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

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (475)	6/14/2001 4:44:53 AM
From: portage	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1715

What rubbish, Hawkmoon. Closed plants brought down 3 times as much as the previous peak out of service mw from the past 3 years, and almost 5 times as much as the normal average (15,000 mw down in April 2001 vs. 3,000 average and 6,000 peak pre-lifting of wholesale caps in Fall 2000). This all started right about the time the spot market wholesale caps were lifted. Then FERC does nothing to adhere to its 'just and reasonable' prices mandate but bow to its pals' political contributers. So bringing the plants down is always good for them ? Insiders don't say so.... sfgate.com Power juggling ramped up price Insiders say manipulation also strained equipment Christian Berthelsen, Scott Winokur, Chronicle Staff Writers Sunday, May 20, 2001 Large power companies have driven up electricity prices in California by throttling their generators up and down to create artificial shortages, according to dozens of interviews with regulators, lawyers and energy industry workers. ............ No manipulation ? NATURAL GAS: Experts says market probably fixed sfgate.com Memo suggests Texas firm manipulated gas market sfgate.com California has about 45% of its supply in long term contracts, contrary to your statement. The light starts shining on the gouger boys, and all of a sudden thousands of mw come back on line, Californians reduce consumption by 11% in a fit of "personal virtue" BEFORE any rate hike, suddenly the manipulated supply shortage vanishes, and you're telling us the only thing that will work is to let the "free" market charge unlimited gamed rates ? NFW. Simply put, Econ 101, so misquoted here, now has to compete with Anti-Trust 101 and Political Science 101. A new wind's blowing in Washington, and it's California that decides when to evoke emergency powers, not AES and Enron. 50 million consumers getting primed by a small number of gougers, gamers, and manipulators can only be pushed so far before they crush these clowns against the ceiling. Who do you think these guys may want to share a cell with ? Think California grand juries are going to be sympathetic to them ? dailynews.yahoo.com ``There is a growing body of evidence that may give the attorney general the opportunity to proceed with criminal as well as civil actions,'' Here's the story of how Mr. free market Pete Wilson himself got us into this mess. I say we strap him onto a buckboard and run him out of town. Maybe Texass would be a good place for idiots like him. sacbee.com "The Governor's Office was considering whether to let the Energy Commission file an official dissent with federal regulators, who had to OK the plan, when Chandley set off on a business trip to Massachusetts. Changing planes in Dallas, he stopped at a pay phone to check in with his office and got the word: Wilson's office had ruled there would be no dissent. Within a week, Chandley quit. Federal regulators later accepted the California plan. As William Massey, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, recalls: "Essentially, we deferred to the market plan that was handed us." So, FERC was complicit in accepting Wilson's ramroded faulty plan, but refuses to take action that they're chartered to in order to correct the mistakes they helped set up. It now looks like they may be starting to wise up, come Monday. If not, the pot will boil over.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (475)	6/14/2001 11:41:52 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1715

Hi Hawkmoon, I have to concur with portage about your views of shutting down generators on a whim. What utter rubbish. And as to the notion that the State of California needs more devious trading skills?? Good grief. What we need is an end to the trading. Can't we just face up to the obvious here? That trading is causing the gross imbalances in the market and is no solution to getting power to where it is needed, at fair and reasonable prices, but is only a self-serving tools for rampant speculation. I do not begrudge producers of power the right to make a profit. But I strongly resent the obscene profits that are being raked off the West Coast at the price of destroying small business and stripping consumers of their meager savings. And for what? So that Ken Lay at ENE can enjoy a $123 million stock options windfall last year? Stop the victimization. There is a sickness afoot in America, and the executive class is getting so rapacious and greedy that even one of their media "tools", Fortune magazine is holding its nose and pointing out how obviously destructive, imbalanced and grossly unfair our current corporate system has become: fortune.com So, Hawkmoon, unless you are an executive with copious stock options, or one of their toadies, I'm wondering why you are carrying their water? What's in it for you? Best, Ray