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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Petz who wrote (134699)	3/21/2001 11:55:52 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1583379

Petz, To say that all of S. Cal. has cut back on power is BS. LA has barely cut anything, the simple reason being that Grey Davis has protected their electric rates from rising. No such protection in San Diego, where rates have tripled and consumption is down 20%. In addition, they were saying in the newscast that LA's power company financially was not suffering at all; that it is making $$$. I don't know why their situation is so different from the other utilities.....maybe they are able to raise rates or something. The funny part is that the Seattle station interviewed someone from the LA power company and asked him why the fountain was still lit.....at which point, he said he didn't know and would have to do something about it. The Seattle station plans to go back and check up to make sure they do. And then the Seattle Times checked out who were the biggest residential consumers of energy in Seattle and posted their names and the amount they consumed per year. The list read like something out of the Fortune 500...no B. Gates was not one of them.....he doesn't live in Seattle. Of course, everyone of the big users promised to reduce consumption and in turn, the Seattle Times promised to keep them to that vow. <g> FWIW, even though we are indirectly effected.. Seattle began voluntary conservation of energy since January. Last week, a drought emergency was declared and now mandatory water conservation is required as well. With all that, I am not sure what can be done to prevent a disaster this summer on the western grid. ted

To: Petz who wrote (134699)	3/21/2001 1:34:35 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1583379

Petz, Now this is the way LA normally handles such problems as energy shortages............. ____________________________________________________________ L.A. sues energy firms, claims price conspiracy By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES, March 20 (Reuters) - The city of Los Angeles sued three energy companies on Tuesday, claiming that they engaged in a "massive conspiracy" to eliminate competition and drive up prices, helping create California's power crisis. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, is the latest to charge that the spike in California natural gas prices stems from a 1996 deal between the Southern California Gas Co., San Diego Gas and Electric and El Paso Natural Gas. But a spokeswoman for Sempra Energy <SRE.N>, which owns Southern California Gas and San Diego Gas and Electric, said her company was "stunned" by the lawsuits and called the allegations false. "We're stunned that they would choose this route to express their frustration with the current energy crisis instead of seeking productive solutions," Sempra spokeswoman Denise King said. "These conspiracy theories have no basis in reality." Two lawsuits filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in December on behalf of individual plaintiffs, made similar charges and the state is also investigating the allegations on the orders of Gov. Gray Davis. The jump in state natural gas prices has been blamed for a huge rise in home heating bills and, because natural gas fuels about a third of the state's power plants, a sharp rise in power prices. The lawsuit by Los Angeles names as defendants Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas and Electric, both subsidiaries of Sempra, and various subsidiaries and affiliates of El Paso Corp. <EPG.N>. The city accuses the companies of engaging in unfair, unlawful and fraudulent business practices and violating the state's anti-trust laws. The lawsuit seeks civil penalties, damages and disgorgement of profits that could reach billions of dollars, City Attorney James Hahn told reporters. Hahn, who is running for Los Angeles mayor, said the three companies conspired during a 1996 meeting to eliminate competition in the natural gas market and discourage the building of new electricity generating plants in the state. "This not only led to the price-gouging of all natural gas consumers from homeowners to government to industry, but it contributed to the current electrical power crisis in California," he said. The lawsuit claims that -- prior to the 1996 meeting in Arizona -- Tenneco Inc. was considering two new pipelines, one from Canada and one from Arizona, to bring low-cost natural gas to California. Sempra spokeswoman King said the meeting had no negative impact on the price of natural gas and was instead convened to make sure that California consumers were not hit with higher prices. She said Sempra officials called Hahn to brief him on the facts of the matter and "firmly believe we can demonstrate" that the allegations in the lawsuit are not true. She said Hahn has not yet responded. "Today's energy challenges are not the result of any action taken by (the two gas companies) but are instead a direct result of unpredictable and temporary changes in the natural gas market," King said. She said those changes included a "huge" increase in demand in the Pacific northwest stemming from a drought there and an unusually cold winter. 21:09 03-20-01 Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited.