Payroll Protection

Compromise in Congress needed to save small business

By Scott Ashton

Some of the best laws passed by Congress in the past decades, on issues like Social Security, taxes and welfare, were the result of input from and compromise between the two parties.

Now is time to put partisan politics aside and find compromise to help our small businesses.

As a member of the Save Small Business Coalition, the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce has been feverishly working behind the scenes to align our objectives to truly have an impact in what happens in Congress to support our business community.

Let’s get you caught up.

We remain in contact with the US Chamber of Commerce and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, joining their coalition of over 100 CEOs across the country calling on Congress to do more to help small business.

It is increasingly likely that that not one of the many bills that had been introduced or moved by either the House or Senate was going to survive as written.

Discussions now center around broad topics that are needed to be agreed upon by both sides. We are working to align with most attainable and effective items to help small businesses.

We have identified four areas that resonate within the various legislation.

Our primary focus and goal remains to push for legislation that quickly and effectively provides the assistance needed for our small businesses. The following are the four key areas that we are working to champion: larger percentage of operating expenses (which would include Personal Protection Equipment and employee protection costs) to be included in the forgivable expenses or extend the forgivable 24-week period to 11 months.

We believe in goodfaith certification for forgiveness of loans under $150k and PPP eligibility should be expanded to include 501(c)6 organizations of 300 or fewer employees. A second round of PPP loans with authorization for an additional $190 billion would benefit our business community.

2. Workforce Development

Provide a total of $1.3 billion through a combination of new and existing programs including $500 million for new State formula (60/40 Local/State) and $150 million Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) for adults, $150 million WIOA funding for dislocated workers, $150 million WIOA funding for youth, and $350 million for employment services.

3. Business Liability Protection

Congress must act to protect businesses from COVID-19 related exposure liability those entities that follow applicable federal, state or local government guidelines related to COVID-19.

Liability protection protects healthcare workers and facilities from medical liability claims arising out of the provision of COVID-19 care or other care affected by COVID-19 with an exception for gross negligence or willful misconduct.

4. Local Aid (state & local municipalities financial support)

Aid should be provided on a quarterly basis based on actual costs and revenue shortfall with an overall cap on funding.

Many localities require additional funding beyond what was provided in the CARES act to address increased costs and losses in revenue. The funding to local communities needs to be direct and flexible.

Business support does not need to be – and should not be — a partisan issue. It’s time to get things done.

This is not a comprehensive list but rather are primary focus areas that both parties should be agreeable to and that will help accomplish our goal to provide meaningful support to small businesses across the country and here in North San Diego County.

It is incumbent upon both parties to work together to fund meaningful support to our businesses, our communities, and our people.

Blackout blackmail behind mid-August power outages?

Never before in California’s long experience with power blackouts have systematic, preplanned outages been as short as the 20-minute to 30-minute electric shutdowns inflicted on about 3 million homes and businesses around the state in mid-August.

Without doubt these blackouts were preplanned. “(We will have) excessive weather conditions and a persistent shortage of electric supply for the California grid,” said a warning texted to electric customers hours ahead of the first outages.

There was a lot odd about this, aside from the short span of the blackouts. Gov. Gavin Newsom said later he didn’t learn of the shutdowns until just beforehand, adding they were caused by record-level heat. It’s unprecedented for any governor not to know well in advance. What’s more, while temperatures set records in some places, it wasn’t by much — a degree or two more than in the late summers of recent years.

And, as was noted on social media, myriad California homes feature solar panels; schools and most power-using businesses were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. So why any shortage? Trying to blame this on the gradual shift to renewable power from wind and sun, as President Trump did, explained nothing.

What really went on? It’s hard to be certain, in part because neither the Southern California Edison Co. nor the California Independent System Operator (CalISO), which runs the state’s electric grid, answered specific questions about how close to capacity several power plants operated during the shortages.

california focus

thomas d. elias

“This all looks highly suspicious,” said Bill Powers, a San Diego engineer expert on utility operations. The real cause of the problems that inconvenienced some customers, but never enough to produce much lawsuit liability, may have been a recent utility phenomenon known as “blackout blackmail.”

The Southern California Gas Co. used this tactic several times in the last few years to keep its Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility open in the hills above the Porter Ranch area of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley.

It needs the gas storage, SoCalGas claimed, to prevent blackouts in summer, when gas-fired power plants are sometimes at full strength. But most plants almost never approach capacity, and there were no actual blackouts while Aliso Canyon was virtually empty after its massive leaks starting in 2015.

So this was clearly blackmail, the nation’s biggest gas utility trying to scare customers and politicians into letting it keep a hazardous facility open.

The timing of the latest blackouts suggests a different sort of possible blackmail.

These outages began less than three weeks be fore the state Water Resources Control Board is due in early September to consider keeping open most of the generating units at four gas-fired powOcean water at Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Redondo Beach and Ormond Beach near Oxnard.

All had been set to close by year’s end, reducing greenhouse gases as part of California’s climate change strategy. But the state Public Utilities Commission earlier this year er plants cooled by Pacific

okayed a reprieve, moving plant closing dates back by anywhere from one to three years.

Together, affected units at the four facilities can produce 3,812 megawatts, far more than enough to make up the stated shortfall of less than 1,500 megawatts cited by CalISO during the blackouts. One megawatt powers one home for about 15 months.

No one will say whether the four plants operated near capacity on the blackout days. They usually run far below those levels: In 2018, the highest average load on any unit of the four plants was 10.1% of capacity at Alamitos Unit 3 in Long Beach.

Edison, CalISO and the plants’ owners, Virginia-based AES Corp. and Houston-based GenOn Energy Holdings, want the generating stations left open. The PUC said OK, as it usually does when utilities want something.

Because no one can or will say whether these plants operated near capacity before and during the latest outages, it’s impossible to be sure this episode aimed to intimidate the water quality board, which has the final say.

That’s why it’s a good thing Newsom quickly ordered an investigation, and why that investigation — unlike several others involving the PUC — must actually go forward rather than dying out quietly.

Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com.

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