This is an editorial, not to be confused with the normal make-believe news.
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html
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Power Games
Federal regulators have now provided decisive evidence of the cynical behavior of major energy companies in the power crisis that crippled California's economy in 2000 and 2001. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in an exhaustive study released last week, found that Enron and more than 30 other major companies in the energy markets manipulated not only wholesale electricity prices but also the price of natural gas, a basic fuel for generators. This manipulation was enough to bankrupt a major utility and cost the state billions in excess electricity charges.
Industry complaints about a "biased report" should not be taken seriously. The commission has historically bent over backward to be fair to industry, and the companies will have plenty of opportunities to plead their case before the final report. Meanwhile, though, the basic contours of their deception seem unmistakably clear.
The commission noted, however, that California itself is partly to blame for embracing a "fatally flawed" deregulation scheme, which discouraged long-term contracts and virtually invited price manipulation on the daily spot market. In addition, the state did not encourage, and industry did not build, nearly enough generating capacity to keep pace with California's superheated economy.
To everyone's great relief, the crisis has largely receded, for consumers if not for the state's budget ? in part because new capacity has come on line, and in part because of a vigorous, if largely underreported, program of energy conservation. Yet the fact remains that sharks in the energy business made things much worse than they would otherwise have been. Now there is a big gap between what California thinks it is owed in compensation and what the commission thinks it deserves. Whatever the final figure, it should not only be fair but also big enough to send a message about energy suppliers' responsibility to play fair in deregulated markets.[/b]
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