[Ninong]

OK, try to act surprised!

Washington -- The nation's chief energy watchdogs were guilty of a "shocking absence of regulatory vigilance" in failing to police market abuses by Enron Corp., including allegations that the Houston firm manipulated prices during the California energy crisis, according to a Senate report.

The report by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee faulted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for waiting nearly two years after allegations of market manipulation surfaced in California to launch a formal inquiry into Enron's practices.

Rest of the article:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...12/MN49736.DTL

What did we expect? Patrick Wood, the current chairman of the FERC, was one of the two members nominated by Kenny Lay, chairman of Enron. Lay and Skilling interviewed applicants for this federal regulatory board that oversees their industry and submitted a list of five names to Cheney. King George II appointed two of those people to the board. The reason Cheney refuses to make public any of the administration's energy policy deliberations is because whole paragraphs of the administration's formalized policy statement were lifted verbatim from an Enron memo to Cheney.

But fear not, we are about to be in good hands now that the Repubs are in full control. This is the last month that we will have to endure these shocking revelations about corrupt corporate influence in the administration's regulatory enforcement commissions.

[icemark]

yeah even though there are countless articles like that, people still believe that the energy crises was all CA's fault.

I think we will find that as soon as the current administration is out of office, we will find the same amount of corruption (well of perhaps a different vein) as the previous administration.

[Ninong]

FERC just released another report saying they now have tape recorded conversations of energy company employees conspiring to prolong power outages and shut down plants unnecessarily in order to drive up prices: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...16/MN33255.DTL

But Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., reacted strongly: "Almost a year and a half ago, when I went public with charts and graphs that showed power plants shut down for maintenance at sometimes four times the normal rate, the energy companies and Vice President (Dick) Cheney scoffed at the implication that the energy supply was being manipulated.

"Now we know the truth. FERC should immediately order refunds for California. We want our money back from this thievery."

-- Williams Cos. earned about $10.3 million during the 15 days the two plants were shut down. FERC ordered $8 million of that returned.