And future generations will have to pay for this fiasco. Heller and other critics say Davis' strategy commits California to paying energy prices that will be excessive in the future. They also predict he will pay too much, and get too little, in return for helping utilities solve their money woes. Phil Trounstine, Davis' communications director, called Heller's assessment dead wrong. But party politics lurk in the shadows as decisions are made and impacts assessed.
Some Republicans complain their energy ideas get short shrift.
You see the best and the worst of politics. That's in the eye of the beholder. Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga said his colleagues are not being shut out of the process. But Democrats clearly are in the driver's seat, he said. I think we have a number of great ideas.