You need to get your facts right. The crisis hit before
Bush was even in the Whitehouse. Crisis was already a
full-blown disaster before January 2001, or did you just
conveniently forget that after the election Clinton was
still in charge?>>
Bullshit.
I was here, and following it daily.
The problems did start before January 2001. But the crisis hit between January and May 2001. The manipulators started really jacking the system after the 2000 elections when they knew Bush was coming in, and what they could be assured his stance would be with FERC (hands off). That's when El Paso was pinching off the gas supply and the providers were exercising market power at the most extreme. All backed by the inaction of FERC and Bush and Cheney saying it was California's problem, too bad. When they came to them to get FERC to do its job, they refused.
Look at charts of daily plant closures during this period, and how they skyrocketed way beyond historical norms during this very late 2000/early 2001 period (I followed these closely on the ISO site). That's what created the artificial shortages during the winter time of low energy demand, combined with El Paso's gas withholding tricks and all the Enron type market manipulations.
The providers are now admitting left and right what they did. FERC refused to enforce its charter to ensure just and reasonable rates until the new Senate forced their hand. Davis was the only one looking out for California while it was getting raped. He could have done a few things earlier, but Wilson and the energy co's. set the stage for the plunder that followed. It wasn't Davis's job to be an expert in the tricks of illicit energy market manipulation when it took experienced investigators an entire year to uncover evidence held as confidential by energy companies, to figure it out and prove it later. Wendy Gramm and the Commodities regulating board helped ensure that there wouldn't be transparency in the energy derivatives market, which Enron used to conduct its illegal schemes.
California had ample energy production capacity at the time. The spot market would have worked if the energy providers and marketers hadn't gamed the system to artificially choke off supply, with the exception of a few hot days in the summer of 2000 and Spring of 2001, before caps were instituted. Perhaps Davis's lack of signing the long term contracts earlier was due to the fact that he'd never worked inside a den of snakes like Enron before to understand how they manipulated and lied under the cover of secret dealings ?
I've been over this ground regularly in the past. You need to review the facts in greater detail, not fall back on this "it started before 2001" stuff. It's where it was going and how it culminated in 2001 that mattered. It's like saying Bush should have prevented 9/11 because he knew terrorists had tried to attack the WTC before, and it could happen again. |
