Mayor of power-rich L.A. wants to charge rest of state more

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Mayor of power-rich L.A. wants to charge rest of state more Filed: 01/19/2001

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is letting energy-strapped utilities off too easy, Mayor Richard Riordan indicated Thursday, saying the city's power-flush utility should charge more for its surplus electricity.

Addressing a group of some 150 business people, Riordan proposed selling the commodity at 10 percent below market rate and mandating that buyers pay cash only. The mayor estimates the city is owed $170 million from utility companies.

So far the DWP's general manager, S. David Freeman, has been selling power to other utilities at nominal cost and on credit. It is being used to help ease the severe power crunch that resulted in rolling blackouts in San Francisco, Sacramento and other cities on Wednesday and Thursday.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going to collect every penny that's owed to us," Riordan said. "And besides, I'm very proud of the fact that our power plants have in fact been minimizing the blackouts throughout the state yesterday and today."

But he said the city should be getting more money for its valuable resource, and joked that the long-standing rivalry between San Francisco and Los Angeles could even come into play during negotiations.

"If it's San Francisco," he quipped, "no mercy."

Los Angeles, with a large energy supply of it's own, opted out of energy deregulation five years ago and hasn't faced the problems felt by private utilities across the state. Those utilities are now struggling to buy electricity on the open market during a severe shortage.

As a result, the DWP was able to sell a much-needed 300 to 700 megawatts per hour on Wednesday as parts of Northern California experienced blackouts.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 19, 2001

Answers

This is called the California Good Neighbor Policy!

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 19, 2001.

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