[GBlist] Re: FTCR Report: The California Energy Crisis Was a $71 Billion Hoax

["Dr. C.F. Vasile" <gfx-ch@msn.com>]

Dear Fellow Enron-Victims in California:     Imagine how many
energy-conservation systems of all kinds $71-billion could have bought
Californians? Instead it appears to have bought a National Energy program
lacking Energy Star standards for key home energy systems. Had Enron
survived, lots of profits from planned-waste and future generations would
have been guaranteed to Enron and its associates.

Is defeating Energy Star standards "evidence of cash for favors" to Enron?

*****    On January 18, 2002, Ken Fireman of Newsday's Washington Bureau
wrote a story entitled: "Bush Energy Bill Feels Heat of Enron Storm";
stating  "The Bush administration labored yesterday to salvage its energy
program from the wreckage of the Enron scandal, fending off criticism that
its policies were tailored to suit Enron's needs and rejecting congressional
demands for information about its contacts with the energy industry."

To benefit Enron, OPEC, and all utiltiies, Mark Ginsberg, Deputy Assistant
Secretary, Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs,
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and other DOE/EPA officials continue
to deny Energy Star standards/labels for domestic hot water (DHW) and
drainwater heat recovery (DHR) systems; knowing Americans annually waste
over 950 billion kWh-thermal in hot water down drains servicing millions of
tank-type DHWs that waste more billions in standby & stack losses. (See "Why
There's No Energy Star Program for Water Heaters", Energy Design Update
(EDU), October 2001)

*****    In "How Do We Know It's Bad" (Newsday 1/20/02, B4) Glenn H.
Reynolds, defends the Bush Administration by writing: "The company gave
millions in campaign contributions, but still got no bailout".. "So far,
however, it's hard to see what the scandal is.". "At present, there's no
evidence of cash for favors. The cash is in evidence, but not the favors. If
Enron (directly or via donations from its executives) paid regulators to
look the other way, nobody has proven it. And if it paid people to bail it
out, the company didn't get much for its money, as no visible help has been
forthcoming."

Isn't "visible" "evidence of cash for favors" the lack of such Energy Star
standards in the President's energy program?

Doesn't this fact alone make it "tailored to suit Enron's needs" by
guaranteeing the waste of energy equivalent to billions of gallons of oil
per year --- to offset falling energy/electricy prices --- especially after
Californians took steps in late last spring to end price-gouging by Enron,
Duke, and Reliance?

How "much" is a cover-up of a RICO-investigation worth?
Would this be considered "visible help" by the Bush administration?

When President Bush took office, President Clinton's Inspector General was
investigating a RICO complaint involving Enron, the Edison Electric
Institute (EEI), the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB), the NAHB
Research Center, four of Enron's utility customers, and others. Some details
of this investigation and a quote from a DOE official admitting "government
incompetence" were published in: "GFX Inventor Says Malpractice at NAHB
Research Center Hurt His Business", Energy Design Update (EDU), September
2000.

But President Bush's Inspector General terminated this RICO-investigation
last spring. (DOE-OIG Hotline Case No. 100R5096)

According to Assistant Inspector General Geoffrey Gray, this investigation
was terminated because of a December 7, 2000 Memorandum by Mark Ginsberg,
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Building Technology, State and
Community Programs, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The case was
reopened after proof was provided to the OIG showing Mr. Ginsberg made false
statements in this Memorandum.

=====================================================
Dr. Carmine F. Vasile, Ph.D. Electrophysics
WaterFilm Energy Inc.; P.O. Box 128; Medford, NY 11763
Voice: 631-758-6271 [Fax: 631-758-0438]
Email: gfx-ch@msn.com Web: http://oikos.com/gfx/
=====================================================


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ratepayer Revolt" <admin@consumerwatchdog.org>
To: <utilities@consumerwatchdog.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 12:11 PM
Subject: FTCR Report: The California Energy Crisis Was a $71 Billion Hoax


> The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR)
> issued the first comprehensive review of the California energy
> crisis today, exactly one year after the first rolling blackouts hit
> California.  Using government and industry data, the 58 page
> report, entitled "Hoax: How Deregulation Let the Power Industry
> Steal $71 Billion From California," shows that the California
> electricity system did not fail according to the laws of supply and
> demand, as it has been widely portrayed.  The California energy
> crisis, instead, was a hoax - orchestrated by a power industry
> freed from price regulation - that will cost $2,200 for every
> Californian.
>
> The report is available at
> http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/utilities/rp/rp002169.pdf
>
> For nearly a year, the energy industry, state officials and
> President Bush claimed there was a shortage of energy in
> California. But the crisis suddenly disappeared late last spring
> after Governor Gray Davis committed the state to spending at
> least $43 billion for energy over the next twenty years. The report
> shows that the power industry manufactured blackouts and
> threatened more of them as tools to gain unprecedented profits
> and overpriced, long-term contracts during the crisis.  The report
> also warns that unless the state of California regains control of
> its electricity supply, and makes it publicly accountable,
> additional artificially-created crises will occur in the immediate
> future.
>
> "The energy crisis was a hoax, set up by deregulation, to suck
> billions of dollars out of the state," said Harvey Rosenfield and
> Doug Heller of FTCR, a non-profit, non-partisan research and
> advocacy group based in California. "The utilities, energy
> companies and power traders backed deregulation because
> they knew it would be a license to steal. Once freed of state
> scrutiny - once the cop was off the beat - they held the state
> hostage until we agreed to pay their demands.  When they stole
> as much as they thought they could get away with, the 'crisis'
> mysteriously disappeared - leaving the people of California
> stuck with the tab."
>
>  "It wasn't a shortage, it was a shakedown," FTCR said.
>
> Among its findings, the report shows that:
>
> * The rolling blackouts, which occurred on generally low-demand
> days, were not caused by a shortage of power plants, but by
> energy companies looking to maximize their prices and profits.
> * Throughout late 2000 and 2001, when prices skyrocketed,
> California used less electricity than prior years, in which prices
> were stable and there were no blackouts.
> * Californians overpaid $8.5 billion for electricity between
> January and October of 2001 alone - and will overpay at least
> another $20.5 billion over the next decade.
> * While the U.S. entered a recession during the first half of 2001,
> power companies, such as Enron, Duke and Reliant, reaped
> unprecedented windfalls.
> * The crisis suddenly ended -- without the predicted summer
> blackouts -- not because of Californians' conservation, mild
> weather or new power plants, but because the energy industry
> had achieved its goals, and was facing investigations and
> legislation that threatened to "kill the goose that laid the golden
> egg": deregulation.
>
> More Crises Unless Deregulation Ended
>
> The report concludes with a series of policy prescriptions
> including the development of a long-range plan for a hybrid
> energy system that is part private and part publicly-owned power,
> and well regulated.  The study also calls for regulatory and
> statutory changes that will save consumers billions of dollars,
> such as a retroactive ban on "direct access," a re-allocation of
> the electricity rate structure and the formation of a Consumer
> Utility Board.
>
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