Dan wrote:
Let me ask you one question. When oil was at 10 dollars/barrel, how did
that fit into the vast oil industry conspiracy to ruin the world? Is
there something inherently wrong with folks in the oil patch that when
it suffers through 80% drops in employment that's justice?
How often has that happened since 2001?
Look, all I'm saying is that people in the indusry have a built in bias.
People in the industry that have suffered through these downturns have a
determination to prevent them from happening in the future, exacerbaitng
their bias. People like George W. Bush.
My guess is you think this gaming is the core problem. My argument is
that the core problem is the lack of a long term supply of natural gas
for
electricity.
My arguement is that no matter what the core problem was or is, instead of
trying to be part of the solution, energy companies illegaly manipulated
the system and made the crisis far, far worse than it would have been.
Something else you see if you read the transcripts of the recordings made
of the people that were gaming the system is a nasty bias against
California. Perhaps that is part of the reason dereg works better in
Texas. Do you think that Reliant would _ever_ sell energy at below cost
to California?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3432523.html
or http://tinyurl.com/dv4ra
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/01/eveningnews/main620626.shtml
or http://tinyurl.com/2kepm
Four years after California's disastrous experiment with energy
deregulation, Enron energy traders can be heard – on audiotapes obtained
by CBS News – gloating and praising each other as they helped bring on,
and cash-in on, the Western power crisis.
"He just f---s California," says one Enron employee. "He steals money from
California to the tune of about a million."
"Will you rephrase that?" asks a second employee.
"OK, he, um, he arbitrages the California market to the tune of a million
bucks or two a day," replies the first.
The tapes, from Enron's West Coast trading desk, also confirm what CBS
reported years ago: that in secret deals with power producers, traders
deliberately drove up prices by ordering power plants shut down.
"If you took down the steamer, how long would it take to get it back up?"
an Enron worker is heard saying.
"Oh, it's not something you want to just be turning on and off every hour.
Let's put it that way," another says.
"Well, why don't you just go ahead and shut her down."
Officials with the Snohomish Public Utility District near Seattle received
the tapes from the Justice Department.
"This is the evidence we've all been waiting for. This proves they
manipulated the market," said Eric Christensen, a spokesman for the
utility.
That utility, like many others, is trying to get its money back from Enron.
"They're f------g taking all the money back from you guys?" complains an
Enron employee on the tapes. "All the money you guys stole from those poor
grandmothers in California?"
"Yeah, grandma Millie, man"
"Yeah, now she wants her f------g money back for all the power you've
charged right up, jammed right up her a------ for f------g $250 a megawatt
hour."
And the tapes appear to link top Enron officials Ken Lay and Jeffrey
Skilling to schemes that fueled the crisis.
"Government Affairs has to prove how valuable it is to Ken Lay and Jeff
Skilling," says one trader.
"Ok."
"Do you know when you started over-scheduling load and making buckets of
money on that?
Before the 2000 election, Enron employees pondered the possibilities of a
Bush win.
"It'd be great. I'd love to see Ken Lay Secretary of Energy," says one
Enron worker.
That didn't happen, but they were sure President Bush would fight any
limits on sky-high energy prices.
"When this election comes Bush will f------g whack this s--t, man. He
won't play this price-cap b------t."
Crude, but true.
"We will not take any action that makes California's problems worse and
that's why I oppose price caps," said Mr. Bush on May 29, 2001.
Both the Justice Department and Enron tried to prevent the release of
these tapes. Enron's lawyers argued they merely prove "that people at
Enron sometimes talked like Barnacle Bill the Sailor."
--
Doug
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