Henry Waxman: “I was taken aback by the comments of the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose) that this is anti-environment. Well, it is…”

“I was taken aback by the comments of the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose) that this is anti-environment. Well, it is not anti-environment to put in cost-of-service charges, which is the way electricity had always been handled in California and most of the country where regulation is in place. He said it encourages inefficiency. The FERC order gives a bonus to the most inefficient, costly supplier of electricity, and everybody else rises to that price. They get a windfall. I think that what we need is to have cost-of-service rates, the cost of the service plus a profit, and not to give windfalls and not to give any encouragement to any supplier that if only they held back some supplies by shutting down temporarily on some phony argument that they could get a higher price. Because that is what we have seen in California as a result of a very bad law that was adopted unanimously by the legislature, signed by a Republican governor, passed by a Democratic legislature. It gave a green light to a manipulation of the market by energy suppliers. Not that they did anything illegal; they took advantage of the situation. I feel the FERC order gives a green light to further manipulation and gouging which could lead to blackouts if the weather changes in California and we find ourselves with a greater use of electricity and we bump up to more demand than supply. So I would urge support for this amendment.”