Energy

California Supreme Court upholds energy bill hikes

August 22, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Associated Press</p> <p>"What the Supreme Court has said here is the utility companies get to reap all the rewards of deregulation but when deregulation goes into the toilet, the utilities still win," said Harvey Rosenfeld, of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.</p>

Davis Still Can Ease Power Rates

August 21, 2003  ·  Harvey Rosenfield

<p class="source">The Los Angeles Times</p> <p>It was a shortage of political courage that allowed the energy companies to plunder the state three years ago. Davis now has one last chance to wield the power of his office on behalf of the people or face a political blackout of his own.</p>

Davis Still Can Ease Power Rates

August 21, 2003  ·  Harvey Rosenfield

<!-- excerpt --><p>It was a shortage of political courage that allowed the energy companies to plunder the state three years ago. Davis now has one last chance to wield the power of his office on behalf of the people or face a political blackout of his own.</p>

Solve the puzzles of blackout to avert a repeat crisis

August 16, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Kansas City Star</p> <p>Did deregulation of electric utilities contribute to the problem? The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, which advocates more utility regulation, notes that most of the states affected by the outage have deregulated electric utilities in recent</p>

PUC pressured to lay off power plant inspectors

August 15, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">The San Diego Union-Tribune</p> <p>"Consumers who have paid to have the regulatory protections and benefits of the PUC are not only having their money taken to bail out other government mistakes, we are losing the front line of protection against the power industry," said Douglas Heller</p>

Perspectives on Recall: Schwarzenegger and Ken Lay Meeting

August 14, 2003  ·  Carmen Balber

<p class="source">Institute for Public Accuracy</p> <p>In May of 2001, Enron's Ken Lay convened a private meeting with junk bond king Michael Milken, Los Angeles' then-Mayor Richard Riordan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, at which Lay reportedly presented his vision of solving the state's energy deregulation...</p>

California’s economy

August 12, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">CBS Evening News (6:30 PM ET) - CBS-TV</p> <p>Mr. HARVEY ROSENFIELD (Consumer Rights Advocate): The things that made California the Golden State no longer exist. We have problems in housing, health care, mass transportation, highways.</p>

SoCal Edison Power Purchase Draws Fire

July 31, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">THE ELECTRICITY DAILY</p> <p>Meanwhile, Doug Heller of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights told the Times, "The notion of some 30-year deal, signed-off on by FERC, is totally insufficient," adding "We don t like this structure, and we will be watching this."</p>

Edison’s Plans for New Plant Draw Heat;

July 28, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Consumer watchdogs and rival electricity producers cite worries about the structure of wholesale power deals.</h3><p class="source">The Los Angeles Times</p> <p>"We would encourage the development of publicly owned or at least publicly regulated power plants in California to combat the failed deregulation experiment.", said Doug Heller of the Santa Monica-based FTCR.</p>

A Refinery’s Fever Pitch;

July 28, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>One of California's 13 gasoline plants strains to keep up output, but a variety of problems can lead to an outage and higher prices.</h3><p class="source">The Los Angeles Times</p> <p>"When you see a system that is riddled with outages just at a time when people use it most, like the summer drive time, it reminds me of the California electricity crisis," said Jamie Court, executive director of FTCR.</p>

DRIVE-BY REPORT CARD OF SOME HELP

July 22, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER</p> <p>The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights gives Seattle a C+ compared with other major cities in how well we control "public power and unwarranted industry intrusions into the lives and culture of residents."</p>

Chocolate Decadence

July 22, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">The Los Angeles Times</p> <p>Electric power industry officials called it a "Night of Chocolate Decadence" when they threw a soiree early this month at the home of one of their lobbyists. A bill to re-regulate the electric power industry, strongly opposed by the industry, died days</p>