California: What was role of Enron in state's power crisis?

San Diego Union Buffoon ^ | Feb 9, 2002 | Craig D. Rose

[snopercod]

"See", they say, "Gray Davis was right all along. Ken Lay and Enron were evil. And, by stiffing them, we were responsible for slaying the dragon."

That's my take, too. Davis may yet pull a rabbit out of a hat.

[okie01]

"Davis may yet pull a rabbit out of a hat."

Relating to your point, I just posted a thought on this thread (post #21)

So, just why would Ken Lay testify in the Senate and NOT in the House?

The chicanery the Democrats are up to in the Senate Commerce Committee may be just such a "rabbit".

It occurs to me that, in their current condition, the Dems simply cannot afford to lose the governorship of California. Consider the impact this would have on them, not just statewide, but nationally. What "power base" is left? Even New York has a GOP governor.

Accordingly, arrangements may have been made to have Ken Lay testify before the Senate committee for the sole purpose of saving Gray Davis' sorry butt. It makes a certain sense...

[snopercod]

Wow! Good insight there. This whole thing is starting to stink...

[okie01]

Your thoughts on the snopercod:okie01 exchanges downthread (post #19 forward) invited.

[Grampa Dave]

I don't think the demonicRat senate wants to be with smelling range of Davis. The only thing keeping the lid on his cess pool is his control of the major fish wraps in California. They will lie, manipulate and spin any story to make him look like a hero this past year instead of the bumbling criminal he was/is!

He has a lot of support from the Congressional socialists in California as they are up for reelection this year.

If there is a massive upheaval/uprising against Davis, that could cost some demonicRat Congressional seats this November. So they are really tied in with saving his bacon.

Word from the elite demonicRats up here is that ChiFi and Boxer want to stay as far away from Davis as they can. Even if he is elected due to the lies of his left wing fish wraps, the bad business decisions will come home to roost all over California late this year and for the next few years.

IMHO there is not a single demonicRat Senator who even wants to appear to be a supporter of Davis! Davis's anti GW stand could really be turned around to bite him if repubies wised up and used some of his remarks earlier this year!

[Robert357]

It is an interesting question as to what if any California contributed to Enron's collapse.

I doubt, that the amount of money that the State stiffed Enron was a major factor in the collapse of Enron. What I suspect more to be the cause, was the much quicker that expected collapse in natural gas prices in all of N. America. Enron was a nat. gas company and prides itself on that market and predicting what it will be.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a big part of the fall of Enron, were tied to both the sudden drop in the price of natural gas and long gas positions that Enron had; along with a fall in consumer confidence. When a company's stock is trading at many, many times annual earnings, their is an expectation of growth. If that growth is questioned by the market, then the mulitple people are willing to pay for the stock disappears and the price of the stock starts a downward spiral. I think that this was a major part of the Enron problem.

Having re-read this post, I think I may be softening a bit. The whole mess in California and California's fight before FERC and in the Congress, may have taken the bloom off the de(re)regulation market expectations in many investors minds. That may have hurt Enron far more than a lack of payments by the California.

[Robert357]

I thought about this over the weekend and a really strange thought came to me. Here the media and the Democratic party is wringing its hands over Enron going bankrupt and all the back things that did, people losing stock value, pension funds being harmed, etc.

Where was the outrage when PG&E slid into bankrupcy, because of inaction by State of California officals? Who in California government callously allowed peoples' pension funds and stock portfollio's to drop radically??? Will Democrats start to hold hearings on the demise of PG&E. PG&E use to be known as the largest electric utility in the US (I don't know if it is true or not, but it is surely one of the larger ones.)

Then it came to me. This is all about partisan politics and has nothing to do with reality, justice, or trying to protect people. I am sorry, I forgot what was going on for a moment.

[okie01]

"Then it came to me. This is all about partisan politics and has nothing to do with reality, justice, or trying to protect people."

A dose of cynicism tinged with irony. But it burns me that we no longer have any reason to expect any of these things from our elected representatives.

This is yet another unwelcome legacy of the sixties. The radicalized left captured the Democrat party by practicing Lenin's maxim: Everything is political.

Now, we're left with a national political "dialogue" which politicizes everything and is devoid of any value whatsoever. Instead, there is only the raw calculus of "winning" and "losing" points.

[snopercod]

Where was the outrage when PG&E slid into bankrupcy?

Oooohhhhhh, damn good question!

[Robert357]

This is a really good thread for causing folks to think outside of the box. It would be fun to have a group create a number of letters to the editor of California newspapers asking Waxman, Boxer, et.al.

(1) Since they are outraged over the Enron Bankrupcy, where was there outrage when PG&E slid into bankruptcy? Will they hold hearings on the cause of the PG&E bankruptcy?
(2) Since they are outraged over the Enron Bankrupcy, if it can be shown that the imposed FERC price-caps (oops sorry, price limits) requested by California and certain prominent Democrats played a significant role in the Enron bankruptcy that they will hold hearings on those who demanded these market distortions?
(3) Since they are outraged over the Enron Bankruptcy, will they hold hearings on the recently bankrupts Global holdings fiber optic company?

I think that the answer to all of these would be no, but it would be nice to see them in the letter to the editor column, just so some folks can start connecting the dots.