Kevin Tarr wrote:
> Okay, again I see all of that. But I'm assuming (and keep in mind I'm
> completely inebriated right now) that the Cal people agreed with a certain
> plan, then when things got tight, they wanted to change the plan. I'm not
> saying that business profits should trump all, but that a government should
> not have carte blanche to change the rules whenever it feels like it. I
> have an example right outside my back door. A business made an agreement
> with the local government that was to last for 99 years. Things changed
> and the business sued to get out of the contract and won! A bad example for
> me: the courts saw that it was a bad contract and voided it, but that
> doesn't make it right.
My understanding of the situation, and I may be off on some of it, or
all of it (and if so, clarification by those who have a better
understanding would be extremely welcome), is pretty much:
1) Energy company folks from companies operating outside California
helped with the drafting of the legislation, somewhat to their own
benefit.
2) The elected officials elected by the folks in California agreed to
the legislation.
3) With 1 & 2, there may have been some campaign contributions
involved, in which case the energy companies bought some politicians. I
don't know if this is true, but it wouldn't surprise me, anyway.
4) Energy companies used the new laws to their advantage.
So, if anyone's going to run around pointing fingers, sure, Enron was a
big evil badass, but at least some of the politicians involved probably
aren't blameless either, and should have at least a few of those fingers
pointed at them.
Me, I'm annoyed at something Reliant did in a "keeping up with the
Enrons" kind of way that turned out not to help them and they way they
disposed of *that* little thing. (If you're an ISP with happy
customers, they may end up cursing your dying breath if you sell out to
the wrong ISP....) And I don't even want to go into the naming of the
park where the Astros play....
Julia
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