Bush's second big scam
Back in December of 2000--one month after Bush and Cheney were elected--I was confused by sudden reports that California had an energy shortage. Just a month or two after they were sworn into office, our 'energy crisis' began causing blackouts in California. Davis, the democratic governor, was eventually forced to buy power for astronomical amounts to keep the state safe. He complained to the feds and asked Bush to make the FERC do their job. Bush smirked and said the market needed to find its own level, while behind the scenes Cheney and Rove spun the story to put the blame completely on Davis even though Cheney was privy to the outrageous market manipulation by the energy companies. These companies would shut down multiple power plants for "routine maintenance." We were having energy shortages at levels near 28,000 megawatts of power when we'd breezed through use of over 40,000 megawatts the summer before.
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An excellent overview of the Califoria "energy crisis" can be found here:
http://www.truthalliance.net/Archive/tabid/67/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1006/Default.aspx
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Another excellent article that gets specific about the criminal charges against Reliant Energy Services is here:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2004/2004-04-09-03.asp
It states, "Reliant charged the state of California as much as $1,900 per megawatt hour for electricity, about 6,300 percent more than the historic norm of $30 per mgh."
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A NY Times article on energy trading mentions the incriminating wire taps here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/business/yourmoney/15traders.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/B/Barrionuevo,%20Alexei&pagewanted=all
"Traders at Enron were among those who took advantage of California's poorly constructed deregulation law and helped to bring about the state's energy crisis of 2000 and 2001. They concocted schemes to manipulate electricity markets and to maximize Enron's profit, using names like Fat Boy and Death Star to describe the strategies. Some bantered casually in 2000 about how they were "stealing" from California and sticking it to "Grandma Millie" by overcharging for power, according to audiotapes of their conversations that have been made public."
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Now, Bush has six months to finish the pillaging of America and he is pulling out all stops to force the public to allow oil companies access to pristine lands and our coasts. He becomes more strident as each day passes. He blames the democrats for the situation even though they have been virtually powerless for the last seven years. He demands these areas to be sacrificed even though in the next breath he admits that it would take years to develop and would only amount to a fraction of what the country needs.
So, what we have here is a repeat of the exact same scam he pulled at the beginning of his presidency.
1) Allow the people who control the market (in this case the oil companies and the speculators) to manipulate the market--in this case the speculators who are artificially increasing the price of oil, though for years they have admitted the lack of refineries is also increasing the price of gas at the pump.
2) Blame the public and the democrats for the situation.
3) Use fear and hardship as a tool to force the public to your viewpoint and thereby force public officials to act opposite of what they know is wise. If the public screams loud and long enough for someone to do *something* lawmakers will, out of fear for their own jobs, give these areas to the oil companies even though they know it won't help the public.
As the saying goes, follow the money. Who profits from this situation? And for crying out loud, please don't fall for this scam again. Do not support giving the oil companies everything they want in the futile hopes they will lower prices. They won't.
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An excellent overview of the Califoria "energy crisis" can be found here:
http://www.truthalliance.net/Archive/tabid/67/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1006/Default.aspx
-------
Another excellent article that gets specific about the criminal charges against Reliant Energy Services is here:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2004/2004-04-09-03.asp
It states, "Reliant charged the state of California as much as $1,900 per megawatt hour for electricity, about 6,300 percent more than the historic norm of $30 per mgh."
-------
A NY Times article on energy trading mentions the incriminating wire taps here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/business/yourmoney/15traders.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/B/Barrionuevo,%20Alexei&pagewanted=all
"Traders at Enron were among those who took advantage of California's poorly constructed deregulation law and helped to bring about the state's energy crisis of 2000 and 2001. They concocted schemes to manipulate electricity markets and to maximize Enron's profit, using names like Fat Boy and Death Star to describe the strategies. Some bantered casually in 2000 about how they were "stealing" from California and sticking it to "Grandma Millie" by overcharging for power, according to audiotapes of their conversations that have been made public."
-------
Now, Bush has six months to finish the pillaging of America and he is pulling out all stops to force the public to allow oil companies access to pristine lands and our coasts. He becomes more strident as each day passes. He blames the democrats for the situation even though they have been virtually powerless for the last seven years. He demands these areas to be sacrificed even though in the next breath he admits that it would take years to develop and would only amount to a fraction of what the country needs.
So, what we have here is a repeat of the exact same scam he pulled at the beginning of his presidency.
1) Allow the people who control the market (in this case the oil companies and the speculators) to manipulate the market--in this case the speculators who are artificially increasing the price of oil, though for years they have admitted the lack of refineries is also increasing the price of gas at the pump.
2) Blame the public and the democrats for the situation.
3) Use fear and hardship as a tool to force the public to your viewpoint and thereby force public officials to act opposite of what they know is wise. If the public screams loud and long enough for someone to do *something* lawmakers will, out of fear for their own jobs, give these areas to the oil companies even though they know it won't help the public.
As the saying goes, follow the money. Who profits from this situation? And for crying out loud, please don't fall for this scam again. Do not support giving the oil companies everything they want in the futile hopes they will lower prices. They won't.