Gray Davis Quotes

Duke came to us. They volunteered to come to us and made a number of suggestions to some people on my staff. I don’t know how I would characterize them, but there have been some discussions going back and forth between Duke and members of my staff.

Meanwhile, people have to join us and fight back against the federal government that has dropped the ball, that is in bed with these energy companies, that wants them to make more money than they’ve made before.

I don’t know why they’re doing it. I have to assume that their motives are positive, not negative. But they don’t understand the severity of the problem in this state.

Well, we’re trying to patch and fix and put a cast on a broken system here. You can call it what you want, but we’ll continue to purchase power in a private market.

I am calling on everyone in this state to put the chaos and the division of the recall behind us and do what’s right for this great state of California.

I’m doing my part, building plants at a record rate, having historic conservation levels. The only people not doing their part is the federal government that is siding with the energy companies against the interests of the people of California.

I don’t know if I would do this if I had to start over again.

We’re not going to take this sitting down. We are fighting back.

Here is my general approach to the energy companies. You have already charged the utilities a 50 percent credit penalty for the power they were buying from you. You’re charging us a penalty. You’re not going to get two bites of the apple here.

Why? Because we’re very well down this process as it is – flawed as it is – and we’re counting on getting more power plants on line by the end of 2003 so we have a surplus of power.

So it was flawed in that it didn’t require California to have a first claim on the power plants. It deregulated part of the market, but not all of the market.

I know that Duke made a number of demands, including that the attorney general drop its investigation. We have no intention of asking the attorney general to do that.

We’re going to march on Washington with a host of Republicans, Democrats, business leaders, legislators.

I have not been briefed.

We believe you will not have to pay more than the current rate structure proposes – which is, for 50 percent of the public, nothing; for another 25 percent, only a 10 percent increase; and for the remaining 25 percent, a 34 percent increase.

My vision is to make the most diverse state on earth, and we have people from every planet on the earth in this state. We have the sons and daughters of every, of people from every planet, of every country on earth.

There’s no question that California, in the last three or four years, has been privileged to add disproportionately to the economic growth of America, and to contribute to its technological productivity.

As the governor of this state, I obviously see the issue quite differently.