Bill, OT *** CA energy
If you go back to 1997 and read some of the PG&E news releases they are almost giddy with delight at the opportunities opened up to them with energy deregulation.
excerpt from a 1997 PG&E press release
>Skinner said, "Our strategic view is firmly focused on the future. On a new beginning. On positioning PG&E Corporation to succeed in highly competitive energy markets in California, North America, Australia and -- selectively -- in other parts of the world."
PG&E Corporation is making "significant progress" with that strategy, particularly in the company's gas transmission, marketing, and trading businesses. To this end, the corporation is building one of the largest gas marketing operations in the nation and during the past 12 months acquired two Texas companies, TECO Pipeline Company and Energy Source Inc., and has announced its intention to acquire a third, Valero Natural Gas Company, the gas services arm of Valero Energy Corporation, of San Antonio.
Skinner said PG&E Corporation also has moved into the promising Australian energy market, with the acquisition last year of the Queensland state gas pipeline. "We continue to identify and evaluate additional energy opportunities in Australia and elsewhere around the globe," he said.<
pgecorp.com
No complaints at all here. Maybe they should have concentrated on CA where they started out.
Also I think it is way premature to praise Bush for the energy policy. Let's see how well it has worked out in 2 - 3 years. When deregulation started in CA in 1996 we heard about the advantages of it and the savings to consumers to come. And don't forget that a federal agency encouraged it all.
Today PG&E welcomes the Bush plan and states
>``However, in terms of providing immediate assistance in getting electricity prices down to just and reasonable levels, we continue to believe that FERC must stabilize the Western market this summer through circuit breakers, price caps, or cost-based rates, such as proposed in the bipartisan bill by Senators Feinstein (D-CA) and Smith (R-OR). We look forward to continuing to work with the Administration on this, and many other elements of the energy crisis.''<
biz.yahoo.com
This whole energy issue is far more complex than just Republicans vs Democrats.
Gottfried |
