Special Report: Energy crisis built steam as officials mishandled it-- Sept 2001

The Sacramento Bee ^ | Published Sept. 23, 2001 | Dale Kasler, John Hill and Sam Stanton

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

It was May 22, 2000, when temperatures shot up and California's experiment with electricity started to implode.

As Sacramento topped out at 103 and Palm Springs hit 113, energy consumption in the state climbed 14 percent.

And energy prices went up more than 1,000 percent.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the archives of the Bee.

Some of the links still work for others go to the original article!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OK here it is!

I could not find where this had been posted before.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Calpowercrisis:

To find all articles tagged or indexed using Calpowercrisis, click below:
	click here >>>	Calpowercrisis	<<< click here
(To view all FR Bump Lists, click here)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Sorry about the double pings for some of you!

calgov2002:

calgov2002: for old calgov2002 articles. 

calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles. 

Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Nice to read thru the articles to remind us of the history of this mess!

Other links:

'Worst yet to come in state's power woes, experts say'(What Gov. Davis knew and when he knew it)

And this more recent article:

California in the Red

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I'll be out till this evening!

Have fun with this stroll down memory lane!

[Robert357]

Another historic bump, to share with newspaper reporters who think that the Cal Power Crisis is a "Republican/Enron" story.

Thank you

[d14truth]

Thank you, Ernest. If there is a 'smoking gun', this contains a huge amount of smoke, IMHO. When Loretta Lynch did the end-run around of the PUC 3-2 vote and got the Legislature(bureaucrats) to block the 'plan' of the PUC(experts?) and the DOOFUS then signed it with the 'budget bill' - he, the governor, became guilty and could no longer claim any exemption from knowledge of his errors, while he was fundraising instead of 'locking in' long-term energy rates. Everything that followed is 'moot'. The governor gambled his state away, and now he wants to be 'rewarded' with a 2nd term? He should be Lynched, with certain deferences to Loretta.

[d14truth]

It's ALL my fault!!!

What Davis, liberals, and other DOOFI will NEVER say.

[d14truth]

"We really missed the boat not getting things done in the fall," Alpert said. "There was almost no way to get people, including the governor, to deal with this issue when you couldn't convince people how bad it was going to be."

Price controls tend to 'hide' the problems of the market, for a while. Had the regulators and the legislators 'allowed' the market to operate, we'd have seen the high prices a year earlier, and, in noting them, would have voted a whole lot differently in California in 2000. My guess is that the 'politicians in office' at the time felt that 'covering their butts' to be the greater priority.

[okie01]

Thanks for finding a posting this article. An excellent and balanced summary of who did what to who and when.

Mostly, it turns out, it was Davis and his cronies doing it to the California taxpayers and ratepayers. All because he was so busy fund-raising he couldn't spare "twenty minutes to fix the problem".

There is no comparable example of gross mismanagement by a governor in any other state in the history of the United States. When it comes to abject incompetence, Governor Doofus can indeed raise his finger and claim to be "Number One".

And it's not like he wasn't warned...

[tubebender]

I could never understand,why didn't the ISO simply refuse to purchase power at those high prices and stick it to the middle men?

[d14truth]

"Everything appeared to be working smoothly by the time Davis inherited the system."

And, it probably would have continued to--under responsible leadership, i.e., long-term energy contracts and not 'riverboat gambling'.

IRRESPONSIBLE 'DOOFUS' and 'DOOFI'!!!

[d14truth]

"I could never understand,why didn't the ISO simply refuse to purchase power at those high prices and stick it to the middle men?"

I think DOOFUS insisted that the lights stay on, regardless of cost. The 'middlemen' had other markets, not quite as hurting for power as the world's 5th largest economy, or willing to pay as much, though.