HOAX – How Deregulation Let the Power Industry Steal $71 Billion From California
<h3>How Deregulation Let the Power Industry Steal $71 Billion From California</h3>
Energy
Energy and utility watchdog coverage — gas prices, oil-industry profits, utility rates, and clean-energy accountability.
Consumer advocates call power shortage a hoax; ISO disagrees
<p class="source">The Associated Press</p>
<p>On the anniversary of last year's rolling blackouts, consumer advocates, energy suppliers and state power officials disagreed on the causes of the energy shortage - or if a shortage even existed.</p>
Enron’s California smoking gun
<h3>Did the Bush administration do the disgraced company's bidding during the state's electricity crisis?</h3><p class="source">Salon.com</p>
<p>Remember the California energy crisis? As the implications of the collapse of Enron spiral ever wider, increasing attention is being paid to the close connections between the White House and the Texas energy trader.</p>
State seeks $4 billion from PG&E
<h3>Suit says firm's actions led utility to bankruptcy</h3><p class="source">The San Diego Union-Tribune</p>
<p>State Attorney General Bill Lockyer yesterday charged that Pacific Gas and Electric Corp. drove its regulated utility business into bankruptcy by engaging in illegal and fraudulent business practices.</p>
REGULATORS SEEK VOICE IN PG&E FATE
<h3>CALIFORNIA COMMISSION SAYS IT HAS A PLAN TO PAY OFF DEBTS AND RESTORE THE UTILITY'S FINANCIAL HEALTH</h3><p class="source">Contra Costa Times</p>
<p>California regulators, intent on preserving their authority to set utility rates, asked a bankruptcy judge Tuesday to let them file their own proposal for paying off the creditors of PG&E Corp.'s utility unit.</p>
PUC Seeks OK to File New PG&E Reorganization Plan
<h3>Agency aims to keep the utility under its thumb, halting effort to transfer transmission and generation facilities to new corporate entities.</h3><p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p>
<p>State utility regulators asked a federal bankruptcy judge Tuesday for permission to file an alternative plan for reorganizing financially ailing Pacific Gas & Electric Co., saying it could reduce electricity rates for millions of Northern and Central Cali</p>
State power regulators protest PG&E bankruptcy plan
<p class="source">The Associated Press</p>
<p>California's largest utility has amassed $4.9 billion in cash and should use that money to pay its debts and emerge from bankruptcy, the state Public Utilities Commission said Tuesday in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.</p>
Power initiative off for now
<p class="source">The Associated Press</p>
<p>A consumer rights group has scrapped plans for a ballot initiative to overturn the proposed government bailout of troubled utility Southern California Edison.</p>
Assembly’s next leader enjoys the game
<p class="source">San Jose Mercury News</p>
<p>Herb Wesson has tried his hand at a series of colorful jobs: He's donned a gold smock to shampoo rugs as a house cleaner, whipped up water-free dinners selling gimmicky cookware door-to-door and honed his wit as a stand-up comedian.</p>
Looking for Commitment
<p class="source">The Bond Buyer</p>
<p>While the California Public Utilities Commission's proposed plan to set rates that would back up to $13.4 billion in power bonds is a step in the right direction, many legal questions must still be answered before any debt can be sold, market participant</p>
INDISTINCT ELECTRICITY STRATEGY CRITICIZED
<h3>LONG-TERM SYSTEMIC PROBLEMS SEEN IF STATE STAYS THE CURRENT COURSE</h3><p class="source">Contra Costa Times</p>
<p>With the lights no longer flickering and power once again cheap and abundant in the West, most California energy users probably woke up today without a hangover -- at least of the energy variety.</p>
Gas Marketers: Oblivious to All the Fuss
<h3>New mega-marketers, niche players emphasize opportunity.</h3><p class="source">PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY</p>
<p>THE NATURAL GAS TRADING BUSINESS HAS been on a roll since the mid-1980s, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order 436, giving birth to the concept of gas marketing companies.</p>