GO SIMON
Posted on 05/20/2002 2:52:22 PM PDT by snopercod
WASHINGTON -- California was asking for it?
That seemed to be the tone of statements last week from House and Senate Republicans claiming that California left itself vulnerable to exploitation by Enron and other energy companies by creating an unsound electricity system.
"Enron may have taken advantage of the weaknesses in the California program, but California only has itself to blame for creating a flawed system in the first place," Sen. Frank Murkowski, leading Republican on the Senate Energy Committee said this week.
Similarly, a spokesman for Rep. George Radanovich, R-Fresno, has said Enron officials were merely "more savvy" and "outfoxed" Davis' appointees to the Independent System Operator.
Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio said, "It's outrageous that congressional Republicans would say 'It's your problem.'"
"The law was flawed," Maviglio acknowledged of the 1996 act that deregulated California's markets.
But, he said, Enron and other companies "took advantage of a flawed law illegally."
Murkowski spokesman Joe Brenckle said his boss was not using blame-the-victim tactics.
"I don't think he was specifically singling out California as the only part of the problem," Brenckle said. "Enron needs to take responsibility. At the same time, there were decisions that made things worse."
Meanwhile, Democrat senators used the recent hearings on Enron's California memos to poke fun at the bankrupt company.
When one Enron attorney noted that the company made every effort to preserve documents and removed every shredder from the firm's Portland office, where its questionable trading practices originated, Sen. Brian Dorgan, D-N.D., shot back, "One wonders whether they were taken to Houston."
[large snip of other issues: Medicaid, Salmon, Social Security fraud, legal costs for government agencies]
You can contact Lisa Friedman by phone at (202) 662-8731 or e-mail her at lisafriedman@angnewspapers.net
This from a man who purchased a still-undisclosed number of Calpine shares in June, 2001 while he was busy giving them contracts.
One can only hope that he hung onto them...
Now how the heck can you do that?
Inquiring minds want to know!
What the hell is the IQ level in the Governor's office?
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Enviros have tried to stop construction of a large plant in Blythe, and have been actively trying to shut down plants in the Bay area, and in the LA basin. In the middle of the blackouts, they were doing this.
Despite the fact that they propose wind farms everytime a real plant is proposed, enviros oppose wind energy, and have fought to stop every wind project.
When a plant is going down for maintenance, power companies buy replacement power through brokers, usually at very high prices, for the few hours or days the plant is going to be down. The high cost normally doesn't matter, as it is only a short-term expense. But in California, due to its own silliness, they were forced to buy large amounts of power at short-term prices, and then blamed the brokers for their own incompetence.
They can sell this story to their constituents, who want to believe. But in the real world where energy is produced, plants built, or not built, their whining is just embarrassing.
Excuse me, but it occurs to me that every contract the State of California enters into is checked, and rechecked, with Legal Counsel to avoid the kind of thing Davis' spokesman is charging here. I don't know whether Enron illegal ripped off California on energy prices, but it's fair to say that California authorities (principally in the Governor's office) were grossly negligent to enter into a contract that ripped the state off.
Ernest, better put marron on your bump list.
Please don't bother the Governor just right now. He is out fundraising. It should be noted though that if you happen to have a couple of hundred thousand dollars to donate to his re-election, he can probably be persuaded to take your call.
The analogy to Clinton is appropriate, except for the total lack of personality. That could be forgiven, but he steals. I think a profile is in order.
I just posted two more articles on possible cancellation of power plant construction.
Sacramento and Hayward!
Especially when you consider that Enron itself sold a grand total of 200 MwH of electricity to the state (for a total of $57,000).
Other reports have Enron, plus its subsidiaries, responsible for a massive 4% (that would be four per cent) of the power sold to California.
Thus, the prostrate Enron profited little from the Cal Power Crisis. But, discredited and unable to defend itself, is became a convenient political scapegoat for Gov. Doofus and his cronies.
The media seem somehow incapable of discovering this information. Or, if they have, find it impossible to comprehend.
You are making the gross assumptions that politicians are elected in this state by an actual count of ballots cast, that only one vote per voter is allowed, and that voters must be citizens (or breathing) at the time of the election.
You're right, we had Republican Governors for 16 consecutive yrs before Dufus. It was a Republican Governor and a Republican Assembly Speaker that gave us the "flawed" (to say the least) system to start with....
But don't take my word for it.
"Blame, hell," said Pete Wilson. "I take credit for having been the driving force to launch deregulation."The former governor, 67, watches from private life as old rivals rake his political legacy across a landscape of rolling blackouts, PG&E bankruptcy and billowing power bills that threaten to capsize the state's economy.
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"I will not pretend to you that (the legislation) was a perfect, free-market mechanism. It wasn't. I knew that at the time. I signed it knowing that," said Wilson. "I thought whatever flaws would emerge ... they would be addressed by our successors."
You and I may not understand this common attraction of losers, but Davi$ does. He'll vanquish that damnable multi-millionaire Simon who has never felt the pain and anguish of being a victim of having to do things the hard way all the time like Gray's doing so desperately!!! (grin)
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