He also promised he would not allow California's two largest private utilities to continue their recent slide toward bankruptcy, saying he would use all the state's powers, including taking control of power plants and transmission grids if necessary, to keep the system working. Mr. Davis's proposals will now be debated by a legislature that is already considering even stronger measures to tame soaring wholesale electricity prices and power shortages in many parts of the state. Mr. Davis's proposals are bolder than many political experts had anticipated from a centrist governor who critics say did not move quickly or decisively enough even when California's energy problems first surfaced last summer. He has made his mark as a cautious pragmatist more likely to believe in market forces than state control. Some members of the state's heavily Democratic Legislature said today they were inclined to move further than the creation of a state power authority.
Drastic times call for bold measures.
But I'm more interested in what you do, not what you say. We'll see what comes from this. Governor Davis suggested that, if necessary, he would consider far stronger action. In his speech, the governor left unstated precisely what he would do in the short term to prop up the state's two largest utilities, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Southern California Edison, a unit of Edison International. Our fate is tied to their fate.