Columnist Jon Ralston: A power grab by politicians

Saturday, Feb. 24, 2001 | 10:23 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com

SO NOW what?

The Republican governor has a plan. The Democratic lawmakers have a plan. And just as inexorably as both parties publicly will say they will work together and privately look for political gain, so, too, will electricity bills continue to rise until they reach new heights this summer in Southern Nevada.

Gov. Kenny Guinn and Democratic legislators can point with disdain all they want to California's debacle and insist the situation here is not analogous. But two facts stand out.

First, as California goes, so goes Nevada. And what happens there will affect Nevada, no matter what the elected elite here does.

Second, as much as California may have botched deregulation, let's not forget what happened here. Lawmakers debated deregulation for a couple of sessions and when they voted on bills, you don't need all of the fingers on one hand to count the members of the Gang of 63 who knew what they were voting on. And the measures were either designed to defenestrate a member of the Public Utilities Commission, or to ensure the casinos could escape the system, or to keep Sierra Pacific and Nevada Power from hitting the financial shoals. That worked well, didn't it?

So now incompetence and market forces have combined to cause an incipient, inevitable crisis. The only question is whether these plans will provide a political prophylactic, in Gov. Kenny Guinn's case, or a political dagger, in the Democrats' case, when temperatures soar into triple digits, blackouts become a possibility and the only thing hotter than the temperatures are residents opening their power bills in July and August.

To think that an issue this important could be absent politics is pure naivete. The day before Guinn announced his comprehensive energy plan at one of his didactic news conferences, word wafted through the Legislative Building that his proposal was nigh. Late that afternoon, surely to the administration's consternation, the Democrats unveiled their "omnibus energy package," thus beating the governor to the media. The plan included a special committee (that always sends a signal that politicians are serious). And the rest was much like Guinn's State of the State, which doled out baubles to targeted special interests. The Democrats hit their base with uncanny accuracy -- emergency assistance for low-income families, a moratorium on deregulation, a measure to prohibit rate increases without more oversight, one for alternative emergency providers and taking ba ck control of the issue from the governor by giving lawmakers first say on when deregulation went forward.

The plan didn't get a fraction of the coverage the governor did the next day, but surely he was upset that the Democrats had tried to steal his thunder. Of course, the governor's office botched the previous night's briefing to the Democrats -- the Guinnites invited about two-thirds of the Democratic caucus, which is at least a spiritual violation of the Open Meeting Law that the Legislature does not have to abide by. And yet they managed to leave out key members of the Democratic inner circle.

Guinn's "Energy Protection Plan," which he crafted himself without help from his political advisers and with technical assistance from utility folks, was splashed across the front page the day after the Democrats received minimal treatment from the media. He looked gubernatorial, knowledgeable and statesmanlike. His plan also hit a lot of notes -- pushing conservation, admonishing the PUC to revisit the sale of power plants (a Democratic proposal for weeks), acceleration of new plant construction and transmission-line erection and a halt to deregulation for an indefinite period.

Guinn, a former utility executive, knows the issue. But it also is the only issue, if there is one, that could threaten his re-election in 2002. As one observer put it, "There is a lot of political opportunity here for the Democrats. But they have to be careful how they handle it."

The Democrats asserted themselves last year when they railed against a so-called global settlement, cobbled together by various special interests and sanctioned by Guinn's office. They called it a backroom deal and eventually forced the governor to back off deregulation. They were politically motivated -- but also prescient.

And now they smell blood. They can be the only white knights in this tale -- the governor will be the fall guy, everyone hates the utilities and no one has sympathy for big business and gamers whose bills will be astronomical. Everyone knows what's coming this summer -- no plan can stop it. And Guinn cannot get out of the line of fire; he can only hope to dodge a few bullets when the Democratic marksmen start firing.