Bush's reply to California's Energy Crisis—"Drop Dead California"

Six months after Bush Jr. became president California had an acute shortage of electricity. They started shutting off the power to city sections claiming there just wasn't enough electricity. After 1 hour they would restore the power and switch off the power to a different city section. These were called rolling blackouts.

This was unusual because there had never been any problems prior to Bush becoming president, and the rolling blackouts occurred during a time of year when electricity usage is typically at it's lowest. Ratepayers saw their utility bills increase 40 percent.

One of our senators tried repeatedly for weeks to get an audience with President Bush to discuss the emergency. Her requests were ignored. President Bush's reply to California was, "Drop dead, California." After three weeks of petitioning the Bush administration our California senator finally received a written reply from the Bush administration in which her name was misspelled.

We now know this Energy Crisis was nothing more than a sophisticated shell game and elaborate con job expertly orchestrated by giant energy conglomerates like Enron - which effectively fleeced California taxpayers and rate payers out of untold billions of dollars.

George W. Bush told California that he would not lift the federal government's protective arm to prevent the pillaging and looting by his Texas cronies and campaign contributors. At the time those who dared suggest that the real culprits were the energy traders like Enron - a new breed of corporate cat that markets, but does not produce, energy - were treated with all the respect and forbearance reserved for street-corner pamphleteers who insist the moon landings were staged. Things, it turns out, were far worse than any conspiracy nut could have imagined.

Remember how we were told California didn't have enough energy plants to go around? Turns out, according to an illuminating article in the L.A. Times last weekend (June 15-16, 2002), the energy traders - Duke, Dyenergy, Mirant, Reliant, and AES Corp - ran their California plants at 50 percent production capacity from May 2000 to June 2001. Similar plants out of state were run at much higher capacity.

Remember how we were told the power grids were insufficient to carry the load? Turns out that during the alleged shortage, those lines never ran fully loaded. Remember how we were told a drought in the Pacific Northwest had crippled much of the out-of-state hydroelectric production upon which we rely? Turns out the drought's effect was greatly exaggerated. Turns out the energy companies were diverting power that otherwise would have gone to California to their subsidiaries in the Pacific North-West. And then they sold that same power back to California consumers at tremendous mark-ups. Remember Ross Perot, that greedy corporate parasite who convinced many an otherwise sentient human being that he was in fact a populist crusader? Turns out he - and others just like him - have devised shrewd and effective strategies for "gaming" the system to create artificial shortages when none in reality existed.

The moral of the story is steal big, don't steal little, and crime pays, especially if your friend and close associate is the President of the United States.

-- Parts taken from Nick Welsh, "Angry Poodle Barbecue," Santa Barbara Independent Newspaper, June 20-27, 2002, p. 15


Enron CEO Kenneth Lay and George W. Bush at Enron stadium Enron CEO Kenneth Lay and George W. Bush at Enron stadium, Saturday, April 8, 2000. President Bush, who now denies ever knowing Kenneth Lay, has actually been good friends ($) with him for a long time and calls him "Kenny Boy." Enron contributed $1.14 Million to Bush's election campaign.

cover Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron
by Mimi Swartz, Sherron Watkins(2003)
Fully documents the scam Enron played against California and Bush's "Drop Dead California" attitude.
Read excerpt here.

Other Links
Judge: Enron Should Repay Calif $32.5 Million (July 15, 2003)(article expired)
Enron-gate (by Molly Ivens)

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