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The Associated Press 

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis proposed a smorgasbord of solutions for California’s electricity crunch Monday in a State-of-the-State speech that also focused on improving schools and expanding health care for the poor. 

His answers to the state’s power woes included possible formation of a public power authority to buy and build new power plants and using eminent domain to take over plants to “prevent generators from driving consumers into the dark and utilities into bankruptcy.” 

“Make no mistake,” he said in his toughest language yet on the state’s power crisis. “We will regain control over the power that’s generated in California and commit it to the public good.” 

The Democratic governor’s third annual address to the Legislature included proposals to expand teacher training, lengthen middle-school students’ academic year and provide health care for low-income parents. 

But a proposed fix for California’s power crisis was the centerpiece of his 35-minute speech. 

Davis said the state’s venture into a gradually deregulated electricity market had been a “colossal and dangerous failure” that has left consumers facing the prospect of huge rate increases and two giant investor-owned utilities predicting bankruptcy. 

“It has not lowered consumer prices and it has not increased supply,” Davis said. “In fact, it has resulted in skyrocketing prices, price-gouging and an unreliable supply of electricity. In short, an energy nightmare.” 

Doug Heller, a consumer advocate who has been one of the governor’s biggest critics on energy issues, praised Davis’ threat to use eminent domain and his call for a public power authority. 

But he said the governor also should have proposed an excess profits tax on power generators to repay consumers for rate hikes. 

Tom Williams, a spokesman for Duke Energy, a major power wholesaler, said that seizing plants and creating a state power authority would “do nothing to produce power.” Williams said earlier that Duke would fight any attempt to take over its power plants. 

“California needs to increase supply and as rapidly as possible,” he said. “We’re willing to develop any kind of solutions to increase supply and anything that can be done to reduce demand.” 

Davis asked lawmakers to: 

— Earmark $1 billion in the state budget to help stabilize electricity prices and provide generate additional power and spend $4 million to allow the attorney general to investigate whether suppliers manipulated prices. 

— Restructure the boards that manage the state’s power grid and overhaul a “crazy bidding process for electricity.” 

— Make it easier for utilities to buy electricity through long-term contracts to stabilize prices. 

— Give the state the power to order power plants down for unscheduled maintenance to go back on line and to make it a crime to deliberately withhold power from the state grid if it results in an imminent threat to public health or safety. 

— Require California utilities to hold on to their remaining power plants and sell their power in California instead of out of state. 

— Provide low-interest financing to build more power plants designed to be used during periods of high demand and to “repower” existing ones to make them cleaner and more efficient, and provide state-owned lands to site more generating facilities. 

But Davis said the state had to go further than building new plants. 

“The time has come to take control of our own energy destiny,” he said. 

That will require a joint-powers authority made up of the state and California’s 30 municipal utilities or a state power authority “that can buy and build new plants,” Davis said. 

He asked consumers to cut electricity consumption by at least 7 percent and urged lawmakers to allocate $250 million for cash incentives to encourage consumers to replace inefficient refrigerators, washers and air conditioners. 

He said the state would cut consumption by at least 8 percent and by 20 percent during serious electricity shortages. 

On education, Davis proposed adding 30 days to middle schools’ academic year, expanding training for reading and math teachers and school principals and vice principals and spending $30 million a year to beef up algebra instruction. 

Barbara Kerr, vice president of the California Teachers Association, the state’s larger teachers’ union, said Davis’ training proposals were good and his plan for longer middle-school academic year was interesting. 

Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, said extra classroom time would be “voluntary for everybody but the kid. If I was a kid I wouldn’t like it much,” he said. 

Davis also said he was forming a task force led by his education secretary, Kerry Mazzoni, and actor-director Rob Reiner, chairman of the California Children and Families Commission, to develop a school readiness initiative for young children. 

On health care, Davis said he was asking for a federal waiver to expand the Healthy Families program, which now serves 375,000 children, to also cover 290,000 low-income working parents. 

Davis said California’s economy is still “fundamentally strong” despite increasing signs of an economic slowdown nationally. 

But he said the state could “no longer expect short-term stock-market windfalls or $10 billion budget surpluses.” 

“Fiscal restraint is more important than ever,” he said. 

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On the Net: 

www.governor.ca.gov