CITY COUNCIL BALKS AT CREATING MUNICIPAL UTILITY.Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - The City Council on Tuesday balked balk v. balked, balk·ing, balks v.intr. 1. To stop short and refuse to go on: The horse balked at the jump. 2. at creating a municipal utility, deferring the issue to a newly created advisory committee. The City Council also pledged to reduce its consumption of energy by an additional 10 percent on top of the conservation measures already in place in City Hall and throughout the city. ``There's no huge rush to do this,'' said Councilman Cameron Smyth Cameron Smyth is a Republican who has represented Califoria's 38th Assembly district since December of 2006. He succeeded Keith Richman who was term limited. Prior to being elected to the state legislature, Assemblyman Smyth served on the Santa Clarita City Council, where he . As cooler weather and healthy statewide reserves of energy reduced the chance of another round of rolling blackouts Rolling blackout refers to an intentionally-engineered electrical power outage, caused by insufficient available resources to meet prevailing demand for electricity. For information about accidental blackouts that are not intentionally engineered, see power outage. Tuesday, the City Council once again struggled to find a way to protect local businesses and residents from the looming outages. Several prominent civic leaders have urged the City Council repeatedly to step in and form a municipal utility, proposing that the city be powered by two co-generation plants in Placerita Canyon that were idled by the crisis. Extensive technical and economic analysis would still be required before a municipal utility could be constructed, officials said. Those studies could cost up to $500,000, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a recent city study. Representatives from Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 11 million people with electricity. have warned the city that creating a municipal utility could lock the city into paying much higher rates once new power plants are built and come on line, stabilizing electricity rates. Energy industry officials have hailed Santa Clarita for its pro-active conservation measures, such as dimming the lights in City Hall and replacing dozens of traffic signal lights with LED bulbs that use less energy. Skyrocketing electricity prices caused by the deregulation Deregulation The reduction or elimination of government power in a particular industry, usually enacted to create more competition within the industry. Notes: Traditional areas that have been deregulated are the telephone and airline industries. of the electric industry have forced Pacific Gas and Electric into bankruptcy and Edison deep into debt, leading to the threat of rolling blackouts throughout the state. Late Tuesday, the council members were expected to appoint five residents to the newly created Energy Advisory Committee. The group, along with an energy consultant, will devise a plan to help the city conserve energy, use it more efficiently and shield the region from rolling blackouts. |
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