California: Davis seizes on FERC report, but full story is more complex

The Sacramento Bee ^ | Sunday, March 30, 2003 | Dan Walters

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

These aren't, one might say, the best of times for Gray Davis. His approval ratings are in the cellar, he faces a potential recall election, and he's wrestling with the largest budget deficit in the history of any state.

Not surprisingly, therefore, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission declared last week that energy traders had manipulated, or at least tried to manipulate, California's convoluted electric power market in 2000 and 2001, Davis seized on it with almost desperate intensity.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And Dan weighs in with some good observations!

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[Dog Gone]

Walters actually lets Davis off easy. The mistakes Davis made have been well-chronicled here at FR.

[lilylangtree]

Davis made some colossal mistakes but it didn't help to have Enron, Avista, Portland Gas, El Paso and other power companies creating more of a mess and gouging the California consumer. I posted an earlier article (10:54 a.m. PST) that appeared in today's local paper entitled "Judge wants more detail on Avista trades" dealing with Washington's Avista's part in the California energy crisis that might be informative to you.

[Lancey Howard]

Not a bad report by Walters but he omitted a critical consideration:

If there had been ample supply in the market, it would have been impossible to play these games," FERC Chairman Patrick Wood observed as the report was released..... Davis had nothing to do with the flawed California utility plan or the lag in creating new generation and transmission capacity, both of which emerged before his governorship began.

The fact is, there was not enough supply because the enviro-nazis (who, together with the trial lawyers and the education mafia, own California's Democrat Party) would simply not allow new generation and transmission capacity. These are Davis's people - - his and his party's supporters.

Sorry Dan, Davis is a socialist scumbag and he bears at least as much blame for the energy mess in California as anybody. Keep at it though, Dan, you're getting there, and I have high hopes....

[Amerigomag]

And Dan weighs in with some good observations!

Walters would have had to step over an elephant to avoid his observations.

Walter's first observation: The FERC report noted that an "underlying supply-demand imbalance and flawed market design combined to make a fertile environment for market manipulation." was a nobrainer since it was the the first cause listed in the report summary.

Anybody who feels that the FERC primarily blamed the power regulators simply didn't read the report.

The report was a scathing critisim of California's regulatory process.