Known for his extensive studies of energy and its history in California, author and De Anza history instructor, James C. Williams discussed the interplay between energy and society at the California History Center on Tuesday, Jan. 23.

That day, he provided students and community members with reasons for the energy crisis, what’s being done and ways to conserve.

Reasons

For the last 150 years, California’s economy and its people’s lifestyles have been substantially shaped by access to and the application of energy.

According to Williams, trust in the free market led to deregulation of airlines, telecommunications and eventually electric power. “When it comes to water to drink. I think it needs to be regulated for the benefit of the whole society,” he said.

He says that possibly the most important factor that stands out in California’s energy history has been its citizens’ desire to build a prosperous life and economy, a goal shared by Americans everywhere.

What’s being done

“I think that the government should help … [George W. Bush] believes in the free market. Look what it’s done.”

Neither PG&E nor Edison International, the parent corporation of Southern California Edison, exhibits the traditional warning signs of a utility near bankruptcy.

“Nobody wants to believe that they will go bankrupt … I empathize with them.”

So far, neither has failed to pay back any debts, and the major credit agencies generally rate the companies’ ability to repay borrowed money as “strong.” Moreover, they continue to pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year in cash dividends to their stockholders.

Edison actually raised its dividend payout last March, and PG&E has kept the same rate since 1996. A utility in serious financial trouble typically cuts its dividend to conserve cash.

Utility-company officials blame most of their financial troubles on what they characterize as greedy power suppliers, who have been charging extraordinarily high wholesale electricity prices since last summer.

But the problems date back to March 31, 1998, when the sale of electricity was officially opened up to competition under the deregulation law that the Legislature passed two years earlier.

That law encouraged the utilities to sell off most of their own power plants and begin buying electricity from independent generators. Moreover, it froze the retail rates that utility companies could charge their customers.

Neither of these changes was a big concern to utility executives at the time, because the frozen rate covered the cost of the power they bought and also gave them a little extra to pay off their old power-plant debts.

Last year, the price of power soared well beyond what the company is able to recoup from consumers under the freeze. In 1999, the average price of one megawatt hour, which is enough to power 1,000 homes for an hour, was $31. Now, with electricity in severely short supply, the price jumped well past $1,000.

Ways to conserve Energy

Williams said that it is ironic how they asked citizens to keep Christmas tree lights off to conserve energy but at the same time lights throughout business districts remained on. “The lights on the Bay Bridge are symbolic if nothing else.”

He said, however, that perhaps the reason why many lights were on in offices was to keep warm. “It’s cheaper to have lights on than to run the heater because lights heat and brighten the room at the same time,” he said.

“I can’t imagine we’re going to put coal plants here,” he said. He said that California is “the environmental center” where residents have maintained the importance of conservation. “I hope the battle lays in alternative energy.

About Wil-liams

In “Energy and the Making of Modern California,” ($27.00) Williams describes the history of energy development in the Golden State, illuminating the forces that formed the region’s culture and economy through the interplay between technology, population growth, human values, and the environment.

He shows how California’s complex and versatile environment constantly challenged technological inventiveness, making the state’s experience with energy a rich case study that clarifies our rising concerns about how we live with the earth we inhabit.

Williams is a past director of the California History Center and Foundation. He currently teaches history at De Anza.

http://www.energy.ca.gov/education/savingenergy.html.