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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kevin Rose who wrote (132858)	3/22/2001 2:52:09 PM
From: Gordon A. Langston	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

3) CA got into this mess by not allowing powerplants to be built. BS again. Who is the real 'villan' here? The power companies (to our politician 'village idiots'). The power companies have manipulated the system to get what they want; higher prices and profits and less regulation. How did they do it? Mysterious plant 'shutdowns' that sparked the first shortages, followed by reselling their own 'out of state' power back to CA at 10 to 20 times the regulated price. The shortages forced Gov Davis to rescind the restrictions on PG&E and Edison to buy power on the spot market, causing them to build up huge debt (and corresponding huge profits at Duke, Calpine, etc). PG&E and Edison ruined their credit, ran out of money, and stopped paying their suppliers. The smaller suppliers (the ones that this 'free deregulated' market was supposed to foster) shut down their plants from lack of payment; the larger ones further raised their prices. With Bush in office, the power companies have become very bold; they know that 'business-friendly Bush' will do nothing to stop the gouging. So, we are officially screwed. Say you had built a power plant and were not allowed to sign long-term contracts with utilities. Your delivery of power would be sporadic and planning would be baseless. I dare say you would chose to mitigate the situation by getting the highest price you could for the occasional calls from the utilities for your product. Eventually these situations are not mutually beneficial.

To: Kevin Rose who wrote (132858)	3/22/2001 2:53:56 PM
From: Roger A. Babb	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

Kevin, TVA would love to sell you some kwh, could do so at prices well under the $400 or so being paid on the exchange in California and TVA has a surplus currently. But TVA is prevented by law from shipping power west of the Mississippi because it would be "unfair" competition with the free market out there. I agree with your assessment of the situation. The small generators were forced out intentionally in order to limit competition. A de-regulation system that limits competition to a few large companies who are cooperating with each other to keep out other players and have unlimited pricing power is monopoly at its worst.

To: Kevin Rose who wrote (132858)	3/22/2001 3:05:15 PM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769667

>>CA ranks 47th in per capita power consumption (that means that 46 states 'waste' more power than we do). Wrong. It means you have a more moderate climate. >>Most Califorians are doing whatever we can to further conserve Wrong, at least in the aggregate. Power consumption has not dropped - because of the caps. >>BS. It was Gov Wilson, a staunch Rep, who pushed this mess on us. In a compromise with the Dem legislature. The reason was that moves by the Dems in the late 1970's had made the utilities basket cases - they were saddled with huge debts from canceled plants and CA was paying electricity rates well above their neighbors. And everything Davis and the Dem Legislature has done since has made the mess worse. >>The power companies have manipulated the system to get what they want; higher prices and profits and less regulation. What! The prices are below market - they are losing money to the point of insolvency and regulation is as bad - or worse - as ever. If that's what they wanted then they deserve to go bankrupt.