[balrog666]

My point was, and perhaps I made it rather badly, that the crisis in California (Texas by the way is having its own problems with Enron) occured under Bush's watch,

Really? Why aren't Davis, Wilson, and the California legislature responsible for the idiocy of their own policy and politics?

.. and both Bush and Cheney made it clear that they wanted to keep FERC hands off.

The FERC is an independent board. Thay don't follow anybody's "orders" and Bush couldn't fire them if he wanted to. Check out Mary Frances Berry and the US Commission on Civil Rights for a similarly independent board, albeit one lacking any power.

This in spite of the fact that the FERC had a clear mandate to get involved.

What mandate was that?

You might just want to check a few facts yourself.

I'm asking. Please, enlighten me.

[lucysmom]

"Why aren't Davis, Wilson, and the California legislature responsible for the idiocy of their own policy and politics?"

Wilson and the California legislature, along with the utility companies (yep, the same companies whining about the system they helped to create) created the flawed system in California and certainly are responsible for that. Davis inherited the flawed plan and handled the crisis poorly. There is plenty of blame to go around.

"What mandate was that?"

"When FERC was established in 1977 as a replacement for the Federal Power Commission, its mandate was to determine whether wholesale electricity prices were unjust and unreasonable and, if so, to regulate pricing and order refunds for overcharges to ratepayers."

California was (and still is) asking that the FERC function in the capacity it was created to.