Clinton Pledges Support for Californians
Under Pressure From High Electric Bills
A WSJ.COM News Roundup
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton said he has asked federal regulators to look 
into the possibility that California electricity producers have engaged in 
profiteering this summer.
Asked Wednesday if he thought the power companies were unfairly taking 
advantage of the power shortages in California he responded, "Well, that's 
what the [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is] going to investigate."
Mr. Clinton also announced other steps to help consumers in Southern 
California deal with "skyrocketing" electric bills and called on Congress to 
pass legislation to "build a better energy future over the long run."
"We'll do what we can to help you get through this summer," Mr. Clinton told 
Californians, referring especially those in the San Diego area where the 
price crunch has been most severe.
Speaking on the steps overlooking the Rose Garden moments before leaving for 
a political fund-raising trip to New Jersey, Mr. Clinton said he has ordered 
these steps:
The FERC has been asked to quicken the pace of its investigation into 
wholesale power markets "so we can better understand what's happening in 
California and provide policy-makers with the information they need to 
protect consumers in a timely fashion." 
The Department of Health and Human Services will release $2.6 million to 
Southern California families from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance 
Program. Mr. Clinton said that doubles the amount of aid available in the San 
Diego area and will help low-income families and the elderly "to pay their 
bills and stay cool." 
The Small Business Administration has been told to put out the word about SBA 
loans "to help cope with unusually high electrical bills." 
Residential and business customers who receive power from the San Diego Gas 
and Electric Co., a unit of Sempra Energy, have seen their bills double or 
even quadruple since rates were deregulated in June.
The phased-in, south-to-north deregulation of California's $20 billion 
electrical power industry was supposed to lower prices by creating greater 
competition.
But demand for electricity has outstripped supply because of a growing 
population and a booming high-tech economy and less power available from 
neighboring states that haven't deregulated. A sweltering summer in 
California has contributed to the problem.
Mr. Clinton said the problem has a broader base than just the current price 
crunch in southern California.
"I also renew my call to Congress to work with us to build a better energy 
future over the long run, to take up my energy budget initiatives and the tax 
incentives to promote energy efficiency and conservation," the president said.
"I hope they will also pass a national comprehensive bill to foster a new era 
of the right kind of competition in the electric industry, to establish a 
more competitive, efficient and reliable electric power system for our nation 
and to beef up efforts to prevent utilities from abusing their market power 
to raise rates above competitive levels," he said.
Mr. Clinton said those steps would save American consumers about $20 billion 
a year.
Responding to questions, Mr. Clinton was asked about high gasoline prices and 
what the U.S. is doing to convince oil-producing nations to increase 
production at lower prices.
He said he will discuss the issue on his trip to Nigeria, a big oil producer, 
later in the week and that renewed economic growth elsewhere in the world is 
"putting more pressure on the oil supplies that are available."
Mr. Clinton said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will 
suffer if high oil prices trigger regional recessions, causing oil purchases 
to drop dramatically.
He said OPEC will be much better off at a lower, sustainable oil price.
"They don't want to go down to $13 to $15 a barrel again, but it needs to be, 
I think, in the low $20s somewhere," Mr. Clinton said, calling that "the more 
sustainable rate."
One benchmark crude oil was priced Wednesday at $32.68 a barrel (see full 
coverage of the commodities markets).





	Thane Twiggs
	08/23/2000 10:27 AM
		
		 To: James D Steffes/HOU/EES@EES, Bruno Gaillard/SFO/EES@EES, Jeff 
Dasovich/SFO/EES@EES, Mona L Petrochko/SFO/EES@EES, Paul 
Kaufman/PDX/ECT@ECT@EES, Richard Shapiro/HOU/EES@EES, Sandra 
McCubbin/SFO/EES@EES, Steven J Kean/NA/Enron@Enron@EES, Susan J 
Mara/SFO/EES@EES
		 cc: Karen Denne@ENRON
		 Subject: Re: Daily Update/Information on CA Activity

FYI:

As some of you may know President Clinton held a press conference today where 
he discussed the CA price spikes and other issues.  Apparently he will put 
together a task force and provide relief to customer groups via income 
assistance and the SBA.  

Karen Denne of the Communications department is putting together additional 
information at this time.
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