Dry Spring Spells Trouble Woes in Calif.
S A C R A M E N T O, Calif. , Feb. 3, 2001 -- In the mountains of the Pacific Northwest this week, snow pack measurements are revealing a growing problem in the pursuit of more electricity.
They are predicting low Sierra Nevada snowpack levels throughout the summer in California, which depends heavily on runoff to powerhydroelectric plants.
Energy shortages led to thousands of blackouts in the state for two consecutive days last month.
The monthly Sierra snowpack survey showed the snow's watercontent at only 50 percent of normal levels, and forecasters saidthe odds were slim that it would fully rebound.
"Looking at the north Sierra precipitation index since 1922,the odds of us getting back to normal are about 1-in-10," saidBill Mork, climatologist for the state Department of WaterResources.
But Pacific Gas and Electric Co. spokesman John Tremayne said itwas premature to forecast the entire rainy season.
"Last year about this time, we were in worse condition and weended up above normal," he said. "It's not like the PacificNorthwest where they get rain every day. We get five to eight majorstorms each year that gives us the majority of our rain. Sometimesthey're early, sometimes they're late."
No Capping of Prices
Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham rejected pleas fromWestern governors Friday to cap wholesale utility prices to protectconsumers should the power crisis spread. He said a cap coulddiscourage conservation and worsen problems this summer, when powerdemands rise more than 30 percent.
Abraham also said he would allow the Feb. 7 expiration of anorder that required utilities to sell surplus power to California.
The order was imposed in mid-December by former Energy SecretaryBill Richardson. It had been extended by Abraham.
A number of the governors, including Oregon's John Kitzhaber andWashington's Gary Locke, are demanding that the federal governmentimpose limits on electricity rate increases.
Kitzhaber said "controlling these crippling prices is somethingconcrete and tangible that the federal government can do now."
PG&E and Southern California Edison say the power crisis hasleft them $12.7 billion in debt, on the verge of bankruptcy andunable to buy power on credit from wary wholesalers who fear theywill never be paid for it.
The power situation is blamed on the state's 1996 energyderegulation law that forced Edison and PG&E, which serve nearly 9million residential and business customers, to sell their powerplants and buy wholesale electricity, but blocked them from raisingtheir rates when wholesale prices soared over the past severalmonths.
The price increases were caused by a number of factors,including water shortages in the Pacific Northwest that lefthydroelectric power in short supply, a number of aging power plantsbeing taken out of production for repairs and maintenance, andtransmission line troubles.