California Regulators Propose Gov’t Takeover Of Oil Refineries To Stave Off Energy Crisis

[otto105]

I overstated the case. What the greens managed to do was to cap residential rates, while having blocked the construction of new power plants for over a decade creating a shortage as price controls always do assisted by the republican's attempt to deregulate energy supply that resulted in a bastardized system that forced California to buy power on the spot market at high prices and sell it at low prices.

Wrong again. Starting in 1996 California started a process of deregulation of its power grid under the gist of increasing competition. Now which party was in the governor's office in 1996. It was under that deregulation that Enron was able to manipulate power production and bilk the state.

 

[AZrailwhale]

fuck up is not an appropriate adjective.
exploited is more appropriate.
Enron's corruption is what brought them down, since they were a middleman that provided no value.

They did screw up the deregulation. Instead of pure deregulation operating on market principals, they came up with a hybrid where part of the market was deregulated, and part was regulated. This resulted in the worst of both systems.

 

[Mac-7]

California Regulators Propose Gov’t Takeover Of Oil Refineries To Stave Off Energy Crisis​

This is total bullshit

Greenies want to take over the oil refineries so the better to kill oil production, sooner rather than later, not save it

 

[surada]

Public power plants that are community owned are non-profit and have a public oversight.

In India?

 

[AZrailwhale]

Public power plants that are community owned are non-profit and have a public oversight.

SOME, but not most anymore. If I remember, correctly both Los Angeles and Glendale sold some municipal power plants because they had become too old and expensive to operate. LA is now converting its El Segundo natural gas-powered plant to hydrogen that it hopes to produce by splitting seawater into hydrogen and oxygen with solar power.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Wrong again. Starting in 1996 California started a process of deregulation of its power grid under the gist of increasing competition. Now which party was in the governor's office in 1996. It was under that deregulation that Enron was able to manipulate power production and bilk the state.

Under Governor Gray Davis.
Enron didn't manipulate production, they manipulated distribution.
Because the state wouldn't let the utilities sign long-term power contracts.

 

[otto105]

Under Governor Gray Davis.
Enron didn't manipulate production, they manipulated distribution.
Because the state wouldn't let the utilities sign long-term power contracts.

yes, they did. Power companies that included Enron took power plants offline to drive market pricing higher.

1. Legislation and Fallout:
   • Legislation passed in 1996 (AB 1890) deregulated aspects of the energy industry, contributing to the crisis.
   • Governor Davis managed the situation despite inherited flaws in the deregulation scheme and federal regulators’ inaction2.
   • In 2001, AB 1X authorized California’s Department of Water Resources to purchase power under long-term contracts for PG&E and SCE3.

 

[otto105]

California had an installed generating capacity of 45 GW (gigawatts, or billions-of-watts). At the time of the blackouts, demand was 28 GW. A demand-supply gap was created by energy companies, mainly Enron, to create artificial shortages. Energy traders took power plants offline for maintenance during days of peak demand to increase the price.[13][11] Traders were thus able to sell power at premium prices, sometimes up to a factor of twenty times its normal value. Because the state government had a cap on retail electricity charges, this market manipulation squeezed the industry's revenue margins, causing the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and near bankruptcy of Southern California Edison in early 2001.[12]: 2–3 

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the crisis was possible because of legislation instituted in 1996 by the California Legislature (AB 1890) and Governor Pete Wilson that deregulated some aspects of the energy industry. Enron took advantage of this partial deregulation and was involved in economic withholding and inflated price bidding in California's spot markets.[14]

The crisis cost between US$40 and $45 billion