CALIFORNIA ENERGY RIPOFF WASN’T JUST CRIME, BUT TERRORISM
by Michael Hammerschlag
The Kenny Boy Lay and Jeff Skilling conviction was
gratifying, but neither lowlife should ever
see the light of day again. In the Great
2000-2001 California Energy Robbery, a group of 6 power
companies, led by Enron, through manipulating power production,
raised rates up to 90 fold. California people and firms were paying
as much in a day for electricity as they had in 3 months (Market Manipulation-CBS), threatening to shutdown the world's 6th
largest economy. Then in a breathlessly
audacious scam, the Republicans (who
had probably helped engineer it to punish
California for voting 12% more for Gore)
managed to use the 3-fold higher power contracts
Gray Davis signed with a gun to his and the
state's temple... to depose him in an unprecedented
recall and replace him with the Terminator.
Arnold quickly agreed to reduce the $9 billion
refund of the theft, getting much less in
a devils bargain with the power companies,
ordered by the Lay-selected FERC chairman,
Pat Wood. "Soon after Schwarzenegger took over from Davis, he signed off on a
series of deals with Reliant, Williams Company,
Dynegy, Entergy and the other power pirates
for ten to twenty cents on the dollar. Enron
paid just about nothing."-Greg Palast "The energy crisis cost the state as much as $45
billion over two years in higher electricity costs,
lost business due to blackouts and a slowdown
in economic growth, according to the Public
Policy Institute of California."-CBS Newsª
Another massive crime, still unearthed, was
probably committed by Kenny Boy and participants
in the meeting of the famous secret 2001 Cheney Energy Task Force. There, they no doubt discussed the desirability
and feasibility of invading Iraq, and the
oil bonanza it could produce (a negative
25% one after 3 years). If this came out
it would have scuttled the long planned invasion
(by the Project for a New American Century), hence Cheney’s desperate successful efforts
to keep it draped with the veil of secrecy.
I discussed this in my piece END of BUSH's ROHYPNOL HONEYMOON?- onlinejournal April 2001
---"The Enron palm-greasing (lifting
price-gouging controls on power) has devastated
the California economy and bankrupted PG&E,
which since all things roll downhill from
California, will percolate malignantly through
the rest of the economy. Bush may get the
full scale recession he's been promoting.
The bankruptcy bill payoff to credit card
companies (his largest contributors) has
a particularly bitter irony coming from a
man who would have been forced into bankruptcy
three times without rich family "friends"
eager for the cachet and influence of the
Bush name. He directly financially benefits
from most of his legislation, just as he
did in Texas. In these billions of dollars
of sleazy corporate payoffs, Mr. Bush has
in only two months become the most corrupt President in American history."---
And from Bush's Wanton War Oct 2002- "In his first act as President,
Bush cancelled the Clinton cap on exploding
California energy prices (up to 100-fold
increases, by criminal price fixing among
generators)- as a result Enron’s revenues
ballooned from $25 billion in first half
2000 to $100 billion in the same period 2001-
even assuming a justified doubling in prices-
still $30 to $40 billion in criminal windfall
profits ripped from the pockets of voters
who had given his opponent a 12 point victory
and handed to his biggest contributor. This
shockingly corrupt and unreported act is
still the iceberg that might sink the Bush
administration." (Note: All of Enron's numbers were, of course,
lies, but even if a third as much, it's still
shocking levels of corruption.)
There were other reasons for the shortage:
the San Onofrio nuclear plant was down for
a year for maintainance, hydro plants reduced
by drought, California laws locked them into
self-destructive policies, and usage was
30% above any comparable previous period-
some have called it the perfect storm...
but the triggering event for the monstrous
price rises was the conspiracy to shut down
perfectly healthy plants. At Duke Energy,
prices were jacked up 130-fold:
Johnson, who was a mechanic at the South Bay plant for more
than 20 years, supports what state investigators
say happened across California — units were
shut down unnecessarily in order to shrink
the supply of electricity... Johnson also
claims Duke ordered maintenance shutdowns
even though he didn't have the needed parts...
Ed Edwards knows why they had to wait for
spare parts. A supervisor ordered him to
get rid of them."
This California Energy Robbery was the first
impeachable offense Bush conspired in (now
5 more*), and let's be clear about
what was involved:
Raising prices:
1-3 fold is business
4-9 fold is price gouging
10-19 times is organized crime
20-40 times is massive institutional political
corruption
90 times is terrorism and treason
We were close to invading Arabia in 1973
because OPEC raised oil prices only 4-fold.
But when the crooked corrupt electricity
cartel robbed California blind by raising prices up to 90-fold, the US government, via the FERC (whom Lay
had helped appoint), sat on its hands. Enron,
the other power companies, and their many
confederates in the Republican Party committed economic terrorism against the
people of California (13% of US GDP at $1.55 trillion) and therefore
America. The fact that Republicans were able
to avoid any blame and even use it to overthrow
the Democratic Governor while the mainstream
media slept, set the pattern for all the
horrors to come of the Bush regime.
*Monstrous transfer of wealth + destabilizing the economy with tax cuts for the rich and corporations; Invading Iraq based on lies, Ignoring 750 laws by Presidential signing statements, Promulgation of Torture throughout military in contravention of Geneva Convention, Massive criminal phone spying on citizens
Robert Parry's Bush's Enron Lies - Common Dreams long
ª Only CBS reported specifics of the
Cal. Energy Robbery when it happened, and
often were the first or only news agency
reporting Administration dishonesty or scandal....
another reason Dan Rather was crushed.
Michael Hammerschlag's commentary and articles
(HAMMERNEWS.com) have appeared in the Seattle Times, Providence Journal, Columbia
Journalism Review, Honolulu Advertiser, Capital
Times, MediaChannel; and Moscow News, Tribune, Times, and
Guardian. He explored the Cheney shooting, broke the first comprehensive story on media mistakes in the 2000 election, spent 2 years in Russia
as the empire collapsed, and has covered
2 Presidential campaigns.