John Burton’s death is reminder to us all that you can be principled and thrive in politics.
John had the “Rage for Justice,” what his brother Phil’s biographer John Jacobs called a “seething, perpetual sense of outrage and dedication to the disenfranchised.”
He believed fiercely that standing on principle was the way to succeed:
“Do what you think is right and let the chips fall where they may.”
“Don’t try to be loved. Do your job. If you do it right, some people will like you and some people will hate you — and that’s politics.”
“If you don’t have the guts to lose, you don’t have the guts to lead.”
“Fight for what you believe in, not for what you think will pass.”
My group Consumer Watchdog worked closely with John in the wake of the failure of electricity deregulation in 2001 when the utilities and Wall Street were seeking a legislative bailout by ratepayers. Governor Davis and Speaker Hertzberg were on board, but not John, who knew deregulation was a boondoggle and ratepayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for it.
During the 2000-01 crisis, as Senate leader, Burton blasted deregulation as a “disaster” and said it was proof that essential services like electricity should never have been turned over to the market. Davis, Hertzberg, the utilities and the entire Wall Street financial establishment turned the heat up on John to allow a bailout that would make ratepayers pay. John stood his ground. “If the Senate doesn’t agree to a deal, there isn’t a deal,” he said, and there wasn’t.
Burton had strong opinions about the deregulation bill AB 1890 (under Governor Pete Wilson) that passed unanimously in 1996. Burton later described it as “a bill that should never have seen the light of day” and argued that lawmakers had been misled by utilities and energy companies that promised lower rates.
“It’s like owning the highway system… The power moves on the highways and if you own the system, you have better control over it,” Burton said in advocating state control of the grid. (Feb 8, 2001, LA Times)
Control over our grid has been in the hands of California political appointees ever since and out of the hands of the free market. In the last five days of the legislative session, you are likely going to be asked to vote on legislation reversing this California control of our electricity grid and turning control over to a regional organization run by regional market traders.
The group think that drove AB 1890 to pass unanimously is very much the same driving force behind the electricity deregulation scheme in the Western grid bill, the stalled SB 540. The Governor and Speaker both want the bill. The Senate put in critical guardrails that the backers now say they cannot live by – including state political control over whether California enters the regional organization in 2027, guaranteed right to withdrawal before entering, and maintenance of our state anti-price gouging laws.
If the guardrails come out, California will be at the whim of traders, like those who ran Enron, without the power to do anything about it.
If you want to see what that looks like just look to other regional markets. Regional markets in the East and New England, PJM and NISO, have experienced such huge increases in the price of electricity that a bi-partisan group of 9 governors are in open revolt. The governors cannot do anything more than write letters because they relinquished their political control.
Group think occurs when the desire for consensus outweighs critical evaluation. Both the Western Grid bill and AB 1890 were sold as free market, modernization/efficiency bills tied to green energy goals with the risks (weakened California authority, higher rates, job loss) downplayed. Both came in the last days of session without time for critical evaluation. Both have bipartisan support and big self-interested coalitions. Both were sold at the time as a consumer benefit to lower electricity rates.
Burton knew that electricity deregulation was BS, and just a way for traders to get California into a free market so they could make more money. Without guardrails on a Western grid, you are being asked to throw your constituents to the wolves.
Burton pushed for two key protections: 1) political control over the board of the electricity operator (which SB 540/Western Grid takes away) 2) a statute that imposes duties on the California market operator (the ISO) to minimize price and maximize supply, which evolved to Public Utilities Code Section 345.5(b), that the Western grid proposal also revokes. Passing the Western grid proposal would destroy key protections that Burton fought for and won after the debacle of the energy crisis.
When the bill comes to you, without time for review or time to amend, I hope you will think of John and do what he would do: figuratively raise your middle finger and refuse to vote.
