Subject: Fwd: Bush Nominates Hebert for Energy
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Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 02:10:00 -0800 (PST)

FYI.  Hebert is a strong opponent of price caps but not sure how hard he is 
willing to push on RTO formation and additional transmission open access.  

Jim

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	01/22/2001 05:56 PM
		 
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		 Subject: Fwd: Bush Nominates Hebert for Energy

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Subject:	Bush Nominates Hebert for Energy
Bush Nominates Hebert for Energy 
( January 22, 2001 ) 

WASHINGTON, Jan 22, 2001 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- President Bush named Curt 
Hebert, who has argued against federal involvement in the California 
electricity crisis, as chairman of the agency that regulates wholesale power 
markets. 

      White House spokesman Ari Fleischer announced the selection as senior 
administration officials, including Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, met at 
the White House to discuss the California power situation. 

      Hebert, the former state utility regulator in Mississippi, is the only 
Republican on the current five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 
which he will head. Bush shortly is expected to name two new members. 

      Despite California's problems, Hebert gave a strong endorsement Monday 
of electricity deregulation and letting market forces determine prices and 
electricity supplies. 

      As FERC chairman, he said in a statement, "I will do my utmost to see 
that competition is encouraged, that it is fair, that consumers have a 
genuine choice, and that the public interest is safeguarded." 

      Total competition in the electricity industry "is part of the solution 
rather than part of the problem" now faced in California, he said. Retail 
prices there in many cases remain regulated. 

      A close friend of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., Hebert 
has argued forcefully in recent weeks against FERC imposing price controls on 
wholesale electricity sales into California. 

      When FERC in mid-December took modest steps to help California cope 
with its surging electricity prices, Hebert agreed with the measures, but 
said he would rather have favored eliminating all price controls. 

      In an interview last week, Bush also expressed his opposition to 
imposing price controls - in the form of FERC-mandated price caps on 
wholesale power - on the California market, saying they would be 
counterproductive. 

      California Gov. Gray Davis and the state's cash-strapped utilities have 
urged FERC to intervene in the wholesale market, arguing that power 
generating companies were price gouging. FERC has so far rejected the plea. 

      Hebert was described by power industry officials as a free-market 
advocate when it comes to the electricity industry and has favored leaving 
decisions on electricity deregulation to states instead of the federal 
government. 

      Hebert replaces William Massey, a Democrat, who was elevated to the 
chairmanship by President Clinton on Jan. 19, after James Hoecker, another 
Clinton appointee, unexpectedly resigned. 

      Hebert, 38, a former Mississippi state legislator and member of the 
state Public Service Commission, joined FERC in November, 1997. His current 
term expires in 2004. 

      He comes from Pascagoula, Miss., as does Lott. 

      With Hoecker's resignation there remain two vacancies on the 
commission, which has been at the center of both the natural gas and 
electricity industry's shift to deregulation in recent years. 

      It was FERC that issued rules that opened the nation's electric power 
grid to competition in the mid-1990s, prompting many states - led by efforts 
in California - to embrace electricity industry deregulation amid promises it 
would lead to lower consumer prices because of competition. In most cases, 
deregulation has not led to substantial savings for consumers. 

      In California, where the effort has been acknowledged as a failure, 
power prices have soared amid shortages that have produced rolling blackouts 
in recent days and threatened two of the state's major investor-owned 
utilities with bankruptcy. 

      By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer