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Pastimes : The California Energy Crisis - Information & Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DavesM who wrote (440)	6/11/2001 3:32:33 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 1715

Hi DavesM, The one statement that I found stunning is this (I don't know if it is true though)..."A governor can forsee the emergency and exercise his extraordinary powers to prevent it. He is not required to wait and compel California to suffer it." With 20-20 hindsight, I think a lot of folks would conclude that (in terms of preventing the outrages of the market) Davis should have seized the IPPs last summer. However, the political fallout from such an act would have assured Davis of his political death. The citizenry wouldn't understand what they would be spared of, industry would be sniffy about abusive state power and the Texas crowd would be howling to high heaven along with their toadies at Cato, American Spectator, National Review, etc. So, instead of falling on his sword, Davis let the $7 B annual electricity bill for California skyrocket to what is now calculated to be at least five times that amount, with estimates ranging as high as $50 Billion. Did Davis fail the State? Probably. Could he have played the game differently? Not by much, he's in a pretty constrained fishbowl. )..."A governor can forsee the emergency and exercise his extraordinary powers to prevent it. He is not required to wait and compel California to suffer it." I find this statement gratuitous and self serving. Sorry. If I were governor, I might, as an outrageous example, decide that the regularly recurring earthquakes on the San Andreas fault presented a clear and present danger to the infrastructure of the State and the lives of its citizens. I'd order that the entire LA and Bay Area populations be moved immediately to Nevada. Thus relieving California of tremendous risk of loss. I believe this rhetorical device is called reducto ad absurdum.... Best, Ray :)