Say. F**king. What???

[patgund]

Yet another example of life imitating "The Onion". And no, the headline is not reversed.

California ordered to refund $270 million to Enron, others

"As California struggled through the 2000-01 energy crisis, Enron traders gloated about gouging the state. Now state Attorney General Bill Lockyer says federal regulators are heaping insult upon injury by demanding California pay Enron and other energy companies almost $270 million in refunds.

In a motion filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Lockyer said the refunds would reward "the sellers a second time for their market manipulation activities and predatory pricing."

The order was particularly unfair considering recent evidence of market manipulation by energy generators, Lockyer said in an interview Tuesday."

Bend over California, the FERC still intends to screw you.

Comments

I don't freakin' beLIEVE these people!

[firedrake-mor.livejournal.com]

I don't quite understand how this works? After all the evidence available to show how they churned and defrauded us, we owe THEM money?

Re: I don't freakin' beLIEVE these people!

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Please keep in mind that the chairman of the FERC, Patrick Wood III, was recommended to the FERC by Enron CEO Kenneth Lay. As was another FERC appointee, Nora Mead Brownell.

Not that I'm saying they'd do anything like screwing over California again to protect their dear friend Kenny-Boy..........(Yeah, right.....)

Personally, I think we should start heating up the far and bagging the feathers.....

Re: I don't freakin' beLIEVE these people!

[selenite.livejournal.com]

It's like this--the CA legislature converted the state's life savings into a stack of $20s and left them on the front porch. The "deregulation" scheme was set up to funnel money to electricity producers. The key bit--everybody had to pay the same price for electricity every day. So if *one* utility was so desperate for juice he'd pay Enron 50 times the average rate, EVERYBODY in the state paid that price. This was state law--and a legally enforcable contract. So, yes, California keeps getting screwed, because the legislature was begging for it.

Re: I don't freakin' beLIEVE these people!

[patgund.livejournal.com]

And the interesting thing is that the state assembly right now is trying once again to delegulate power in CA.

The difference this time is a "Core/Non-Core" approach, meaning normal consumers will have their power needs met by the utilities, while business consumers can "shop around" for power.

The problem is that the energy companies don't want to build new power generation plants in CA until they know the market is there, and that's the sticking point.