Dianne Feinstein: “last week I rose to speak about the businesses and consumers in California and the West who are facing exorbitant energy…”

“last week I rose to speak about the businesses and consumers in California and the West who are facing exorbitant energy bills that could threaten the very livelihood of their businesses. These are people who have been hurt by the crisis. Today I want to talk about those who have benefited from the crisis. One can look at this chart and you can see something is wrong because the total cost of power in California in 1999 was $7 billion, the total cost in the year 2000 was $32 billion, and the projected cost in the year 2001 is $65 billion. That kind of a hike does not happen without someone profiting. Electricity is not an automobile. It is not a fur coat. It is not a home. Electricity is a basic staple of human life. If the street lights do not function, there are accidents. If people cannot run their respirators, death may result. California is now in a position where businesses are laying off employees, businesses are closing. I cannot emphasize enough how people are hurt by this. Let us look at an example of high power prices by taking one random day this past winter: December 15, 2000. On this day, electricity prices ranged from $429 a megawatt hour to $565 a megawatt hour, depending on the time of day. What makes that significant? Look back 1 year to 1999, same day, same month. The price was $12 a megawatt hour to $29 a megawatt hour. These are wholesale prices. This represents in 1 year an increase of 3,500 percent and 1,900 percent, respectively.”