ROLLING BLACKOUTS EXIST ONLY IN DAVIS' OFFICE.

Byline: Marc Germain

Ten stupid things Edison and Governor Low-Beam are doing to mess up your life:

1. We've got the power. The call for new power plants is based on fuzzy math. According to the Independent System Operator, the peak demand for power in California was less than 46,000 megawatts on July 12, 2000. We have the system capacity for 55,500 megawatts and an additional 4,500 megawatts on contract. Six new plants are ready to go online before the year's end and 16 more plants are already under construction.

2. Play a shell game. Using the pay-yourself-first method of accounting, Southern California Edison insulated their shareholders by paying dividends, repurchasing stock and moving their cash reserves to Edison International (the parent company) after spending billions on an international power-plant buying spree.

3. Create a power shortage. Convince Californians they are power greedy but ignore the fact we are second in the nation of lowest power consumers per capita. Everyone supports conservation but the Gov. Gray Davis' plan for using less power at night will do nothing to satisfy peak daytime demand this summer.

4. Collude and price fix. Mission Energy, which is a subsidiary of Edison International, is one of the companies withholding power because SCE, the other Edison subsidiary on the regulated side didn't pay for the power Mission generates.

5. If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em! Wonder why Governor Low-Beam would opt to waste the state surplus buying power instead of forcing the parent company of SCE (Edison International) to help salvage its subsidiary? Perhaps the large campaign contributions (estimated by the Secretary of State Bill Jones at $1 million) the state utilities made to ensure his victory and augment his $27 million war chest is clouding his judgment.

6. Cheaper by the dozen. Gov. Davis could have purchased every power plant in the state for less money than has been wasted buying power for Pacific Gas & Electric and SCE in the first 90 days of the ``crisis.''

7. Let the fox guard the henhouse. Current and former Edison employees are acting as paid consultants to the governor behind closed doors.

8. Campaign the PUC to rubber-stamp rate increases. The governor's henpecked PUC board (which he claims to have no power over or consultation with) has already approved two massive rate increases since January. Watch for more to come.

9. Let there be light. Edison has nearly bankrupted 700 small power generators in the state by not paying them $1.5 billion. These generators provide us with 20 percent of our power needs. Since without pay, they have no incentive to generate power, there is less power to go around. However, SCE hasn't delayed in collecting from us.

10. The only rolling blackout is the one in the Governor's Office. Several Republican Assembly members are suing the governor to disclose his daily spending to buy power. Democratic State Treasurer Phil Angelides is pleading with the governor to ``show me the numbers.'' Taxpayers have a right to know how much of our money is being spent every day to buy power. If Gov. Davis is suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome, we need to get him some help.