There is no way that can be recovered. Shareholders of the utilities have already suffered as well, because their stock prices have dropped to about to less than 50 percent of where they were a few months ago. The political ramifications are that this gives utility opponents ammunition to make the claim that their financial condition is not as serious as the utilities have been claiming. State lawmakers are continuing today to negotiate to separate bills. One would give the state the authority to bypass the utilities and enter into long-term contracts with power producers at reduced rates.
Lawmakers hope to have that bill on the governor s desk as early as today.
Throughout this crisis, California Governor Gray Davis and many key state lawmakers have maintained that rate increases would not be part of the solution. At the same time, Wall Street analysts, economists and credit rating industries have all maintained that some sort of a rate increase would be needed. It appears that the framework of a solution being developed now allows for possible rate increases, especially for heavy users of electricity. An AOL Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.