I called Ed Chang from the Western Area Power Administration to ask about the 
DOE involvement. It just so happened that he had attended the press 
conference.  He and other state people were at a meeting to discuss how the 
federal agnecies could work with state agencies.  They had only been meeting 
for 15 minutes when they were told that they were going to be bussed over to 
SMUD's Hedge Substation (don't you love the name?) for the press conference.  
Richardson arrived with a flurry of black limos to announce his program.  
Ed's view is that this was all for PR and that the "changes" don't help 
California at all. The WAPA transformer referred to by Richardson is already 
planned and in its approved budget (it is a joint upgrade project of the 500 
kV lines by WAPA, PG&E and others at the Tracy and Tesla Substations).

Richardson did not even stay for the Governor's speach.  He left for the 
airport.  The Governor arrived in a flurry of black limos.  He addressed the 
FERC order a bit.  He felt FERC should have addressed the issue of refunds 
for CA consumers. He was also concerned about FERC's order on governance.  He 
said that deregulatrion was brought to us by Senator Peace and the Wilson 
administration, but that the market is very different now than it was in 
1996.  He said he believes in competition, but that the problems in the 
market must be fixed.