Davis Says FERC Has 30 Days To Act Before He Sues SACRAMENTO (AP) --

Gov. Gray Davis said Wednesday that he'll give federal energy regulators at least 30 days to respond to his requests for massive electricity rebates or rate cuts before taking them to court.

He indicated that a lawsuit was likely. "I'm sure they won't do as much as they need to," he told reporters after a speech to the California Small Business Association.

He said he wanted to give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission time to consider his filings before going to court, saying judges are "reluctant to tell agencies what to do until agencies review the matter."

FERC has already ruled that wholesale energy prices charged California utilities and the state were not just and reasonable. State power officials estimate that the state was overcharged $6 billion for power in the last year. But so far FERC has ordered only $124 million in refunds.

Davis says the state deserves either substantially more in refunds or price controls.

He said he was willing to accept a formula that would let power generators make up to 50 percent in profits, saying that would still be less than they are taking in now.

"We are getting picked apart by excessively greedy energy companies who are selling us energy at literally at 600 or 700 percent more than we paid for it in 1999," he told the business group.

He said he told President Bush when they met Tuesday in Los Angeles that California was "entitled to relief as a matter of law," but Bush refused to support price caps.

But the president did agree to send FERC member Pat Wood to meet with Davis.

The Democratic governor said he had talked to Wood and that Wood was "open to making substantial refunds."

"I know I am talking to a kindred spirit when I talk (to Wood) about more refunds," Davis said.

-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), May 30, 2001

Answers

What's the URL for this article? I can't find the article with the news search engines I usually use.

-- (what's@the.URL), May 31, 2001.

Here is one. Several versions floating around.

Ferc

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 31, 2001.