By stronger actions I mean getting to the bottom of price spikes, when consumption figures clearly showed there was no consumption spike. That was a fraud. The state AG should have impounded records and treated it as a possible criminal matter immediately when consumption delta vs wsle costs and transmission congestion deltas showed such divergence.
Also, when a utility fundamental to the economy and well-being of the state cries "bankruptcy" there is an opportunity to use create an emergency public-private partnership to offer to acquire in the open market the assets, for later disposition once the crisis stabilizes. Even just the offer to do so changes the entire strategy of a PG&E-type company, making more difficult to declare assets nearly worthless, when a new entity says "we'll take it at the nearly-worthless price you say it is". That offer was made, but not as forcefully as it could.
Lastly, the trends of power usage didn't justify long-term prices. This is armchair quarterbacking, tho', and I didn't mean to imply any of the above is meant to be some sort of guarantee. What mainly irked me was the lack of information provided to Davis, and the lack of forcefulness used to get the data from companies that were clearly seen to be (a)holding citizens hostage and (b)making zillions in the process, proving that it was a control and delivery, not fundamental cost issue. |
