"The energy monopolies are owned and controlled privately," Senter told the audience. "They are capitalist corporations that make decisions based exclusively on what will turn a profit. These energy giants set prices, restrict supplies, and manipulate reserves."

Senter noted that the two utility companies Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SoCal Edison) have been on the brink of bankruptcy, accumulating $12.7 billion in debts from companies they buy energy from.

"Last year, a megawatt hour of power, enough to power 1,000 homes, cost around $30. Now it sells for upwards of $400, and sometimes over $1,000, on the spot market," he said.

Workers have faced scattered layoffs and plant closings, Senter pointed out. "But up to now, the crisis has had a bigger impact on farmers." Senter explained that, at times, dairy farmers have been unable to get their milk processed at creameries, forcing them to dump their milk. Many farmers use large quantities of energy to irrigate and keep their crop from freezing in the winter.

"When a crisis like this breaks out, some of what is usually behind-the-scene wheeling-and-dealing comes to the surface," he said. "The real workings of industry under capitalism gets exposed a little. Ruling circles are bickering over how to make working people pay for their disaster. At times like this, you can see a bit of the underbelly of the monopolies."

The utility companies PG&E Co. and SoCal Edison are owned by parent companies, PG&E Corp. and Edison International. These parent companies operate power generating plants of their own and sell electricity to their subsidiary utilities for a profit.

Large chunks of both of the utilities' debts are owed to their parent companies. For example, $2 billion of SoCal Edison's $4.5 billion debt is owed to Edison International. While PG&E and SoCal Edison have been going deeper and deeper into debt, the parent company has gotten richer and richer.  
 
Bondholders make profits
"Stock and bond holders have made enormous profits as the utilities have been bled dry by the parent companies," Senter said. "PG&E turned over one-third of its cash flow to its corporate parent in the first nine months of last year. And they paid $632 million in dividends during that time. The total since 1997 is $4.7 billion."

The parent companies have taken steps to shield their profits and assets from the looming bankruptcy of the utilities. Through a practice called "ring fencing" they won approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to insulate their assets from the credit problems of the utilities.

Senter pointed to a New York Times article that explained how state government legislation and policy decisions, such as rate increases, are being crafted by Wall Street investment banks who serve as advisors to the government. These banks, such as Goldman, Sachs; Credit Suisse First Boston; and Citigroup have big stakes in utility and power companies. The speaker of the state Assembly, Robert Hertzberg, has retained Credit Suisse. Robert Rubin of Citigroup is advising Gov. Gray Davis.

"There are grave concerns that the utilities might go bankrupt," Senter said. "It appears that ruling circles want to avoid this at all costs. The scale of the bankruptcy would be enormous, the first and third largest in U.S. history. Energy companies, owed billions by the utilities, would be left holding the bag. Many pension funds and investment portfolios contain utility stocks.

That's why the state government is putting together a bailout package, the brunt of which will be born by workers, farmers, and small businessmen.  
 
Nationalize the energy monopolies
"In face of this crisis," said Senter, "working people need to respond with proposals that serve our needs. We constantly hear proposals that will bail out the bosses, all of which we pay for.

"Energy is a vital resource to society. And it is being controlled by monopolies whose exclusive concern is making profit. Something has to be done because the lives and livelihoods of workers, farmers, and small businessmen are endangered by their predatory practices.

"We should demand the books of the energy monopolies be opened for inspection to learn what is really going on," he said. "Oil workers, coal miners, and electrical generating plant workers can play a big role in getting out the truth about the situation and help expose the artificial shortages, price gouging, and back room deals.

"The labor movement needs to mount a campaign to demand that the current government nationalize the energy industry. They should become public utilities rather than private enterprises," Senter told the audience.

In the discussion period at the forum one person asked Senter what would happen when the industry was nationalized.  
 
Cuba's example
Senter pointed to the revolutionary struggle that would have to be waged by working people to win this reform. He noted how Cuba, in the early years of the revolution, mobilized working people to nationalize oil refineries that refused to process oil received from the Soviet Union. "A nationalized energy industry must be run by an independent board appointed by the unions, community organizations, civil rights groups, and others who will insure that it is run in the interests of the majority."

Another side to the working-class response to the energy disaster is the need to fight for immediate relief for workers and farmers.

"Nobody's heat or oil should be cut off," Senter said. "Anyone laid off should get full pay. Farmers should be given immediate assistance. Food and dairy processing plants that have shut operations due to energy costs need to be reopened."

"A big factor in our success is the key role that workers in the energy industry themselves have to play in policing the industry for working people and making sure that all the facts are made public," said Senter.

"We are for more power plants," he continued. "But we don't buy the campaign to erode environmental regulations which the government and industry blame for high energy costs or to force working people to 'conserve' on fuel."  
 
Eroding environmental regulations
The California state government is working overtime to shift attention away from those responsible for the energy crisis--both the generating and utility monopolies--by focusing its fire on working people and small businesses to use energy "more efficiently."

Governor Davis has signed an extraordinary executive order giving county sheriffs and the California Highway Patrol the authority to cite businesses who don't curtail energy use after business hours up to $1,000 a day starting March 15, when the program becomes mandatory. The emergency order lasts "until the governor rescinds it," said a spokesman. Violators face criminal misdemeanor charges.

The new law allows the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to raise rates for businesses and residential accounts who consume more that 130 percent of their so-called baseline usage.

The baseline, which appears on utility bills, is the minimum amount of power needed, according to the PUC, to run an average home. Usage above the baseline is billed at a higher rate. If you go over your baseline in a given month, which is almost certain, power gets more expensive for that extra amount. Lawmakers estimate that almost all customers could see a rate increase on about 30 percent of the power they use.

Senter pointed to the concerted campaign by the energy industry and their mouthpieces to use the energy crisis in California to panic working people into suspending their environmental concerns about nuclear power, offshore drilling, and refinery safety in order to avert further energy shortages. These attacks have taken the form of what can only be called California-bashing. For example, Bradley Schiller, an economics professor at American University in Washington, D.C., wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal called "California: The Free Lunch State," stating, "Californians have come to view free college, cheap electricity, and cheap rent as birthrights."

Indeed, this bashing was a central feature at the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee meeting held January 31. Several industry executives used the hearing as a forum to propose diluting environmental regulations. Keith Bailey, president of The Williams Companies, urged a relaxation of federal clean air standards so that all of California's power plants can operate at full capacity. Judi Johansen of PacifiCorp said that federal officials should reexamine regulations protecting spawning salmon at hydroelectric dams.  
 
Federal government says no to caps
At a meeting of the Western Governors Association in Portland, Oregon, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, who was invited to the meeting, was warned that "out-of-control" electricity costs were spreading economic havoc across their region. Abraham rejected a plea from several of the state leaders that the federal government impose temporary price caps on wholesale energy prices. "I have great concerns about [a price cap] and President Bush does too," he said.

One of the aims of the conference, according to Idaho governor Dirk Kempthorne's spokesman Mark Snider, will be to "look at temporary waivers of regulations that are impeding production, like air quality rules."

Senter said that the unions and all working people should reject every one of these arguments. "With an abundant supply of coal, thousands of mining jobs could be opened up, jobs the United Mine Workers of America union could help make sure are safe and well-paid jobs. With scrubbers and other technology now available, coal can be burned cleanly without harmful emissions.

"What is happening today in the energy industry," Senter said, "will likely be repeated in many other industries. We don't know the pace or where the next blow will fall. Thousands of auto workers are being laid off.

"Working people need to wage a revolutionary struggle to make the wealth that we create benefit all of humanity," he said, "instead of the way it is now, where wealth is a cancer that will render life on this planet uninhabitable. This is why we need to revolutionize society and all social relations."

Bob Keller and Deborah Liatos, meatpacking workers in San Francisco, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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