News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 2, 2001
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Bush Administration's inaction on energy could harm the country, Locke warns

PORTLAND, Ore. - Gov. Gary Locke today said he was extremely disappointed that it appears the Bush Administration will not intervene in the West Coast's energy crisis.

However, the governor vowed to continue to work toward national as well as regional solutions to the crisis.

The signal that the Bush Administration would not intervene came from Spencer Abraham, the new federal secretary of energy, at the Western Governors' Association meeting in Portland.

Locke noted that after he and five other Western governors urged the energy secretary to implement temporary "cost-plus" pricing, Abraham told a press conference that the administration would not help to stabilize the energy market. Cost-plus pricing means providing power at the cost of producing it plus a predetermined profit mark-up.

Currently, power generators can sell electricity at whatever prices they can obtain in daily bidding wars through the West.

Also, in an unusual consensus during the WGA's meeting, Democratic and Republican governors across the West decided upon options to remedy immediate electricity problems. Those options include encouraging California and power generators to enter into long-term power supply contracts to reduce dependence on the volatile wholesale spot electricity market to stabilize prices for consumers.

"Energy deregulation began with the federal government and that is where the problems created by failed deregulation efforts must be addressed," Locke said.

The governor noted that even former Louisiana Democratic Sen. Bennett Johnston, the chief architect of federal energy deregulation, told the Western governors in a speech last night that temporary cost-plus pricing was necessary now to end the crisis. Johnston formerly served as chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as well as chair of the Senate Energy Appropriations Subcommittee.

"Even Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board - a person whose very word guides the economy - has warned the energy problem in the West is potentially serious enough to harm the entire country," Locke said. "President Bush ignores Alan Greenspan's advice at his country's peril."

Locke emphasized that the energy crisis was harming Washington and many other states in addition to California.

"Washington is doing what it can through conservation and other measures. But Washington's economy increasingly is at the mercy of energy prices being set in states between the Canadian and Mexican borders. Immediate federal action is necessary," the governor said.

He has joined with Democratic and Republican legislators in Washington to pass a package of measures intended to spur energy conservation, protect the most vulnerable from energy price increases and increase electrical generation in the state.

He also has announced an energy supply alert that requires conservation and steps to reduce air pollution by utilities that use diesel engines on a temporary basis to provide more power.
Related Links:
- Western Governors' Association, Energy Policy Roundtable


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