Good bye California!

Bush seems to have alienated California by washing his hands off the massive power crisis being faced by the state. Is personal politics more at play here than his convictions about deregulating the energy industry? SV News Services

Thursday, January 25, 2001

In his first week in office, President Bush has exceeded even the dimmest expectations. Just consider this: His first act was restricting abortion, some priority! His second act was to tell California it is on its own in solving the massive power crisis. Ironically, in doing so Bush has all but performed a late-term abortion on his chances of winning California in any re-election bid he may mount in 2004.

Even to the most objective observer it would seem blatantly clear that Bush's nonchalant attitude towards California's crisis has a lot more to do with personal politics than personal convictions on deregulation of the energy industry.

Clearly Bush is desperate to gain support for his $1.3 trillion income tax cut proposal. The only way to get public support for the program, which heavily favors the more wealthy taxpayers, is to create a climate of economic weakness and uncertainty.

For weeks, Bush has been down-talking the US economy. Now, California has handed Bush a golden opportunity to really put a dent in the economy. A few more power outages and the California economy will have nowhere to go but into a slump. Last week's two days of rolling blackouts cost the state's economy an estimated $1.3 billion.

Because it is so vast, the California economy (the sixth largest in the world) would quickly pull the rest of the US economy down with it. Bush appears to be gambling that his massive tax cut will subsequently pull the economy out of any kind of mild recession, allowing him to claim credit and paving the way towards a second term in office.

As a nice side effect to it all, Bush and Cheney's friends in the energy industry will be getting a nice return on the $27 million they donated to Bush's campaign. They stand to make a killing as energy prices soar across the United States following the expected energy price hikes that face Californians no matter what the outcome of the current crisis.

Thank you Florida.

http://www.ciol.com/content/news/trends/101012501.asp

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 25, 2001

Answers

What I'm wondering is what happens when companies such as Enron lose a paying customer. If Enron can not sell power, will the power suppliers run into a cash flow problem.

-- David Williams (DAVIDWILL@prodigy.net), January 25, 2001.

Thank you Florida. ?!?!?

If you Californy'ers had kept your parents at home, instead of them letting them drive our roads (driving 25 in a 45 & making left turns from the far right lane) then they could of voted with your help. We had nothing to do with it!

And let's not forget that IF Gore had won either his home state or Clinton's home state he would of won the election! -- In either case it has been well over 100++ years since an incumbent has not won a home state. Now that should tell you something about them.

Bush ain't no prize, but Gore was a sure @$#@$%@#$%^&$#&&(*&) !!

-- fair use act quotation: for educational and reserach purposes (perry@ofuzzy1.com), January 25, 2001.

Martin,

You're doing a great job with the posts. Where/how do you find them. Most, like this one, need a dose of reality. Here goes a try!

1. The CA power industry was not deregulated. People who say this either do not know the meaning of the word, havenot paid attention to what actually happened (reregulation) or both.

2. The problem is not enough power to meet the demand. It can only be resolved by reducing demand or increasing supply. The latter takes a couple years of red tape plus a year or two construction time and it presupposes a site(s) can be found. San Jose just turned down a plant for ecological/aesthetic reasons. The former is easier said than done.

3. If Bush could solve the problem from DC (District of Corruption), why didn't Clinton? (I'm libertarian and no fan of either). Does anyone have a suggestion as to exactly what any politician can do to solve the problem? Send money?

The looming energy problem was one of the reasons I left CA in December '99. The other was the recession we are also now in, a condition which exists no matter what Bush says or does! It won't go away by denying it.

WRK Sedona

-- Warren Ketler (wrkttl@earthlink.net), January 25, 2001.

Warren

Note that I picked this story up on a website from India. Maybe that is why it doesn't completely make sense.

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 25, 2001.

Martin, None of them make much sense to me, no matter from whence they come!

Warren

-- Warren Ketler (wrkttl@earthlink.net), January 25, 2001.