Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
President Bush to Discuss Energy Crunch With California Governor Gray Davis Today
Aired May 29, 2001 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go ahead and start with some static -- potential static between President Bush and the governor of California, Gray Davis, over, of course, electricity. The two will meet today to discuss California's power problems, but they're not likely to break their stalemate over price controls.
Our White House correspondent Major Garrett is joining us with the latest on this upcoming meeting.
Major, good morning.
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
White House officials say the purpose of this trip is so that President Bush can go to California and look Californians in the eye and talk to them very frankly about energy. He arrived in Los Angeles last night, and he wants to talk about what the federal government has done so far to help alleviate California's energy crisis. He will highlight one of the moves today by going to Camp Pendleton, one of the many federal facilities in California that are under strict conservation diets. That is to say, they're supposed to reduce energy consumption dramatically to help California out.
The president will also talk about other things the federal government has done, namely, to accelerate the permitting in California to allow Governor Gray Davis, the Democrat, to bring more power plants on-line faster. The federal government has also made available to California emergency energy supplies to reduce the problem should rolling blackouts commence this summer.
That's all well and good, Governor Davis says, but there needs to be more done. He wants the president to endorse wholesale energy price caps for electricity. The president says he's not interested in doing that. He believes that would make the situation worse because it would shield consumers from the real price of electricity, thereby, driving up demand without driving up supply. That, he said, would cause even more rolling blackouts and even more economic harm to California -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Major, what about the politics involved here? President Bush has made it around the country I think to 29 other states so far. Why wait so long to make it to California? GARRETT: Well, the White House says there were other issue items that were higher on the president's agenda. He had a tax cut agenda and an education agenda and he wanted to go to states where there were key lawmakers to push that message. But he wants to go to California now to confront the energy crisis -- to confront Gray Davis face to face.
You know the White House says it's taken careful note of sequencing of Governor Davis' increasingly hostile remarks about the president's activity in California. They say it's no small coincidence that he began to criticize the president more sharply as his popularity rating began to decline in California. They see a blame game at work here. They wanted -- they wanted the president to go out, confront Davis face to face, see if they could resolve differences or at least, tone down the volume.
And there's one other thing on the president's agenda: meeting with the outgoing mayor of Los Angeles, Richard Riordan, a Republican, who may run against Gray Davis when he seeks reelection next year as governor of California -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Very good. Interesting.
Major Garrett at the White House, thank you very much.
In addition to meeting with the California governor, President Bush will also be talking about energy during a stop at Camp Pendleton. We're going to have live coverage of the president's speech at 12:15 p.m. Eastern, 9:15 a.m. Pacific.
