Bob Filner: “last summer I was on the floor many times as the Congressman from San Diego, California, with a grave electricity crisis…”

“last summer I was on the floor many times as the Congressman from San Diego, California, with a grave electricity crisis and said, ``The rest of California better watch. The rest of the West of the United States better watch. The rest of the United States better watch, because they are next.'' Sure enough, they are next. Let us talk about this electricity crisis today and how we are going to get out of it. Let me remind Members that San Diego, California, was ground zero in this crisis. Our county became the first area in California where full electricity deregulation occurred in both retail and wholesale prices. Within 60 days, Mr. Speaker, our prices to families, to those on fixed incomes, to small business doubled and then tripled. There was no end in sight. In fact, dozens of small businesses were forced to close their doors. Panic literally engulfed San Diego, and the State legislature responded with a deferred cap on retail prices; that is, a cap on the real cost of electricity that would be deferred for several years. So each month since last August the debt for San Diego consumers, the debt for San Diego businesses, has mounted monthly. What caused this incredible price increase? Yes, supply was tight, but demand was less than the previous summer had been. The cost of production had not even risen at that point significantly. The answer, Mr. Speaker, the answer was market manipulation, in my view criminal manipulation by a wholesale energy cartel.”