Pete Wilson destroyed the California GOP...AND, he almost destroyed California with his phony energy deregulation scam
Wrong and partly wrong... Wilson kicked butt for the GOP in California, it was the immigration wimps who've stabbed us in the back.
Deregulation was a bipartisan failure to be sure, but certain follow-up legislation was supposed to have been enacted after Wilson left office... and wasn't. That's not his fault.
Further, I heard him interviewed during the height of the "energy shortage," and he made the point that Davis had certain emergency powers at his disposal to get power plants approved and to get dormant plants running, but didn't. Davis didn't want to offend the clean-air zealots, so he allowed the situation to fester.
Study your Wilson, man. Wilson sold the California GOP down the river. He pushed the largest tax hike in California history in 1991 (with some help from then Assembly Republican Leader Bill Jones, I might add) and then tried to gain control of the legislature with his moderates away from the incumbent conservatives. A lot of time was wasted on that precursor battle of the Riordan vs. the Conservatives we see now. He screwed us, and big.
Agreed. Pete Wilson gets blamed for more than he deserves. He's become a comfortable scapegoat for some.
Deregulation was a bipartisan failure to be sure, Yea it was bipartisan because it was everything the liberals dreamed of but don't fool yourself the deregulation bill was authored by (R) Assembly Speaker Jim Brulte and it was written to comply with Wilsons CPUC.
As to the power plants, how many plants were built in the 16 consecutive years of Republican Governors prior to Gray Davis?...
certain follow-up legislation was supposed to have been enacted after Wilson left office
What specific items in AB1890 were to be inacted...besides price controls? Which BTW, according to the law we're supposed to be getting another rate cut this year.......
"Blame, hell," said Pete Wilson. "I take credit for having been the driving force to launch deregulation."-------------
In an interview with the Times last week, Wilson admitted to some major mistakes in the 1996 deregulation that the legislature passed in a unanimous vote, and which some have labeled the worst policy miscalculation in California history.
Among them:
Installing a cap on retail electricity rates that backfired on the private utilities, drowning them, and ultimately the state, in billions of dollars in bills as wholesale energy costs soared.
Forcing the utilities to sell off their power plants while prohibiting them from locking in favorable long-term rates with the suppliers who bought the plants.
Not among them: deregulation itself, says Wilson.
"I will not pretend to you that (the legislation) was a perfect, free-market mechanism. It wasn't. I knew that at the time. I signed it knowing that," said Wilson. "I thought whatever flaws would emerge ... they would be addressed by our successors."
"I thought whatever flaws would emerge ... they would be addressed by our successors."
Is that what you mean by "enacted after Wilson left office"?....Enacted, or passed off on?
From the same article:
Back then, the regulated power industry found itself with a 30 percent power surplus, yet with prices far higher than most other states, partly due to bad investments that the utilities passed on to consumers. Officials from dozens of other states had launched an aggressive raid on California. Competition would bring lower prices and smooth the economic recovery.
The concern: how to manage oversupply and help PG&E recover its government-imposed investments in a free market. If anyone suggested a future power shortage, it sounded like a bleat.
How much sense does that make?...on the one hand they claim the utilities had "bad investments that the utilities passed on to consumers." Then on the other hand they clarify the "bad investments" as "government-imposed" (by 16 yrs of Republican Governors, I might add) and then wonder how they can do exactly what was being done before their phony deregulation scam, which was "help PG&E recover its government-imposed investments in a free market"...by passing them on to the consumer.(and still have [free market?] price controls)
Did Gray Davis mishandle it?..YES. BUT Sorry, California deregulation was and is a disaster and it was all Pete Wilson.
As a California voter since 1968, I certainly approved of the job Pete Wilson did in California -- and voted for him, TWICE. Giuliani can talk all he wants about Simon, but Giuliani doesn't live in California and in the end won't influence that many voters here. As a very long time L.A. resident, I can't say I find much fault with the way Riordan ran the city. He certainly cleaned things up considerably and spent millions of his personal funds in the process. He also took just a token $1 per year for each year of his first term. He may or may not have taken a real salary the second term -- I don't know. I don't love Diane Feinstein, but she definitely believes the borders should be tightened up. The Central Valley may be high on Simon but the Central Valley won't elect the next governor. I'd rather have Dick Riordan than another four years of Gray Davis.