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Date: Tue, 01 May 2001 13:25:56 -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>, "Paul Fox" 
<pfox@bracepatt.com>, "Ronald Carroll" <rcarroll@bracepatt.com>
Subject: Western lawmakers want Bush help with power
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UPDATE 1-Western lawmakers want Bush help with power

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WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - Thirty-three Democratic U.S. lawmakers from 
California, Washington state and Oregon wrote to Energy Secretary Spencer 
Abraham on Monday demanding stronger federal action to help western states 
suffering from an ongoing electricity shortage crisis.

The lawmakers want a regionwide price cap for wholesale power prices to 
prevent hugely inflated prices and rolling blackouts this summer when demand 
intensifies due to air conditioning season.

They specifically criticized the Republican-led Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission (FERC) for failing to maintain fair and reasonable rates, allowing 
generators to profit from power prices some 10 times historical levels.

"If political leadership were exercised today by the administration and FERC, 
California and the Pacific Northwest would already be on their way to ending 
the price-gouging," said Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat from California.

FERC last week approved a number of price mitigation measures to tame the 
power shortages in California, but remains against a regional price cap.

The stance has drawn the ire of many lawmakers and dissent from FERC 
Commissioner William Massey, who says without such caps, the situation will 
not get better. Massey is outflanked on the commission by FERC Chairman 
Curtis Hebert, a Republican, and Linda Breathitt, a Democrat.

Experts in California estimate power supplies could fall some 5,000 megawatts 
short this summer on a daily basis, threatening the return of rolling 
blackouts to cut demand.

Eshoo is also the author of legislation to impose cost-of-service based rates 
in the Western energy market.


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Copyright , 2001 Reuters Limited.