“We are here to insist that the California Power Authority,
unlike the Governor’s office, is open to a vision of clean,
affordable, public power in the state. During this energy fiasco,
too many decisions have been taken in the interest of private
gas-based electricity companies by Governor Davis’ shady cabal of
energy policy advisers” says Medea Benjamin, of Global Exchange’s
Power to the People Campaign. “This body must be independent and
transparent.”
The California Power Authority is mandated under its enacting
legislation to develop an “Energy Resource Investment Plan” with
input from interested parties at scheduled public hearings.
Greenpeace, Global Exchange and Public Citizen are asking the new
Board of Directors to provide the schedule so that we can start
organizing the constituencies that they need to hear from.
Statewide, many community-based organizations have opinions that
need to be heard in the development of the energy investment
plan.
“There are two ways this California Power Authority can go: It
can either continue with the government’s business-as-usual support
for centralized, fossil-fuel based electricity generation or it can
be at the vanguard of a clean power industry that will lead the
world in building decentralized, renewable energy infrastructure.
We will be pressuring this new Board to ensure they choose the path
of clean energy now,” says Danny Kennedy of Greenpeace USA.
Many public interest groups were not happy with the
representation on the new Board that Governor Davis appointed two
weeks ago. There is concern that several of the appointees are too
close to the very energy companies that they will need to stand up
to in the debate about future energy policy in California. In
particular, three of the five appointees sit on the Board of the
California Foundation for the Environment and the Economy, which
also has utility and energy company executives on the board and has
been a promoter of energy deregulation.
“While this is certainly not the
Board we would have picked, CPA Watch is intended to ensure that
their deliberations are open to the public and that they put
consumer and environmental interests above corporate interests,”
says Jane Kelly, California Director of Public Citizen.
