EEE会議（北米大停電と電力会社間の抗争）.........................................................2003.8.24


北米大停電事件に関しては、日米では電力供給体制が大きく異なり、あのような事件
は日本では起こりえない、と言われておりますが、他山の石として、米国の状況を
知っておくことも無意味ではなかろうと思います。実は、いままで小生自身不勉強で
知らなかったのですが、米国の電力の７４％は営利を目的とした民間企業が生産し、
１５％は非営利目的の公的機関が生産しているということのようです。この７４％の
電力会社の中でも、比較的「公益性」があり、真面目にやっている企業と、そうでな
い企業（昨日ご紹介したFirstEnergy社もその１つ）があって、今回の大停電事件を
契機に、両者間の溝がますます大きくなってきた結果、従来電力業界の利益を代弁し
てきた政治家たちが警戒感を強めており、膨大な金を使ったロビー活動が次第にやり
にくくなって来たようだとのことです。例えば最大手のEdison Electric社の場合、
2000年にはロビー活動に1,300万ドル（業界全体では7,800万ドル）を使って強力なロ
ビー活動を行ってきたが、今後は電力会社同士の競争の激化で足並みに乱れが出てき
ており、９月から再開する議会でのエネルギー法案審議も難航するだろうとのことで
す。　詳細な状況については本日のNew York Timesの記事でどうぞ。
--KK
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Energy Bill Draws a Deeply Split Utilities Lobby
By JOEL BRINKLEY


WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 ・Brigades of electric-industry lobbyists are lining up
to greet returning members of Congress as they begin final work on the
energy bill next month. But the industry is so riven with internal
disagreements and backbiting after the Northeast blackout that some of the
lobbyists worry that legislators may throw up their hands in exasperation
and refuse to listen to any of them.

"Maybe there is some eye-rolling: `Here they come again,' " Alan H.
Richardson, the president of the American Public Power Association,
acknowledged with a grim smile. His group represents government-owned
utilities serving about 15 percent of the nation.

Even before the blackout, the electric utilities were split into warring
camps. The deepest divisions lie between the for-profit corporations that
supply power to 74 percent of the country and the nonprofit cooperative or
government-owned utilities that serve nearly all of the rest. But
disagreements separate utilities even within these two groups.

Now, the blackout and the urgent demand from Washington to ensure that it is
not repeated are sharpening the divisions as the industry reaches a critical
point pregnant with opportunity ・and risk.

"This is a real watershed moment," said Glenn English, a former Democratic
congressmen from Oklahoma who is the president of the National Rural
Electric Cooperative Association.

Mr. English and others from the nonprofit side accuse their corporate
competitors of using the blackout to win support in Washington for proposals
that would increase their profits ・with no guarantee that any of the money
would be used to improve and expand the electric transmission grid to avert
future blackouts.

"They are strangely quiet on that point," Mr. English said.

Asked about that, Edwin Guiles, chief executive of Sampra Energy, the
electric utility that serves the San Diego area, thundered as he declared,
"I have responsibility for the reliability of the system in our region, and
it's ludicrous for anyone to suggest that that will not happen!"

Congress has been debating an energy bill for two years but has been unable
to pass it, in part because the members could not find common ground among
competing electric-industry lobbyists' proposals. But the blackout has put a
new urgency into deliberations over the bill, which is in a Senate-House
conference committee, and the industry expects the committee to reach
agreement next month. So the lobbyists are girding for battle, even in
vacation season.

"We've brought our whole team back, absolutely," said Thomas R. Kuhn,
president of the Edison Electric Institute, the trade group that represents
most of the for-profit utilities. "This is a very challenging time for the
industry."

Edison Electric is the industry's lobbying powerhouse. In 2000, the most
recent reporting period, the group spent $12 million on lobbying, an amount
that dwarfed the next highest spending company, DTE Energy, which owns the
utility serving the Detroit area. DTE Energy spent $3.7 million that year.

Among the nonprofits, American Public Power spent the most on lobbying, $1.9
million. Over all, the industry's lobbying expenditures added up to $78
million during 2000.

Campaign donations from the industry last year totaled $21 million, heavily
weighted toward Republicans and senior members of the Senate and House
energy committees. For the Republic chairmen of both committees, electric
utilities contributed more money than any group but health care workers in
one case and retirees in the other.

Congress hears from few lobbyists for outside groups on electric-industry
issues ・save for some consumer groups that generally side with the
nonprofits.

Donations are but one part of the electric industry's strategy. In coming
days, each group says it will use its particular strength to persuade
conference committee members and others.

"Our companies are in just about every state," said Mr. Kuhn of the Edison
Electric Institute. "Our C.E.O.'s communicate directly with members of
Congress."

Individual for-profit utilities also lobby on their own, particularly if
they have unique points of view.

"We have 10 or 12 government affairs people in Washington," said Dwight
Evans, senior vice president for the Southern Company, whose electric
utilities provide power in parts of four Southern states. The Southern
Company vehemently disagrees with several of the key demands of Edison
Electric and Northern for-profit utilities. The company has also hired two
Washington lobbying firms, "and we are going to let elected officials know
how we feel."

Although their resources are dwarfed by those of the for-profit companies,
nonprofit utilities say they do not feel disadvantaged. They have other
weapons.

"We use our most powerful asset: elected officials," said Mr. Richardson of
the American Public Power Association. Since municipalities own his
utilities, mayors and city council members lobby for the group.

While Congress members hear from numerous lobbyists, "if an elected official
comes along, they have to listen in a different way," said Patrick Heath,
mayor of Bourne, Tex. The city of 7,000 has its own electric utility, and
Mayor Heath has lobbied in Washington on behalf of the public-power trade
group. When he talks to senators, he said, "they know here's someone whose
job doesn't depend on what happens."

Mr. English, head of the trade group of nonprofit rural electric co-ops,
said: "We don't have the big dollars. What we have is the people. Our
grassroots is not AstroTurf. It's the real people. We can have 2,500 people
in Washington talking to members."

Though Mr. English and others said they had not finalized their lobbying
plans, he did say, "We definitely plan to mobilize our folks."

Should all of them ・the chief executive officers, the elected officials,
the Washington lobbyists, the co-op members ・arrive at the Capitol at the
same time, Congress members would hear a cacophony.

The for-profit industry's demand for monetary incentives to coax utilities
to build and repair their transmission grid is the most divisive.

"Transmission is not a sexy issue for companies," Mr. Kuhn said. "We are
trying to incentivize them."

Mr. Richardson said: "The cause of underinvestment in transmission is the
need of these companies to return profits to shareholders. I don't think the
way to solve the problem is to throw money at it."

Mr. English added, "They could conceivably use the money for C.E.O.
bonuses."

Mr. Guiles of Sampra Energy said the greatest obstacle in Southern
California to building transmission lines was not money but winning
regulatory approval for the towers. The financial incentives were needed, he
added, "because we have a responsibility to our shareholders."

Most of the for-profit and nonprofit groups do seem to agree on one point,
that the federal government should assume greater regulatory control over
the transmission grid and be authorized to fine companies that fail to
maintain their systems.

But even that idea has at least one major opponent ・the Southern Company,
which seems interested in leaving things as they are, at least for now.

"I think first of all that we need to find out what caused this problem
before we move too quickly toward a legislative solution," Mr. Evans said.
"This is not the time to go out and start making dramatic changes across the
country."

With disagreements like that, Mr. English acknowledged, "there's a tendency
for members of Congress to say, `When you get your act together, come back
and see us.' "