[okie01]

"Enron found legal ways to make money given the market rules that were in place and these strategies probably did influence prices somewhat," Wagner said.

Worth repeating.

California had bunch of amateurs trying to construct and operate an artificial energy market. And a bunch of pros made money off of them.

Where is the news in this?

[snopercod]

Where is the news in this?

IMO, this article is some of Lehane and Fabiani's best work. My spin meter went off scale high!

• THE SPIN: Two days of rolling blackouts in June 2000 that marked the beginning of California's energy crisis were directly caused by manipulative energy trading,

  THE REALITY: Actually, twenty years anti-growth "era of limits/soft path" politics and byzantine utility regulation in California resulted in California failing to build the power plants and transmission infrastructure it needed. The first cracks in this flawed system [California's PG&E Struggles To Survive Electricity Squeeze] appeared in December 1998 and June 1999, not June 2000.. According to California Orders Rolling Blackouts, the first rolling blackouts hit California in January 2001, not June 2000. But I guess an honest reporter can't wail about old people dying of heat stroke in January, can he?

• THE SPIN:...EES...used the fear created by the blackouts to push large California businesses into more than $1 billion in long-term energy contracts.

  THE REALITY: Businesses? Like the California State University System and the L.A. Unified School District which signed with Enron at extremely low rates. Both now clamoring to keep their direct-access contracts in the face of Davis's plans to abrogate them. CSU and UC Sign Contract With Enron

  The California State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC) soon will begin taking advantage of competitive opportunities in the new deregulated electricity market through an agreement that will save the two institutions over $15 million over the next four years. The agreement with Enron Energy Services (EES), a subsidiary of Enron Corp., to provide electricity to all 22 CSU campuses, all nine UC campuses and other affiliate facilities, is the largest direct access electrical energy contract in the country.

  The four-year agreement among the UC, the CSU and Enron, worth an estimated value of $300-500 million in electricity sales, takes effect March 31 and will result in estimated savings of $1.5 million per year for CSU and $2.4 million per year for UC, for a total of $15.7 million. Enron will also work with the university systems to realize even greater savings by reducing the 31 campuses' consumption of electricity through an extensive package of energy services.

  And Davis himself signed long-term contracts with Enron in early 2001 Davis announces first round of long-term power contracts , although at not-so-advantageous rates. Was he "scared" into doing so?

There is so much spin in this article, that I just don't have time for any more right now. Gotta' go to work.