Enron, California and Bush
Quote:
MORE ENRON TAPES....More Enron tapes from CBS: "I want to see what pain and heartache this is going to cause Nevada Power Company. I want to fuck with Nevada for a while."
Charming. Aside from the smoking gun tapes themselves, though, I was glad to see that the CBS segment focused on the two things that are really the most infuriating about this whole affair:
FERC has had these tapes for more than two years and has resisted releasing them. Who the hell are they protecting?
At the height of the crisis several states, including California, signed long term power contracts at high prices. But even though it's now clear that these contracts were substantially the result of deliberate fraud, the Bush administration has declined to endorse efforts to void the contracts.
Of course, Kenny Boy knew nothing about this. It was just a few bad apples, right?
MORE ENRON TAPES....More Enron tapes from CBS: "I want to see what pain and heartache this is going to cause Nevada Power Company. I want to fuck with Nevada for a while."
Charming. Aside from the smoking gun tapes themselves, though, I was glad to see that the CBS segment focused on the two things that are really the most infuriating about this whole affair:
FERC has had these tapes for more than two years and has resisted releasing them. Who the hell are they protecting?
At the height of the crisis several states, including California, signed long term power contracts at high prices. But even though it's now clear that these contracts were substantially the result of deliberate fraud, the Bush administration has declined to endorse efforts to void the contracts.
Of course, Kenny Boy knew nothing about this. It was just a few bad apples, right?
From the Washington Monthly
Bush refused to help California out during the crises. Refused. Why? Because California is not a battleground state necessary for re-election and it had a sitting Democrat governor at the time. When Schwarzengroper was elected I held out hope that Californians would get better assistance from the federal government. Boy was I wrong. We're still getting gouged. My one bedroom apartment's (with no air-conditioner) electricity bill averages $140/month. It used to be $60.
Bush to California: You're on your own! If only you were Florida...or Ohio...or Texas.
Comments
ENRON AND CALIFORNIA....CBS News has obtained tapes of Enron traders gloating about how successfully they've gamed the California energy market in 2000:
"He just f---s California," says one Enron employee. "He steals money from California to the tune of about a million."
"Will you rephrase that?" asks a second employee.
"OK, he, um, he arbitrages the California market to the tune of a million bucks or two a day," replies the first.
There's lots more like it. Just click the link to read the whole story.
By the way, did you know that beginning in 1977 California began a comprehensive campaign to improve energy efficiency using a combination of regulation and free market mechanisms? And that per capita energy growth was flat by the mid-1990s? And that California was one of the lowest per-capita energy consumers in the nation when the 2000 crisis hit?
Just thought you'd all like to know.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/arc..._06/004050.php
Originally posted by Northgate
From the Washington Monthly
Bush refused to help California out during the crises. Refused. Why? Because California is not a battleground state necessary for re-election and it had a sitting Democrat governor at the time. When Schwarzengroper was elected I held out hope that Californians would get better assistance from the federal government. Boy was I wrong. We're still getting gouged. My one bedroom apartment's (with no air-conditioner) electricity bill averages $140/month. It used to be $60.
Bush to California: You're on your own! If only you were Florida...or Ohio...or Texas.
The Enron (WorldCom, Tyson, Qwest, Arthur Andersen, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc ad infinitum....) corporate crime spree will play out as follows: Top executives will not end up holding the buck, or getting sentences fitting for crimes of such magnitude. (If Joe Q. Public stole $1 million, how many years in jail would he get....15? 20? 40? or more?). $1 million? These lastest corporate frauds and thefts are orders of magnitude greater,,,involving $billions. A couple of middle/senior execs have fallen on their swords and gotten fined and a few years in a holiday camp "prison" (more resembling house arrest in a gated community), and a few more will undoubtedly get similar treatment in the coming years, and the public will be shown, by a couple of well publicized cases that corporate crime laws are being "enforced"....(what a joke).
But the top corporate crooks, because of their extraordinary wealth and the consequent ability to buy "justice" (!?!) and employ armies of corporate lawyers to manipulate the law with obscure technicalities, will end up having their cases dismissed, or at the very most, get some nominal fine of a few $million, candy money to these people. But who ends up paying in the end? Muggins, the tax payer, as per usual. Just look what happened in the S&L megafraud case of the 1980s, It's always the predictable same ol' same ol'.
And as for Ken Lay: he personally vetted many of Bush's cabinet: some were interviewed *twice* by Kenny Boy. There is no way that Mr. Lay will see jail time. American culture and our obsessive glorification of elitism will not allow it. Conservatives talk about getting tough on crime...its one of their mantras. But when the crimes are committed by the people with their names engraved on their corporate altars, they look the other way.
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?As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.?
--Abraham Lincoln
To criticize corporate crime is politically incorrect! tut tut