-Caveat Lector-
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Public ownership is the solution to the energy crisis
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 21:51:42 -0600 (CST)
From: Michael Eisenscher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: ?
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Public ownership is the solution to the energy crisis
* Opinion column from the Sacramento Bee
* Call for Take-over of Energy Companies -- Citizens Denounce
Financial Ties Between Elected Officials and Utility Companies
* AFL-CIO Executive Council Statement on Energy Crisis -
California's Electricity Deregulation Crisis - A National Warning
[which doesn't call for public ownership of the energy utilities -
Moderator]
====================================================================
Public ownership is the solution to the energy crisis
By James McClatchy
[Sacramento Bee column of Feb. 18, 2001. James B. McClatchy is
publisher of The McClatchy Co., which owns The Sacramento Bee and
other newspapers, and is a lifelong California journalist.]
The possibility of the state of California buying power
transmission lines has now emerged as a major part of proposed
solutions to California's electricity crisis. The next step would
be for the state to buy the associated generating facilities. It
will be hard for anyone involved in this unbelievable and painful
crisis to think very far ahead, but deciding on a permanent
solution as quickly as possible will shorten our period of living
in a bad- dream emergency. Any final solution would have to include
public ownership of the generating plants that PG&E and Southern
California Edison sold to speculators, as well as facilities they
still own.
The state of California invested enormous amounts of bond money in
building one of the world's biggest water delivery systems -- the
Feather River Project. This project delivers large amounts of water
to farms in the San Joaquin Valley and for general public use in
Southern California. It is a publicly owned utility.
Why can't the state buy the generating facilities and distribution
systems of Southern California Edison and PG&E with bond money, and
deliver the electricity to existing locally owned and managed
utility districts, or to newly organized ones? If some areas decline
that option, the state could create an agency to take over that job.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is locally owned by
citizens. So is the Sacramento Municipal Utility District -- and so
are dozens of other taxpayer-owned systems including Roseville,
Redding, Palo Alto and Truckee. In such arrangements, the public
controls its electrical destiny.
The formerly private facilities would require upgrades and badly
needed modernization. Also, to meet population growth, it would be
necessary to find or build new generating plants. All that will
cost many millions of dollars, no matter who owns the electrical
systems. But who can doubt that if private utilities own them,
customers will pay more than if tax-paying consumers own them? If
anyone -- particularly legislators and Gov. Gray Davis -- needs a
reminder of what the investors who own parts of California's
electrical supply system have their eyes fixed on, they should
reflect on what the Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs did this past
week.
A subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, J. Aron & Co., has supplied a
significant portion of the natural gas PG&E used to make
electricity. To protect its investment and reduce its risk of losing
money, the J. Aron firm has pulled the plug on PG&E, refusing to
deliver any more gas.
Why not? Goldman Sachs is a giant financial house with fingers in
businesses all over the world. Why should it subject its managing
partners and stockholders to potentially more losses out here in
California? Does it care about consumers here? While harsh comments
can be directed at some participants in this staggeringly expensive,
world-class comedy of errors, it must be clearly recognized that
many energy providers are extending their own financial resources to
protect electricity consumers.
Without this mostly voluntary help, the whole state would be heading
more certainly for an economic and social crisis of unpredictable
size. When this is all over, proper recognition and appreciation
should be given to those officials and companies who put public
service above dollar values.
With public ownership of these systems would come increased public
transparency on all aspects of the operations -- where there is
little now -- and thus less opportunity for sweetheart deals with
friendly financiers or brokers.
Separate from the current emergency, rising prices in general for
electricity and gas are generating enormous financial problems for
homeowners and businesses. It is absolutely indefensible that
citizens should be made to pay for the bad business decisions of the
utilities, the Legislature and elected officials, not to mention the
rapaciousness of speculators and selfish political partisanship.
Electricity, natural gas and water systems are natural monopolies.
They are so essential to the very life and well-being of our
citizens and economy that they should not be subject to the vagaries
of free-market speculation. Deregulation of the electricity monopoly
is a failure. The monopoly should be returned to the tax-paying
consumers who support it and depend on it.
====================================================================
Call for Take-over of Energy Companies
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, February 20
Contact: Medea Benjamin 415-235-6517 (cell)
Citizens Denounce Financial Ties Between Elected Officials and
Utility Companies
Groups Call on Legislators to Oppose Governor¹s Bailout and Demand
the Immediate Seizure of Energy Companies¹ Assets
At noon on Wednesday, February 21 on the West Steps of the Capitol
in Sacramento, environmentalists, consumer groups and community
activists will release the results of their two-week campaign to get
California¹s elected officials to sever their financial ties with
the energy companies�and announce their next challenge to the
lawmakers in Sacramento.
With the exception of a few principled legislators who returned the
money that they received from the utilities, and some lawmakers who
never received contributions in the first place, most
representatives chose to ignore the public outcry, claiming that
donations have no effect on their voting. But groups working for
campaign finance reform and a consumer-friendly end to the
deregulation crisis say utility companies¹ contributions give them
special access to lawmakers that average California residents don't
enjoy.
"There is an easy way for legislators to prove their independence
from the utilities," says Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange, the
group that issued the report on the energy crisis and campaign
contributions. "They should return any contributions they've
received from the utilities. Then they should denounce Governor
Davis¹ obscene bailout plan and call for the immediate public
takeover of our energy system."
The citizen groups say that the solution to this energy debacle is
to put the generation, transmission and distribution of energy in
public hands. "We are tired of seeing our utility bills skyrocket
and billions of dollars in state funds go to corporate welfare
instead of schools and health care," says Todd Chretian of the
Campaign for Public Power Now. "We want to hear our feelings of
outrage echoed by our representatives in Sacramento."
The groups also call on the legislators to impose a retroactive
windfall profits tax on the energy generators that have so
mercilessly gouged the public. "I've been trying unsuccessfully to
find someone in the legislature to sponsor an excess profits tax
bill that I've written," said Tom Dickerman, an engineer who is part
of the Citizen¹s Power lobby. "It¹s high time for our
representatives to stop representing the utility companies and start
representing the people."
"People as diverse as James McClatchy, publisher of the Sacramento
Bee, and Al Checchi, entrepreneur and former gubernatorial
candidate, have said public ownership is the solution to the energy
crisis, so where is the voice of reason in Sacramento?," says
Benjamin.
E. J. Simpson, an electrical utility consultant who has worked in
the industry for 50 years, including 25 years with PG&E and 7 years
operating Redding¹s public system, has also come out for public
power. "time for the state to take over the power plants by
eminent domain, specifically those fired by natural gas. That would
be an immediate solution to the present crisis." ###
===================================================================
California's Electricity Deregulation Crisis - A National Warning
AFL-CIO Executive Council Statement on Energy Crisis
http://www.aflcio.org/publ/estatements/index.htm.
February 15, 2001 Los Angeles, CA California's Electricity
Deregulation Crisis - A National Warning The AFL-CIO Executive
Council has previously expressed concerns about state and federal
efforts to restructure the electric power industry (February 20,
1997, and February 17, 1999). However, the ongoing California energy
crisis, precipitated by A.B. 1890, the state's restructuring
initiative, now compels the AFL-CIO to revisit this important issue.
California is embroiled in a major energy crisis caused by a failed
electricity deregulation scheme. The crisis is imposing unacceptable
conditions and costs on working families, businesses, and
communities. Last summer, California wholesale electricity prices
began to sky-rocket, sometimes reaching ten times comparable rates
from a year earlier. Retail customers in San Diego, which was
furthest along in the deregulation process, saw their electricity
bills increase by 200 percent. The state's two largest utilities
have accumulated $12 billion in debt, bringing them to the brink of
bankruptcy. The state has been roiled by power black-outs, and
without an extreme power conservation effort, much larger
disruptions are anticipated this summer.
High energy costs and unreliable power threaten the future of
California's high-tech industrial base, and the crisis is spilling
over into other states by driving up electricity costs across the
West - triggering shutdowns of mines, sawmills, and aluminum
smelters, which have caused significant job loss. State efforts to
maintain electricity delivery are draining the state budget surplus
at the rate of approximately $40 million a day. This places an
additional burden on taxpayers and may limit the expansion of public
service programs. If the electric utilities go bankrupt, more jobs
will be lost. California employee pensions, as well as workers'
401(K) funds, risk losing millions of dollars which have been
invested in utility stocks.
California's crisis is primarily due to inadequate generating
capacity, and this shortage is the result of the removal of the
regulatory regime that would have been responsible for assuring
adequate supplies of power. This underlying problem has been
aggravated by the creation of a centralized wholesale power exchange
which large, out-of-state power generating companies have learned to
game by withholding power to force price surges. Unprecedented
increases in deregulated natural gas prices have also contributed to
California's energy woes.
Proponents of deregulation claim that California did not deregulate
enough or just did it incorrectly. There is little to support this
ideologically driven claim. For over 65 years, the North American
electric power system has been the safest, most reliable, and the
lowest-cost producer of electricity in the world. The California
crisis confirms the AFL-CIO's primary concern, that electricity
restructuring will destabilize the national power system, undermine
supply reliability, and dramatically increase prices. California's
experience exemplifies the pitfalls of electricity restructuring and
underlines the foolhardiness of trusting this most essential
industry to flawed market mechanisms.
The AFL-CIO supports California Governor Gray Davis and the
California Legislature as they continue their efforts to find the
least painful way to a short- and long-term solution to this very
complex problem, created when Governor Davis' predecessor Pete
Wilson led the effort to deregulate California's electric power
system. It also supports the ongoing efforts of the California Labor
Federation to reintroduce a strong governmental role to guarantee an
affordable and reliable power supply and to keep the state's
utilities solvent. How to distribute the burdens arising from
California's failed deregulatory venture remains a difficult,
unresolved matter. What is clear is that California needs a new
regulatory regime that can ensure affordable and adequate supplies
of power. This new regime must also increase public accountability,
encourage conservation, and assist dislocated workers.
Consumers and workers, industrial firms and communities all depend
on safe, reliable and affordable electricity. They cannot afford the
volatility, uncertainties and high prices brought about by
electricity deregulation. In light of the California experience, it
would be folly for Congress or the Bush Administration to introduce
new federal initiatives to similarly facilitate retail electricity
restructuring on a nationwide basis.
The AFL-CIO therefore urges federal and state governments to adopt
the following principles to ensure a reliable, safe and low-cost
supply of electricity for the United States:
create safeguards and incentives to guarantee adequate generation
and transmission capacity at all times, while ensuring that all
existing environmental and labor standards are maintained for new
power plants; enact policies to ensure the stability and integrity
of wholesale electricity markets; create safeguards to minimize
price volatility and prevent manipulation of power supplies to
artificially drive-up prices; support a policy of fuel diversity
which also sustains all current generating options; encourage
increased investment and incentives to promote energy efficiency,
demand-side management and conservation, and enact tough Quality of
Service standards; enact adequately funded programs to make workers
dislocated by electricity restructuring whole; expand support and
subsidies to ensure that low-income families have sufficient access
to affordable electric power. To this end, the Federation will
convene a meeting of affected affiliates to consider the best ways
to mount education, legal and legislative campaigns to combat the
continuing efforts to deregulate this critical industry.
Finally, the AFL-CIO calls for the Congress to craft a new energy
policy for the United States which is geared to the needs of all
working families, environmental concerns and the national economy.
====================================================================
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of
which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. We are making such material available in an effort to
advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights,
economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. we
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted
material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In
accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this
site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research
and educational purposes. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use
copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go
beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.
================================
__________________________________________________________________
Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Webmail account today at
http://webmail.netscape.com/
portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a
news, discussion and debate service of the Committees
of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It
aims to provide varied material of interest to people
on the left.
Post : mail to '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subscribe : mail to '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Unsubscribe : mail to '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web address : <http://www.egroups.com/group/portside>
Digest mode : visit Web site
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
============================================================
Get all your favorite e-mail newsletters for free!
Over 2,700,000 people get their news, entertainment & fun from
MyFree.com! Don't miss a thing, visit today & enter for your
chance to win $100,000.
http://click.topica.com/aaabtHb1dc1Ab1jclkc/MyFree
============================================================
______________________________________________
You can subscribe to Solidarity4Ever by sending a message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] and unsubscribe by sending an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
This is a read-only list, but if you have an item you want posted, send it to the
list moderator at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, who will determine whether it is
appropriate for redistribution. You can temporarily suspend delivery by sending a
request to the same address. Notify the moderator at the time you want delivery
resumed. You can also manage this function yourself by going to the list at
<www.igc.topica.com/lists/Solidarity4Ever.
____________________________________________________________
T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less.
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose.
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
