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

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (517)	6/14/2001 12:33:24 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1715

Hi Hawkmoon, Re: What the state has effectively done is told their traders that they are not able to buy long-term, but only on the spot market (until recently anyway). You're a little unclear on the wording of A.B. 1890. As is everyone except for about a dozen extremely bright and focused utility lawyers and MBAs. The law stated that the utilities, PG&E (the busted subsidiary, not the parent trust), SCE and SDG&E had to buy power on the spot or day-ahead markets and were prevented by statute from establishing long term contracts. Add to this the insane requirement that all power generators be paid at the price that the highest bidder at an moment was receiving and you have an absolute recipe for the disaster that has befallen the benighted citizens of California. As far as public power is concerned, I'm a huge fan. We've all been at this movie before. FDR established the TVA and BPA in the '30's because private utilities only believe in cherry picking. And this year, the cherry is the California state rainy-day fund. It would be very instructive for you and others on the thread to inform yourselves of Sam Insull and his electrical empire. He was very active throughout the 1920's and established one of the greatest private utilities the country had seen up until that time. He went to prison for fraud. A fate that Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, Jim Donnell and a few others richly deserve. I think it is important for you to remember who wrote A.B. 1890. Consumer advocacy groups, such as T.U.R.N. were completely excluded from the private sessions where the bill was crafted. There was no "sunshine" law applied. The utility industry lawyers wrote everything into the bill they could possibly get away with. Stranded costs? That cost the California ratepayer an extra $28 Billion to pay for idiotic management decisions. Force everyone into the spot market? Anyone in the world who saw the power "wheeling" operation up in Roseville in the mid '90's knew how prone to manipulation such a system was. Yet, that is exactly what the law demanded. The "crisis" in California's energy market is actually the culmination of an extremely sophisticated plan. My hat's off to the energy cowboys. They snookered the State of California and 24 million of its citizens. Should we let them get away with it? You probably say yes. I say no. Calling for an "end to the trading" is tantamount to calling for complete nationalization of the power infrastructure by the US or California governments. And we know how efficient governments are managing enterprises, don't we now?? FDR was right in 1932, and David Freeman, former head of LADWP and now Gov. Davis energy "czar" is right today. Free market approaches to a critical utility like electricity, with so much of our civilization dependent upon it, should not be in the hands of private profiteers and rape artists. -Ray

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (517)	6/14/2001 2:43:01 PM
From: Quincy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1715

"And we know how efficient governments are managing enterprises, don't we now??" I think we do. The Los Angeles utility is sitting pretty smug right now and has unique access to power generated by federal efforts like Hoover Dam. Other examples of municipal utilities are in and around Chicago and Seattle, all of which have been operating on a non-profit basis for decades to benefit their residents. The drive for municipal utilities are a direct result of having city and county budgets plundered by energy conglomerates. The idea is certainly being discussed in southern California by County officials to the displeasure of Sempra. Why? To prevent this>>> uniontribune.com uniontribune.com With friends like private Utilities, who needs enemies? uniontribune.com "SDG&E used long-term contracts to buy power at one price then sell the electricity to consumers at a much higher rate. The disputed windfall accumulated over several months, as SDG&E used long-term contracts to buy power at one price then sell the electricity to consumers at a much higher rate. Customers were billed the larger of the two costs, a practice SDG&E parent Sempra Energy said was appropriate even though SDG&E has insisted for months that under deregulation it merely distributes power. "Shareholders deserve to make money on contracts that they took the risk for," said company spokesman Ed Van Herik, who was unable to specify how much electricity is bought and sold under the agreements. Then, there is Duke uniontribune.com

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (517)	6/14/2001 8:56:14 PM
From: Ron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1715

(CBS) While the Bush administration cites a lack of refineries for energy shortages, internal oil industry documents show that five years ago companies were looking for ways to cut refinery output to boost profits. It takes about four years to build a large refinery so any substantial additional new capacity from new plants would have had to begin by the mid-1990s, energy experts acknowledge. Internal documents from some of America's biggest oil companies suggest higher prices at the pump may, in part, be a result of a deliberate strategy to limit domestic gasoline production, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who has been investigating oil prices for two years obtained the documents. cbsnews.com "These documents say point blank, look if you really want to boost your profits, you have to reduce refinery capacity," said Sen. Wyden. "This industry went to great lengths to limit refinery capacity, control markets, restrict supply to boost their profits, increase costs to consumers, and then argue we should relax environmental laws."