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Enron Mail |
Here's the latest that we have on the legislation ("82XX") released on Friday.
The Assembly Energy Committee will hold an "informational" hearing on 82XX at 1:30 PM PDT today. "Informational" means that there won't be a vote today. Attended a meeting this morning with the business groups with Assemblyman Dutra (self-proclaimed pro-biz Democrat, who's an "author" of 82XX), Hertzberg's chief staffer, and Hertzberg's outside legal consultant. The DWR contracts continue to be the roadblock to a rational solution. Dutra is unhappy with the process thus far----claimed he wasn't familiar with the "more recent version" of the bill, and was unhappy that there would be a hearing today---informational or otherwise--before he and the bill's other authors had agreed to final language from their perspective. Dutra said that he was working to remove the Direct Access suspension and asked the biz groups to hold their fire until the amendments come out tomorrow. PUC President Lynch continues to oppose striking a deal in which the Commission gives up all review of DWR's "revenue requirement" and simply flows all DWR costs through rates (but Davis and his administration are putting her under enormous pressure to buckle under and agree). As a result, details of any "rate agreement" between DWR and the CPUC, and any public announcement by DWR of its "revenue requirement" is could be postponed until next week, unless there's a breakthrough with Loretta. The Governor's consultants now claim (and will reportedly testify at the hearing today) that there is enough room in the 3 cent rate increase to cover both Edison's and DWR's revenue requirements. (They cite lower gas prices and FERC's price cap as the driving force for the newly-found headroom, though many remain very skeptical.) However, if the deal is applied to PG&E, it is unlikely that the 3 cent rate would be sufficient, according to the same consultants. The plan (at this point) is to have the bill--with amendments--discussed in the same committee tomorrow, and voted out of the committee. The bill would then be taken to the full Assembly for an up or down vote on Wednesday. It is unclear whether, at this point, there is agreement among Assembly Democrats to vote the bill out of the full Assembly on Wednesday. In addition, Senate Democrats continues to work on their own version of an Edison "MOU," and the working relationship between the Assembly side and the Senate side appears strained. The Republicans in the Assembly are staunchly opposed to 82XX and are generally being ignored by the Democrats, since the Democrats need no Republicans to get a majority vote to pass bills. Meanwhile, Edison continues to twist. Will report back after the 1:30 hearing today. If anyone has questions, don't hesitate to contact me by pager @ 888.916.7184. Best, Jeff
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