Steve Largent: “Mr. Chairman I think tonight I have seen more California whines than since the last time I visited Napa Valley. We have…”

“Mr. Chairman I think tonight I have seen more California whines than since the last time I visited Napa Valley. We have heard today about the price gouging of the big energy companies from out of State. And we have an amendment, which I oppose vigorously tonight; and it is to introduce price caps. I will tell you it is wrong for a number of reasons. But one of the things I wanted to do is just go through a couple of charts, everybody has charts, I brought my own. First of all, let me just show you a couple of the growth charts in California. Employment grew 12 percent, this is in the nineties, population has grown 18 percent, the State economy has grown 45 percent, the electronics and instruments industry has grown over 60 percent in the nineties, the communications industry has grown nearly 80 percent in the nineties, and yet what has California done? Natural gas usage capacity has grown less than 10 percent, electricity use capacity has grown less than 10 percent, peak demand, on and on and on. Finally you get down to the last number, power generation capacity. This is added power generation capacity in the State of California. In the last 10 years, at a time when they have seen unprecedented growth in their economy and population, added generation capacity, California, less than 2 percent in 10 years. So that is why we have a problem in California. It does not have anything to do with energy companies from out of State gouging.”