Sunday, June 20, 2004

New York's governor examines the High Desert's power base

 

By LARRY RAND/Staff Writer

VICTORVILLE — In a whirlwind three-hour tour Saturday afternoon, Gov. George Pataki of New York inspected two area energy plants and gave a rousing speech to scores of officials from around the Victor Valley.

The governor arrived by private jet at Southern California Logistics Airport from Orange County, where he's helping Republicans raise money. The Lincolnesque governor, a former mayor of Peekskill, began by speaking to a reception of more than 100 local officials and businessmen.

"I'm from a small town; Victorville is a bit too big for me," Pataki joked.

Pataki had befriended Mayor Terry Caldwell and entrepreneur Buck Johns at a New York City ceremony honoring the High Desert Power Project as the 2003 Power Plant of the Year. When Caldwell had jokingly suggested that Pataki visit, the New York governor said he would.

Voted an Energy Executive of the Year award in 2003, Pataki headed immediately for the High Desert Power Project, with press and reception guests in tow aboard buses. Constellation Energy management gave him a drive-around tour of the power plant, which burns more natural gas an hour "than the rest of the Victor Valley combined," according to the tour's ringmaster Johns, a developer of the High Desert plant.

A half-hour behind a tight schedule, Pataki's bus caravan headed for Highway 395 and the Kramer Junction solar/thermal plant only to encounter the San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies running a sobriety checkpoint on Air Expressway. Victorville City Manager Jon Roberts de-bussed and negotiated a prompt circumvention of the checkpoint with motorcycle escort, and the buses poked up Highway 395 to the solar generating station.

Pataki was clearly surprised and delighted as he took in the High Desert landscape, allowing that he hadn't expected as much vegetation and wondering about the age of the Joshua trees he saw for the first time.

Pataki also had numerous questions for the operators at the Kramer Junction plant, but Johns was adamant — "We gotta go!"

Pataki returned to the bus, where he stressed the importance of what he had seen.

"Energy independence is one of the most important issues facing the U.S.," he said. "It's an issue that touches on job creation, national security and eliminating our dependence on foreign countries."

Keeping America strong and free was a theme he echoed in a rousing speech to a dinner crowd at the SCLA fire station.

"I can't tell you that when I was a small town mayor in New York, I used to say, 'Lord, I hope some day I can go visit Victorville, California,'" he said with a smile. "But the High Desert is magnificent. It's a privilege to be here, and I promise you that I will come back and bring my wife Libby with me so she can see how beautiful it is."

Pataki strongly defended the New York response to the events of Sept. 11 and thanked Victorville firefighters for their help, drawing strong applause. He announced that Ground Zero was coming back "bigger and better than ever," and that he would lay the cornerstone there for the world's tallest building, a 1,776-foot skyscraper, on July 4.

Then the man from Peekskill then jumped on the small jet and was gone.



Larry Rand can be reached at 951-6232 or larry_rand@link.freedom.com.