*  from Friday's LA Times
*  in separate meetings, Gov Davis met with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham 
then with Ken Lay
*  Lay met with Davis and democratic legislators Hertzberg and Burton
*  meetings occurred on Thursday




Metro Desk
California and the West Secretary of Energy, Davis Meet on U.S. Plan to Boost 
Conservation Crisis: Federal buildings and military bases, accounting for 
1.5% of state's usage, will cut back.
RICHARD SIMON; DAN MORAIN
TIMES STAFF WRITERS

05/04/2001
Los Angeles Times
Home Edition
A-3
Copyright 2001 / The Times Mirror Company

SACRAMENTO -- In a visit meant to underscore the Bush administration's 
heightened concern about the California electricity crisis, Secretary of 
Energy Spencer Abraham met Thursday with Gov. Gray Davis in Sacramento to 
discuss federal energy conservation plans. 
"I think we have an approach that can result in significant savings," Abraham 
told Davis. The energy secretary said he was in California "to gauge what we 
can do to add to what California is already doing."
The trip came after President Bush revealed plans for a series of 
conservation measures for federal buildings and military bases nationwide. 
Those facilities in California account for 1.5% of the state's total energy 
use. Today, Abraham is scheduled to meet with federal officials in San 
Francisco to work out details of the nationwide program for more than 500,000 
federal buildings. 
After meeting with Abraham at the White House earlier Thursday, Bush said: 
"We're worried about blackouts that may occur this summer, and we want to be 
a part of any solutions. This administration is deeply concerned about 
California and its citizens." 
Defending his response to the California crisis, Bush said, "As I said from 
the very beginning of my administration, we'll work to help California in any 
way we can." 
Also Thursday, Davis met with alternative energy producers in an attempt to 
persuade them to continue operations, despite being owed more than $1 billion 
by California's private utilities. 
Alternative energy producers, including oil companies that generate 
electricity as a byproduct of their operations, account for about 27% of the 
electricity consumed in California. Several have stopped producing after the 
utilities could no long afford to pay soaring prices for their power. 
Davis assigned S. David Freeman and former Assemblyman Richard Katz, a Davis 
appointee to a state water board, to be in charge of negotiations. Davis said 
he hoped that the talks could be completed within a week. 
And in a sign that major energy companies may get more involved in the 
California crisis, Kenneth Lay, CEO of the Houston-based energy giant Enron 
Corp., met Thursday with Davis, Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman 
Oaks) and Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco). 
Meanwhile, Bush on Thursday directed federal agencies to "take appropriate 
actions to conserve energy use at their facilities." 
In California, such measures could include setting thermostats to 78 degrees, 
lowering lighting and turning off escalators during Stage 2 and Stage 3 power 
emergencies, administration officials said. Those occur when the state's 
electricity reserves fall below 5% and 1.5%, respectively, and can trigger 
interruptions in service. 
Bush did not set an energy-saving target. But the Defense Department, one of 
the state's single largest energy consumers--using about 1% of peak 
demand--pledged to reduce peak use by 10% this summer and an additional 5% by 
summer 2002. That would make available 200 megawatts, officials said, enough 
to provide electricity to about 150,000 homes during the summer. 
The federal government accounts for about 1.5% of total energy use across the 
country, making it one of the nation's largest energy consumers, according to 
the Energy Department. 
Bush also offered to make available to the state power-generating units owned 
by the federal government. 
But his efforts failed to mollify Democratic critics, who renewed calls for 
the administration to impose price controls on wholesale electricity. 
"The generating companies are gouging California consumers while the 
president turns his back on us," Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said in a 
statement. 
Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel), leader of the California Democratic congressional 
delegation, sent a letter to Vice President Dick Cheney protesting Democrats' 
exclusion from Cheney's meeting this week with California GOP lawmakers. 
"As we head into the high summer demand months, it is unfortunate that you 
have decided to keep Democrats in the dark about the administration's plans 
to deal with the crisis," Farr said. 
Bush's conservation initiative comes after Cheney, who is heading a task 
force on national energy policy, was assailed by some critics for emphasizing 
production over conservation. 
"Conservation has got to be an integral part of making sure we've got a 
reasonable energy policy," Bush said Thursday. "But what the vice president 
was saying is we can't conserve our way to energy independence, nor can we 
conserve our way to having enough energy available. We've got to do both. We 
must conserve, but we've also got to find new sources of energy." 
David M. Nemtzow, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, called the 
directive an "emergency answer to a long-term problem." 
"We need to fix the underlying problem by investing in energy-efficient 
lighting, cooling and controls," he said. "We hope that this crisis will 
encourage the president to increase the budget for energy management rather 
than cut it by 48% as previously proposed." 
Political analysts said the effort was driven by concerns for not only 
electrons but also elections. 
"It's all about political conservation," said Marshall Wittmann, senior 
fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. 
Thomas E. Mann, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, 
agreed: "The administration has come to the view that just because they can't 
win California in a presidential election doesn't mean the Republican Party 
can afford to kiss off the largest state in the Union." 
Analysts speculated that the administration came under pressure from 
California Republicans in Congress who worried about perceptions that the 
White House was not being aggressive enough in responding to the crisis. 
As federal officials search for ways that California can avoid blackouts this 
summer, a Woodland Hills-based advocacy group, More Power to You, has 
suggested that the Navy hook its nuclear-powered ships to the state power 
grid to provide energy while in port. 
The Navy has nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines in San Diego 
and Washington state. 
But Navy officials said it is not technologically feasible to use the nuclear 
reactors aboard the ships to provide power for the grid because most of that 
power goes directly to the propulsion systems. 
Even to "capture" power not used for propulsion would require extensive 
construction on shore and retrofitting aboard ship, officials said. Also, 
using ships to provide onshore power could disrupt training and deployment 
schedules, they said. 
* 
Times staff writer Tony Perry contributed to this report.

PHOTO: Gov. Gray Davis and U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham confer about 
federal plans to assist California in the energy crisis.; ; PHOTOGRAPHER: BOB 
CAREY / Los Angeles Times