Brian Bilbray: “as things are cooling off here in Washington and the temperature of the city is dropping, to the relief of the local…”

“as things are cooling off here in Washington and the temperature of the city is dropping, to the relief of the local communities, back in San Diego things are heating up. And sadly, they are heating up not because of the weather but because of the inappropriate action of Government and the inaction of those who should be taking care of their constituents. A few years ago, the State legislature of the State of California tried an experiment called energy deregulation, at the same time that those of us in the Congress were working on deregulation of telecommunications. But unlike what we did successfully here in Washington, the State did not assure competition, access, and infrastructure for the energy consumers of San Diego County, and soon to be the entire State of California. Now, it may seem like a political comment to say that, when politicians make mistakes, terrible things happen. But I think too often some of our elected officials do not consider the impact on the real people in the community who are out there doing the great things that we take for granted. Mr. Speaker, I am in a sad position tonight to announce that an institution in my district in Pacific Beach, a landmark that has been there for 54 years, is going to close because the State legislature of the State of California passed a so-called energy deregulation bill that is now causing electric power rates to rise to such astronomical levels that small businesses are going bankrupt.”