Subject: rationing plan
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 02:07:00 -0700 (PDT)

A short summary published today about the legal situation.  

Growing Legal Problems for Energy Rationing Program
The legal battle provoked by the government ,s energy rationing program
intensified Thursday with a S?o Paulo judge throwing out the program ,s
penalties.
Thursday night,a judge in the city of Mar?lia,S?o Paulo issued an injunction
suspending all of the penalties contained in the program for households or 
firms
that exceed quota levels for electricity consumption.The injunction was in
response to a challenge of the penalties filed by a federal prosecutor and is
applicable to the entire country.
The judge ruled that higher energy charges and the threat of a 
momentarycutoff of electricity for persons or companies that exceed their 
quotas were
unconstitutional.
Also on Thursday several Supreme Court justices stated that they have no
doubts that a controversial decree issued by the government Wednesday is
unconstitutional.The decree states that measures taken to combat the energy
crisis do not have to respect Brazil ,s consumer protection code.According to 
the
justices,who declined to be identified,the decree violates three articles of 
the
constitution.
In S?o Paulo,the number of suits challenging the government program
reached seven in the federal district court while in Rio a total of four 
suits had
been filed by the end of Thursday.
Thus far the government ,s only response to the program ,s legal problems
has been to mobilize federal attorneys to overturn any injunctions issued by 
lower
court judges.At some point,however,the government will also have to deal with
the damage to its image caused by the unpopular aspects of the program.
In related developments Thursday:
the head of the energy crisis management team Pedro Parente said that the
government would consider a proposal defended by some electricity utilities to
declare every Monday a holiday.Parente said his team would analyze the
economic impact of such a measure which would be only be adopted if the 
current
rationing program fails to produce the needed 20%cut in electricity 
consumption.
 the government created a special group of energy experts to prepare the
details of a program of rolling blackouts similar to what has been applied in 
the
American state of California,also suffering from an energy crisis.Thus far
blackouts have been ruled out in Brazil and would only be adopted if 
absolutely
necessary.
the water level of reservoirs for hydroelectric plants is continuing to 
decline.
According to figures for May 23,the average level in the southeast and 
central-
west regions was 29.5%,down from 32%on May 1,a reduction of 7.5%.In the
northeast,the average level fell from 32.6%to 28.5%over this same period,a
reduction of 12.6%.Thus far the decline in consumption is not keeping pace 
with
the reduction of generating capacity.For the week May 17-23,consumption in
the southeast and central-west regions fell 4.6%and in the northeast the 
decline
was 5.4%.
the Brazilian Association of Shopping Centers (Abrasce)proposed to meet
its consumption quota by reducing the shopping period by two hours a day.Malls
would open an hour later than at present and close an hour earlier.
the government is expected to announce today the energy quotas for
specific business sectors.Each sector will be required to reduce its 
consumption
by between 15%and 25%.