Energy California

The head of a Texas energy conglomerate personally endorsed a deal between two subsidiaries accused of manipulating the natural gas market in Southern California to drive up prices, a senior official of the firm testified Thursday. The testimony in a trial-like hearing before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission raised questions about whether top officials of Houston-based El Paso Corp. violated FERC rules requiring arm's-length dealings within a corporate family.

Think of the California energy crisis as an amusement park thrill ride. Every week or so, it hits another unexpected twist in the track, another stomach-churning dip. Climbing off the ride is not an option. The captive passengers, also known as utility customers, can only throw up their hands and scream. After all the excitement, however, a strange thing happens.

The state's crawling with politicians who deserve blame for the energy meltdown. But one who definitely does not is Gov. Gray Davis' old boss, Jerry Brown. Gov. Moonbeam lit the way, in fact, to an energy-efficient future. He crusaded for causes and adopted policies that struck many people then as wacko. But today, the Moonbeam is helping to keep the lights on. Edmund G. Brown Jr. was California's entertaining, eccentric, enigmatic Democratic governor from 1975 to 1983.

The California Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday approved a far-reaching energy conservation program that backers said would forestall the need to build new power plants and reassert the state's leadership in energy efficiency. Financed by the state's four largest electric and natural gas utilities through short-term rate increases of less than 1%, the two-year, $560-million program would effectively double the amount of money spent by the companies on conservation efforts.

Pioneered in California, wind-generated electrical power is starting to spread to other sections of the United States that have the potential to harness this most elusive of resources. The Midwest in particular has "massive potential" for making use of the alternative energy resource because of its high winds, said Samuel D. Rashkin, technology transfer manager of the California Energy Commission, who has studied the economic feasibility of wind power in the state.

For all the agony and anger about energy in California, compounded now by the bankruptcy filing of Pacific Gas & Electric, deregulation and the transformation of the electric power industry is moving forward nationwide--and worldwide. Many electric companies elsewhere are thriving and being recommended by investment analysts even as the regulated utility division of PG&E Corp.

More than a mile beneath the Imperial Valley, heat from magma boils a mixture of water, salt and minerals into a briny soup. Steel piping drilled into the desert floor taps this reservoir. The superheated liquid flashes into steam, spinning electric turbines that generate a small portion of the power that zips across Southern California Edison's massive transmission grid. The steam condenses into water and is injected back below the surface, allowing the cycle to start again. CalEnergy Co.

They've been defeated, demoralized and dejected for well over a year now, but for close to 16 hours this week, California's small core of Republican legislators suddenly had muscle. Aided by a maverick Democrat, Republicans late Wednesday managed to hold up the first substantial chunk of legislation aimed at resolving the state's energy crisis. California's Democratic Senate had already passed the bill. California's Democratic governor was waiting anxiously to sign it.

Faced with higher energy costs, many Californians believe the state is experiencing an artificial electricity shortage driven by greed, and a sizable majority favor re-regulating the power industry, according to a Los Angeles Times poll. The energy crunch is still abstract to many, who have yet to receive higher monthly electricity bills.