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
***********************************************
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.' "