[pf] Fw about Calif. deregulation; from Corporate Watch

· In the original webpage article, look for (1) attempts to separate a
money-rich associate company from the "money-losing" California utility,
and (2) the comment: "the state of California could buy every power plant
in California for $10 to 12 billion --- the cost of the utility bailout".

http://www.corpwatch.org/trac/issues/utilities/aglantz.html
  starts:

Few Lessons Learned from California's Energy Debacle
By Aaron Glantz
Special to Corporate Watch
March 15, 2001

SACRAMENTO, CA -- Closed door negotiations continue between California's
Democratic Governor Gray Davis and executives at the state's two big
utilities. At issue: how much tax-payers and rate-payers will have to pay
for the Golden State's failed experiment with electricity deregulation. The
utility companies say they need $10 to $12 billion to keep the lights on
this summer --- and right now it looks like law-makers will play along.
 ...
"The idea that the utilities are somehow the victims of deregulation is
patently ridiculous," Heller says. "Utility lobbyists wrote the
deregulation legislation and have benefited mightily from it."

Further evidence of public manipulation comes from the global investment
firm Credit Suisse First Boston, which sent a memo to its clients saying
the California's rolling blackouts were not caused by shortage, but by the
utilities themselves. 
 ...
Like President Bush, the World Bank concluded that California should have
gutted its environmental laws to allow for the construction of more
[coal-butning] power plants.

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sent on to PF by David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
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