of the temporary 10 percent rate reduction and a permanent 9 
percent rate increase. 
Translated into English from the original Davis-ese, the solution means most 
Californians will soon pay almost 20 percent more for their electricity. The 
billions of dollars in revenue bonds that Davis will issue have already been 
double-promised, both to pay back state coffers for the electricity currently 
being purchased and to subsidize the future cost of keeping the utilities 
solvent. It's a good bet that the 20 percent increase is just the beginning. 
Unfortunately, Davis' twin goals of spending billions of dollars to bail out 
the utilities and avoiding rate hikes are mutually and utterly contradictory. 
The reason that the utilities need saving in the first place is because the 
state has forbidden them from charging market prices for electricity. And the 
only way that the state can continue to offer artificially low rates is to 
either raise taxes, eliminate other spending programs, or pretend to 
subsidize the cost with the same bonds that have already been 
double-committed. 
Knowing that there's not nearly enough money available to allow Davis to keep 
all of his promises, the utilities themselves have done an admirable job of 
restraining their enthusiasm for the governor's proposal. Southern California 
Edison's leaders, recognizing a gun to their head when they saw it, signed 
onto the deal. PG&E seems ready to fight on, but they're not bargaining from 
a position of great strength. Public opinion is already solidly against the 
utilities, and it's not like they can start supplying power to Arizona if 
they can't come to terms with Davis. 
If the state is going to involve itself so deeply in the energy business, 
Davis needs to find some qualified assistance. Unfortunately, he has instead 
entrusted California's electricity future to a Democratic Party campaign 
worker with virtually no experience in energy or power-related issues. 
Just over a year ago, Davis appointed Loretta Lynch, a San Francisco trial 
lawyer and longtime Democratic campaign aide, to fill a vacancy on the state 
Public Utilities Commission. Less than 60 days after Lynch joined the 
commission, Davis promoted her to the chairmanship. 
Lynch prepared for her responsibilities through several years in state 
Democratic politics, including stints as assistant campaign manager for state 
Attorney General John Van de Kamp's unsuccessful campaign for governor in 
1990, 
as deputy campaign manager for Dianne Feinstein's successful U.S. Senate 
campaign in 1992 and as campaign manager for Delaine Eastin's 1994 race for 
state superintendent of public instruction. For good measure, Lynch worked 
with aides to then-Gov. Bill Clinton in 1992 to squelch media investigations 
into the earliest reports of the emerging Whitewater scandal. This is the 
resume of someone whose only previous experience with electricity had been 
turning on and off the lights at state Democratic Party headquarters. 
Lynch's lack of experience and knowledge about energy has undoubtedly helped 
turn a significant problem into a full-fledged disaster. California's 
utilities spent months begging for permission and guidelines to sign 
long-term agreements with suppliers that would have greatly reduced 
electricity prices. Both the utilities and their suppliers say that Lynch and 
her fellow commissioners turned a deaf ear. As late as December, Lynch was 
still telling the news media that no emergency existed and that California 
had all the electricity it needed. All things considered, Davis might as well 
have named James Carville as commander of the California National Guard. 
More than 20 years ago, then-California Gov. Jerry Brown appointed another 
young campaign worker to a critically important position in his 
administration. 
Rose Bird, whose only prior legal experience was as a deputy public defender 
in Santa Clara County, was named as Chief Justice of the state's Supreme 
Court. 
By the time California voters made her the first Supreme Court justice in the 
state's history to be recalled from the bench, she had managed to overturn 
more than 60 death sentences. 
Until her death in 1999, Bird helped define an entire generation of 
California politics and public safety debate. Ironically, one of the keys to 
Davis' election as governor was his ability to distance himself from the 
legacy of both Brown and Bird. But Davis may have repeated his former boss's 
worst mistake when he named an equally inexperienced campaign staffer to lead 
the state agency that is tasked with the responsibility for solving 
California's electricity crisis. 
There is still time for Davis to avoid punchline status. But he must 
immediately replace Lynch with someone who possesses the experience and 
expertise to help lead California through this critical time. 
Davis, who is the most politically calibrated of governors, may already be 
heading in this direction. Polls show that Californians disapprove of the job 
the state PUC is doing by overwhelming margins. By the time voters learn that 
it's the governor's job to oversee the PUC, Davis may decide that keeping a 
political crony in such an important position is a luxury he can't afford. 
Because the last thing he wants is to head into a re-election campaign being 
forced to defend the Rose Bird of electricity. 
Dan Schnur, longtime veteran of California politics, was communications 
director for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and for former 
Gov. Pete Wilson. 
,2001 San Francisco Chronicle   Page A21