Lawmaker praises California governor for cutting power agency's funds

- Sutter-Colusa Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa praised Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently for slashing $800,000 out of the California Power Authority's budget.

LaMalfa, R-Richvale, said he carried legislation earlier this year to eliminate the CPA, one of 13 state agencies that deal with energy issues, but AB 2967 died in committee.

Schwarzenegger, in signing the $105 billion state budget Saturday, used his line-item veto to cut $800,000 from the CPA budget. The agency is formally known as the California Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority.

"We applaud the governor's reduction in funds to this duplicative, wasteful bureaucracy," LaMalfa said.

He blamed bureaucrats with "their big guns" for defeating his bill, singling out state Treasurer Phil Angelides.

"With threats to the state's long-term energy supply and warnings of power shortages on the horizon, California's energy future remains precariously uncertain and our energy problems are far from over," Angelides said in a statement. "Given these circumstances, and given the fact that the governor has yet to lay out a comprehensive energy plan for our state, his proposal to eliminate the CPA could not come at a worse time."

LaMalfa noted that salaries for the "top nine employees of the CPA exceeded $1.6 million. Californians can certainly use the savings from an agency that spent $1.6 million to employ only nine people and never achieved a single megawatt of new power."

The assemblyman suggested those funds "can go to pay for eliminating duplicative dam safety inspections and fees, stock pond fees, water rights fees and other heinous and illegal fees foisted on hard-working Californians last year."

The CPA was created at the height of the 2001 energy crisis in response to record high prices for electricity and reports that electricity generators were unwilling or unable to provide power to the state, according to an Assembly committee analysis of LaMalfa's bill.

The agency's purpose was to act as a backstop to provide sufficient electric capacity to meet California's needs at a reasonable price if private, non-utility generators decided not to build power plants or provide power to the state.

"While the CPA hasn't built any power plants, it has fulfilled a variety of roles since its inception," the analysis said. "Perhaps most importantly, it has encouraged cooperation between the California Public Utilities Commission and the (California Energy Commission) and has helped develop a state electricity reserve reliability target."

The Legislative Analyst's Office, in its review of the 2004-05 budget bill, said eliminating the CPA's functions would be premature given the uncertainty over the adequacy of California's long-term power supplies. It suggested either retaining the CPA as a self-funded entity or transferring its functions to other existing entities.