posted on May 15, 2001 10:36:06 PM newBrushing aside the chants of angry protesters and predictions that they were about to plunge the state in recession, the California Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 today for a $5 billion rate hike plan that protects more than 60 percent of the state's residential customers from higher power bills.
Remember last year when the first brownouts came about? It was discovered that after deregulation of the California electrical utilities, the new private owners shifted 5 Billion Dollars from the utility's equity and shipped it out of state. Then, when the short-fall came about, the Democratic governor signed tax payer money to pay for the artificial short-fall created by the owners of the utility companies. Now -- to add insult AND injury, the utility companies want the 5 Billion Dollars back, but not from themselves! yes, they could be made to bring back that money illegally shifted away, but are your elected officials doing a damned thing about it?
So! They get to make a 5 Billion Dollar theft and YOU get to replace the funds! How sweet a deal (bet they'll get 43% of the tax rebate coming too!).
Umm ... what party was it that was yelling about all of the benefits of deregulation (you know, trashing those laws that are expensive to corporations that are meant to protect consumers?)
posted on May 16, 2001 12:19:34 AM new
Maybe we should ask California's democrat Governor. Only you could blame the Republicans for a decision made in one of the most heavily democratic states, with a democratic house and a democratic governor. Explain again how this is the fault of the Republicans - or the more likely villain - W?
posted on May 16, 2001 12:35:21 AM new
Actually, jlpiece, that's completely innaccurate. The deregulation plan that brought the house down is and was a republican brainchild, and Grey Davis is only trying to save the state from the mess created by his predecessor, Pete Wilson (R).
Former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson believed that the state's utilities had become bloated
under regulation.
"It was not ideology that persuaded us to go to deregulation," said George Dunn, Wilson's
deputy chief of staff at the time, now a lobbyist. "It was an assessment of what was going on."
After declaring the system "fragmented, outdated, arcane and unjustifiably complex," the PUC
voted in December 1995 to open the state's electricity industry to competition.
The commission's order resembled an agreement that Dunn had brokered three months earlier,
largely behind closed doors, with Southern California Edison, its biggest industrial customers and
an association of independent power producers. All parties pledged to support legislation that
would create an independent power market.
The parties also agreed that the utilities could pass on an estimated $28 billion they spent
investing in nuclear and alternative energy.
Consumer activists argued that many of those investments were the result of bad decisions by
the utilities and should be absorbed by shareholders. But consumers were largely shut out of the
negotiations.
The deal "was tantamount to the tablets being brought down the mountain by [Edison chief]
John Bryson," said Michael Shames, executive director of the Utility Consumers' Action Network.
"The governor [Wilson] . . . wanted to be elected president . . . wanted to make a big splash that
would get him attention and also help him raise money."
posted on May 16, 2001 01:26:13 AM new
I used to think so too, krs, until I began to wonder why Davis waited over 2 years to act on the impending doom.
And then I saw a list of his campaign contributors.
posted on May 16, 2001 04:00:39 AM new
The ultimate end is going to be a surprise to the greedy power companies.
They are going to find all their customers who have money will buy their own generating capacity and they will have the dregs of the market.
Other businesses that can not afford to buy generating systems but can move will leave CA.
When the dust clears I think the whole economy will be 10 to 15% smaller in CA.
posted on May 16, 2001 06:43:38 AM new
I know I will get roasted for this - but my wife and I had a chance to move to CA in the mid 80's as she was offered a job. We went to LA and spent a week looking it over and the biggest plus we could come up with was that the nonsmooking was better in restaurants and they had great salads.
Everything else was on the negative side.
posted on May 16, 2001 06:53:57 AM new
The question asked was: "Only you could blame the Republicans for a decision made in one of the most heavily democratic states, with a democratic house and a democratic governor. Explain again how this is the fault of the Republicans"
BTW, barring Orange County, the LA basin is one of the largest concentrations of Dems in the country. My wife lived behind the Orange Curtain before moving to the farm *G* when marrying me....
Interestingly, there's a huge transport sitting on the tarmac at FAT which just delivered two very large micro-turbines, giving credence to gravid's assertions about the alternatives being pursued by large customers.
If I understand correctly, the rate increase approved yesterday will be retroactive back to early March...for some people, their June power bill will be larger than their normally bloated CA mortgage payment. My belief is that there will be a large amount of non-payment in the next few months as well as a mass movement to the payment plans which average usage over the whole year.
As an aside, my Ukrainian friends are having a good chuckle over our woes here in California. They have similar blackouts on nearly a daily basis but, then again, their power won't be turned off if they don't pay the bill...*G*
What can we do? Besides conserving energy and letting the PTB know our dissatisfaction? Well, I have a diesel generator and a large fuel tank (farm stuff *G*) and I plan on producing some of my own electricity this summer. We have also converted to LPG for most of our heating related appliances (water, cooking, clothes drying, heating...) since it is now becoming competitive price-wise with electricity.
I firmly believe the tree-hugging environmental extremists, who are against industry in almost any form, in a large part contributed to the shortage of power plants and pipelines with their sky-is-falling pollution rhetoric. If I had them camped outside my gate I wouldn't be nearly as nice to them as industry has. Industry (especially the gas supply industry) has its own burden to bear as well. They knew exactly what was going on (supply-wise) and chose to do nothing.
Now we are paying for our innattention to what really has been going on and for our self-involved California lifestyles. I think ultimately it will be an excellent lesson to the populace in our capitalistic country about minding the store...
gravid
While my wife loves the culture of LA, she loves the peace and quiet of the country. Maybe if you had dropped in here or, if you like San Francisco, up there, you might have come away with a different impression....
Mine is that, even with the pressure and diversity of living in Southern California, people establish and maintain amazingly strong friendships there. My wifes friends are a continual source of amazement and she hasn't lived there for 12 years now....
posted on May 16, 2001 07:49:34 AM new
Krs is right. Deregulation was pushed by Pete Wilson. Davis just inherited this mess. If you want to be fair about it, Steve Peace (Democrat) was the architect of the whole fiasco. He's the one who wrote most of the legislation and convinced the legistlature about what a great idea it was. And don't forget that deregulation was actually voted on and approved by voters (not me) although I don't remember the Proposition number, and the campaign was heavily financed by the out of state power conglomerates and of course promised CHEAPER power by offering MORE choice. HA! Within six months of "deregulation" going into effect, the big energy companies had muscled the little guys out, leaving California at their mercy.
If you want a "Texas" connection, watch what is happening with the natural gas supply and prices here in California. Pure price and supply manipulation and greed. Even FERC has come out and said there's been some "hinky" business going on there, not that they will do anything about it. California is in big trouble, and as California goes, so goes the nation.
posted on May 16, 2001 07:52:36 AM new
I guess Nevada is all wasteland, desert and flat. No trees. No snow. No Lakes. No nature. I didnt like it. All of Nevada must be just like that since I checked out Las Vegas once.
posted on May 16, 2001 07:59:27 AM new
You're right KatyD about it not just being a CA problem. Energy is a fungible resource that we all use. We're all going to get hosed whether it is Natural Gas, gasoline at the pump, or electricity.
We should be weaning ourselves off the fossil fuels, they are a dead end commodity in time.
posted on May 16, 2001 09:39:16 AM newI used to think so too, krs, until I began to wonder why Davis waited over 2 years to act on the impending doom.
He didn't "wait" 2 years to act, JL. San Diego County was the first California county slated to "deregulate" since SDG & E was the first to complete the selling off of all the utility owned power generators. Last June, deregulation went into effect in San Diego County, and the sheeeit hit the fan. There was no "honeymoon" period at all. Consumer bills doubled, then tripled in the first 2 months. Nobody's power bill actually decreased. Course it took awhile for the rest of the state to actually take notice because San Diegans have always been considered "country bumpkins" in relation to the rest of the state. It was only when the rest of the state utilites joined SDG & E in deregulating, and power bills all over the state skyrocketed, did the enormity of this disaster sink in. Deregulation was a disaster from the very first day. All it accomplished was the selling off of California generators to the Big Business Power Monopoly (AKA GW Bush's cronies). What will ultimately happen is that California will have to seize the power plants and then we will see a big ole court battle in federal court. Personally, I think California should secede from the Union.
posted on May 16, 2001 10:20:08 PM new"Steve Peace (Democrat) was the architect of the whole fiasco. He's the one who wrote most of the legislation and convinced the legistlature about what a great idea it was."-KatyD
posted on May 17, 2001 12:00:51 AM newjlpiece:, the Republican Party has been hitting us over the head since the early 1970's about privatization of publicly owned functions that coulds be done by private ownership, starting with the privatization of the US Postal Service in 1973. In the 1980's, the Ronald Reagan administration pounded upon us the idea that "if only government was run like a business -- just think how efficient it would be!". Which is true -- if that business is a successful one and we all know that for each truly successful one, a thousand others perish.
But, back to the story. The 1990's were spent with Republicans chanting their many mantras and the one about "if only we would deregulate things, imagine just how efficient things would be!" The only thing that is efficient about that is how quickly the consumers get victimized, the environment becomes poisonous to life, and the roar of cash registers emptying into their corporate coffers.
Then, a strange thing began to happen after Dole lost the 1996 Presidential Election. It appears that the Republican Party decided to take complete control of this country for their owners, the mega-corporations. I noticed that staunch conservatives began to run for office under both the Republican flag AND as Democrats! Hey! What a way to win! It won't matter if you win or lose because the same people populate both parties!
I'm not nuts -- observe for yourself. What "Tree-Hugging, Welfare Aborting, Limp-Wristed, Dyed-in-the-Wool LIBERAL" is going suggest that we demolish the protections for consumers, the protections for the environment, and hand over the cheap utility company monopolies to the Big Oil and Gas folks? In addition, look at what other conservative invaders have done to the Democratic Party!
posted on May 17, 2001 04:41:16 AM new
OK LA may not be CA but that's where my wife was offered a job not Yosemite so that's what we looked at.
Detroit is not Michigan either but if you want a job that's where most of them are. I would rather live up north about 250 miles at the other end of the peninsula where it is just gorgeous but the economy there is so bad taht it is hard to even sell your house if you want to leave.
I am just afraid Katy D is most correct that as goes CA so goers the nation. Instead of fixing CA I can see them building a bigger grid to share power better so when we have rolling black-outs they cover 5 or 6 states at a time that are all in the same weather system.
Time to invest in anyone who makes small and medium generators and switching gear.
The wife and I put 1/3 of our money in natural gas production and distribution a couple years ago and that has done very well.
I think we will dump the amusement parks and movie studios.
camachinist - Can you sell power back to the grid - and who sets that rate?
