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American Morning

California Governor to Sue in Dispute Over Energy Crisis

Aired May 30, 2001 - 11:20   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: President Bush and California Governor Gray Davis have now gone nose-to-nose over California's energy crisis. Davis wants federal price caps for wholesale electricity. Mr. Bush says no way. Now, the governor says he plans to sue. It is a draw? Joining from Washington is "Los Angeles Times" political columnist Ron Brownstein also doubling as a CNN political analyst -- Ron, good to see you back here with us today.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

KAGAN: This meeting yesterday between the governor and the president, it went about as well as a Mideast peace summit. These men certainly do not see eye to eye.

BROWNSTEIN: No, that's right. I think all indications are it was essentially a cordial meeting. But on both a substantive and stylistic front, it really didn't seem to go that well. There's a big difference between them on whether there ought to be any kind of price constraints on the wholesale price of electricity.

And interestingly, Daryn, afterwards, Davis complained to some of the people around him that talking to Bush in private was too much like listening to him talk in public, that there really was sort of a recitation of the public talking points. And I think felt that the president wasn't as fully versed on all the details of the issue as he had hoped.

That's a complaint that we've heard a little bit more in the last few weeks. Chuck Hagel on Sunday, the senator from Nebraska, talking about a rather remarkable comment, saying the president had to get more into the details of some of these issues to deal with the Senate.

So a little bit of that from Gray Davis. And all indications are a lot of conflict ahead.

KAGAN: The governor took his case right from meeting right to the people. He stepped right into a news conference and didn't have very kind words for the president, and also seemed to have some threats in that, saying, "See what's happening in California? It's going to spread to the west. And, New York City, you watch out too. And the federal government is not going to help you either."

BROWNSTEIN: Right. And what he is trying to do is strength in numbers. In this case, California is not going to be one of the highest political priorities of the president, simply because it's a very, very tough state for him to win, as we talked about yesterday. But I think to the extent that Davis can make the case that this threatens the broader economy and threatens disruption of daily life in other states that are more accessible and important to Bush, than his cause is strengthened.

The real message from Gray Davis was he is going to push this forward on a lot of different fronts, both in the courts and the regulatory agencies, through the Democratic Senate. And that means that we're going to keep seeing this story in the headlines for quite a while.

KAGAN: So he's not going away. That's the message to President Bush. But for Gray Davis, has to be careful too. He's not going to solve California's energy problems just by pointing fingers at the big, bad president, as he sees him.

BROWNSTEIN: Absolutely. And that is really the thin line here they have to be careful of not crossing. I think it does assert leadership and does seems like leadership in the state to be actively advancing the cause of your state through any means necessary at the federal level. But you can't seem politically as though you're simply trying to blame someone else for the problem. You have to be seen as doing everything you can at home.

You know, he says they recently signed this law establishing a public power authority there in California that is going to try to control some power through the state and doing variety of other things. But that is the balance, Daryn. You're right. They're having to be careful of not crossing it.

KAGAN: And with these fighting words, is it true the governor is working with some old P.R. buddies of President Clintons?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. People who were actually Al Gore's -- both President Clinton and Al Gore, Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane have been brought in. And, look, they're talking about petitioning the FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to get their price controls. They're not going to get them there.

They're talking about going to court if they don't get it through there. They're talking about going to the Senate if they don't get it through there. They may not get what they want through any of those venues. But what they will get is a sustained story of Gray Davis pushing for solutions at the federal level, what he foresees as solutions, and the president saying no. And that I think is something that they are very much looking forward to in 2002 campaign, where I bet they run as much against George Bush and the energy companies in Texas as they do whoever is the Republican in the line against him.

KAGAN: Well, meanwhile, looking at today, the president has moved on to one of the prettiest places in California, and that's a tough tag to win in such a beautiful state, Sequoia National Park. And he's going to talk about the environment.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. Well, what he did during campaign, I was with him during the campaign where in Washington state I believe -- where he put out an initiative to increase spending on maintenance in national parks trying to pick out an area, as a challenger often does, where he felt the incumbent president, in that case Clinton, had a weak record and promising to do better. And I think this is one of the things he is going to be talking about today.

They have been very sensitive since March when they repealed or rolled back a series of Clinton executive orders and regulatory initiatives -- arsenic, the Kyoto treaty -- trying to avoid the impression that they are simply sacrificing the environment. And they will continue to throughout his presidency look for ways to try to reach out to environmentalists.

Yet, the larger point is that with their energy plan, they brought a very big and sustained confrontation with the environmental community. And really, no matter what you do in the national parks, you're not going to make that go away.

KAGAN: But it will make for some pretty pictures, if nothing else. Ron Brownstein in Washington, thank you so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

KAGAN: Thanks for being with us. And we expect to hear more from President Bush and see him in Sequoia National Park sometime in the next hour.

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