Power Crisis: Miller Brewing One of Many Southern California Companies Suffering from Rolling Blackouts
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is giving California's troubled utilities another two-week reprieve, extending an emergency order requiring energy suppliers to do business with them. After that, says the White House, they'll be on their own. California remains under a stage-3 power alert, with rolling blackouts still possible. Joining us now from Irwindale, California, CNN national correspondent Martin Savidge. Martin, where exactly are you?</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jeanne, we are at the Miller Brewing Company, which is located about 30 miles to the east of Los Angeles. Most of Southern California has managed to avoid the problems with rolling blackouts, due to a number of complicated reasons. But many businesses in this area have still suffered as a result of the power emergency in this state. Miller Brewing Company, like about 1200 other companies across the state of California, signed on to what are called interruptible service contracts a number of years ago. Basically, they said they were willing to shut down their use of power in times of an emergency. In return for that, they got greatly reduced rates on their electricity bills. Things were working out pretty well for this company for the first five years, only one shutdown. In the last six months, though, they have been shutdown as many as 25 times, and that puts a great crimp into an operation that goes 24 hours a day. They have now laid off their second shift; that is 160 people. The cost, they estimate now, for this company running in the millions of dollars; 40 percent of their production has been moved out of state as a result. And they say they just simply cannot continue to operate under these circumstances. In fact, it was estimated that, at the end of last week in California, with the rolling blackouts and the power interruptions that the cost of business was $1.7 billion. Some people think that is a very conservative estimate. And, again, the citizens and the business operators in this state say it cannot continue. They also warn that California has not only the largest economy in the United States, but one of the largest in the world. They fear that if the power problems here trigger the state into some sort of recession, it will only be the beginning, and that it could ripple across the rest of the nation. That's how serious they see it here -- Jeanne.</s>MESERVE: Martin Savidge, in California, thank you.