James T. Callahan: “first of all, I do not know of anyone on either side of the aisle who is opposed to helping California get out of this…”

“first of all, I do not know of anyone on either side of the aisle who is opposed to helping California get out of this serious problem they are in, or any of the other Western States as well. We recognize fully that there is a crisis in the West. We recognize fully that this crisis is going to spread even more nationally. We recognize because of the crisis in California and because of the crisis in the West, that it is causing a domino effect even as low down in the South as Alabama because our rates, too, are increasing simply because of supply and demand. Let me tell my colleagues, I think this administration is trying to do the right thing. We had this issue that came up in our committee, full committee meeting this past week, and we debated it there and the issue was overwhelmingly defeated in committee. And it was overwhelmingly defeated, I think, because the committee was convinced that the administration is doing everything that they possibly can to eliminate this crisis and to stop those rolling blackouts in California. Mr. Chairman, we all want to do the same thing. We are all trying to get to the same corner of the room, but I think this is the wrong route to take because if we take this route of price caps, there is no doubt in my mind that we are going to encourage even more problems for California because that eliminates the incentives that are being imposed now by the fact that people recognize there is a shortage.”