Iraq to privatize electricity

[Barrett808]

Source: UPI

Analysis: Iraq to privatize electricity
Published: Sept. 6, 2007 at 10:32 AM
By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Editor

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Two of Iraq’s many needs right now are more electricity and more investment. A law being drafted could satisfy both, paving the way for foreign and domestic private companies to build power plants, a step toward fully privatizing the electricity sector.

“It should be short coming,” a senior U.S. official working in Baghdad on Iraq’s electricity sector told United Press International on condition of anonymity on the sidelines of an Iraq energy conference.

A top legal adviser is working on it with the Electricity Ministry, the source said, adding it “could be” before Parliament before the year’s end.

Others UPI spoke to refused to go on the record but confirmed the law was being worked on in a parliamentary committee as well, with the help of another U.S. official in Baghdad.

“Yes, we have plans for privatization,” Iraq Electricity Minister Karim Waheed Hasan told UPI. “We have two projects which should be under execution very soon. We are planning to announce many stations, many power plants.”

Read more: http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2007/09/06/analysis_iraq_to_privatize_electricity_/3068

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Enron comes to Iraq!

[TwilightGardener]

1. Halliburton! Bechtel! Paging all defense contractors!

[Kagemusha]

2. One could almost ask how much worse it can get

with provinces taking themselves off the national grid manually and leaving Bagdhad to rot...

[sofa king]

3. What could possibly go wrong?

As a side question, how many hundreds of billions of dollars has the United States and Iraq paid to independent contractors to restore electrical power to Iraq?

That's an important question which will not be satisfactorily answered by the Reverend Moon's news service.

[Tempest]

4. Iraq will have its own versions of Death Star

Load Shift And Fat Boy.

[Baby Snooks]

5. Enron first. Then deregulation....

Wait until the Iraqis get their first bill with the "fuel surcharge" added. Ain't democracy grand?

[Greyskye]

6. After all, that's worked so well here.

:sarcasm:

[electprogdems]

7. the desired, err end result will be

electrical rates 3, 4 or 5 times what they were paying.

[Indenturedebtor]

8. Well

Better late than never I always say. Before too long they'll hate us for the freedom of the rich to rape the poor. I hate that freedom too.. does that make me a terist?

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. And we actually wondered why it was taking so long to get power

up in Bagdhad.

[november3rd]

10. Congress Should Be Snarling In Their Faces

There's no way the US Congress can do their job of oversight of rebuilding Iraq while allowing the US to influence Iraqi policy so as to allow ENRON to take over the country's electricity.

It is common knowledge that utilities need to be local and publicly owned in order to reliably serve their customers with accountability.

Brings to mind this piece in the Guardian today about how the American government can't function anymore.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2163013,00.html?

the American political system as a whole is failing to deliver consistent policy and good governance.

[donkeyotay]

13. We're reaping what Newtie's revolution sowed. Privatization of every function

of good government has rendered our democracy dysfunctional.
From your link:

Iraq's government has failed, but America's isn't doing so well either


"...why has the Bush administration been so incompetent? Behind that is a larger question about how the American political system as a whole is failing to deliver consistent policy and good governance. ...

Congress, the administration and senior military commanders berate the Iraqi government for failing to meet Washington's political and security "benchmarks". But the long-suffering ordinary people of Iraq are entitled to ask in return how the American government has delivered on its own promises. ...

Next week we will again be considering what the US can tell us about Iraq and its government; we should also consider what Iraq tells us about the US and its government.

...the disproportionate influence of lobbyists and funders, and an absurdly frenetic election timetable...

The same is badly needed for the governance of the US. Then the US government could set itself, as it has set the Iraqi government, a list of benchmarks.

[maxrandb]

11. Is Baghdad Bob

Now working for the Iraqi Electricity Ministry??

“We have two projects which should be under execution very soon. We are planning to announce many stations, many power plants.”

Hmmm, kind of sounds like, "there are no Americans in Baghdad, everything is under control, our military has driven the invaders back to Kuwait".

[ProudDad]

12. It was a SHITTY idea in California, it's a shitty idea in Iraq

Thank Dog we have Municipal power here in Tucson...

[GregW]

14. Hey! Maybe Gray Davis can run it for them!

:sarcasm:

Or should I say, "Maybe Gray Davis can be the fall guy for them!"