www.salonmagazine.com/news/1998/10/27newsb.html -> www.salon.com/news/1998/10/27newsb.html
Renewal of vows By Daryl Lindsey Aided by a dying King Hussein, Netanyahu brings Israel back to where it was in the peace negotiations 18 months ago (10/23/98) 10 Asking for it By Jeff Stryker Judges and juries may go easy on gay bashers who blame their victims (10/23/98) 11 Backlash '98? The war is over deregulation and "stranded costs," the megabillions utilities have invested in nuclear reactors and other electric generators that may not be able to compete in an open market. The national fire was ignited in September 1996, when Gov. Passed unanimously by the California legislature, the bill set a January 1998 date for introducing competition into the state's huge electric power market. In the California market, the investments were concentrated in two nuclear reactors at San Onofre, between San Diego and Los Angeles, and two more at Diablo Canyon, outside San Luis Obispo. According to their owners, these plants would almost certainly shut down in the face of cheaper juice coming from generators powered by methane. The giveaway of huge sums of cash to cover investments in reactors that drew massive public opposition when they were built infuriated consumer and environmental groups, particularly those affiliated with Ralph Nader and those with long-standing opposition to atomic power. AB1890 drew critical support from the nation's two leading environmental groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Environmental Defense Fund. Based in San Francisco, NRDC's Ralph Cavanagh helped get some $500 million in solar and conservation funding stuck into AB1890. The bill also contained a 10 percent rebate for residential consumers. Cavanagh says he supported AB1890 because of the subsidies for renewables and conservation, and because he favors competition. With Cavanagh as its high-profile "godfather," AB1890 sailed through the legislature before the opposition could organize. But embittered green critics point out that loopholes in the law could mean the solar and conservation subsidies would never materialize. Gunther's PMC poured nearly a million of its own dollars into a breakneck spring campaign to gather 700,000 signatures and put Proposition 9 on the fall ballot. According to campaign filings, the utilities have already raised almost $30 million to defeat Prop. But it's the role of NRDC's Ralph Cavanagh that most disturbs environmental activists. Media calls to campaign headquarters are routinely forwarded to Cavanagh, who's become the bailout campaign's de facto spokesman. Cavanagh's role stems from a long apprenticeship with John Bryson, an NRDC co-founder who now heads Southern California Edison. Cavanagh insists competition will lower rates in the long term, and has already been a success at breaking up "obsolete power plant monopolies," he says. Those embattled nuclear plants will shut sooner or later anyway, he adds. And even though consumers will finance the rate reduction, they're still getting a break. The Washington-based Safe Energy Communications Council estimates that more than $110 billion in nuke-related stranded costs are at stake in just seven key states. Stranded cost opponents are also on the ballot in Massachusetts -- where, ironically, PG&E has already spent billions buying up generating facilities. There are parallel legislative and court fights in New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and a dozen other states. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, introduced national legislation to Congress that was drafted in cooperation with Hauter's group, RAGE, and that contains strong consumer and environmental protections. At the very least, the fate of dozens of commercial reactors and hundreds of obsolete coal and oil burners hang in the balance. But nothing is likely to pass Congress until 1999, and many states are holding back until they see what happens nationally. Meanwhile, fewer than 100,000 of California's 10,000,000 households have switched to new electric providers since deregulation took hold on April 1. Competition seems to be developing for large, industrial business, but virtually no companies have come forth to compete for the residential market. He writes and speaks frequently on environmental matters. After dreading November's elections, some Democrats now believe they will benefit from an anti-impeachment voter rebellion. Alfonse D'Amato might hinge on how strong the toxic blowback is from Capitol Hill's impeachment stink.
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