The fall of 1999, if you want to get technical. Prior to Gray, Pete Wilson - - a Republican - - was in office from 1991 to 1999. To restate the obvious, it was Pete Wilson who ignored San Diego's experience with deregulation. Deregulation was in place before Gray became Governor.
Here's your quote again:
"But did this just sneak up on you? When did you become aware that this was a big problem?
We started focusing on this in earnest late summer and early fall."Meaning, Davis' team started focusing on it "in earnest" in the late summer of 2000. Davis had been in office less than a year at that point.
Here's more of the quote, immediately after your quote, which explains what "focusing in earnest" meant, and what Davis was up against:
There are two things I can do, and one thing I can't do. I can build more power plants. In the 12 years before us, not a single plant of major consequence was built. I've approved 13 major plants. Eight are under construction as we're talking. ... we've had to ask people to conserve power to help us over the hump. So I've signed $800 million worth of conservation initiatives to get people to save at least 10 percent a month.
The third problem is the price problem, which is entirely in the federal government's jurisdiction. We can't control it, and the federal government has been siding completely with the big energy companies in Texas, and not with the public in California.As for your aside about Lockyer... gimme a break. If you're so upset about pols not learning the lessons of deregulation, why don't you turn your anger toward Aaanold?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/10/11/MN20927.DTLNew push to deregulate energy
Schwarzenegger electricity plan fuels fears of another debacle
Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing a push to deregulate the state's electricity markets -- a move embraced by business leaders and some energy analysts but criticized by many Democrats and consumer advocates as a return to the failed policies that sparked California's energy crisis.
Although the new Republican governor-elect will be consumed at first with tackling the state's budget woes, his advisers say he will push changes next year aimed at lowering energy costs for industry and large power users while encouraging energy firms to build more power plants to help meet rising demand.
The actor-turned-politician made little mention of his plan to reduce state regulation of energy markets during the recall race, devoting his time instead to bashing Gov. Gray Davis for saddling the state with expensive long-term contracts for power. But with many of those contracts set to expire in the next two years, the governor-elect will have to present his solutions or risk facing his own energy crisis. Aaanold is still pushing deregulation.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=139-06042004FTCR: Enron Tapes Should Be Nail in Coffin of Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Proposals to Deregulate CA Energy System
SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 4 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Consumer advocates called on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to give up deregulation components of their energy proposals in light of the devastating revelations found in recently uncovered taped conversations among Enron employees.
The tapes, which are available at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/01/eveningnews/main620626.shtml provide a curse-laden play-by-play of how energy companies stole millions from California and manipulated the deregulated energy market in the name of profit.
(snip)
FTCR has opposed legislation by Nunez (AB 2006) and a proposal by Schwarzenegger that would each allow big businesses to buy power directly from unregulated power companies. According to FTCR, these proposals, known as "direct access," would balkanize the state's electricity by initially allowing big energy users to buy cheaper unregulated power, while residential and small business consumers pay higher rates for electricity. Once the deregulation scheme was in effect, the energy companies would return to the gouging schemes exposed in the tapes and by various other documents collected during investigations into energy companies' practices during the California energy crisis.Here's a blast from the past for you about Aaanold's meeting with Kenny Boy:
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/utilities/pr/pr003708.php3Enron E-mails Confirm Schwarzenegger-Ken Lay Meeting
Enron E-Mails Show Arnold Met With Ken Lay During Energy Crisis
Santa Monica, CA -- Internal Enron e-mails confirm that Arnold Schwarzenegger was among a small group of executives who met with Lay at the posh Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel in May of 2001, in the midst of California's energy crisis. View the e-mails. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, which obtained the e-mails, is calling on Schwarzenegger to acknowledge the meetings and disclose the information that was presented and discussed. The meeting with Enron occurred ten days after rolling blackouts darkened California for two consecutive days; Schwarzenegger has previously said that he does not remember such a meeting.
"You don't meet with America's most well-known corporate crook in the middle of California's biggest financial disaster and not remember," said FTCR's senior consumer advocate Douglas Heller. "Mr. Schwarzenegger should come clean about what happened at that meeting and if he shares Ken Lay's views on energy regulation."
The documents provide a list of invitees to the hastily arranged meeting and a list of those who actually attended. Only eleven of the 45 invitees attended, including Schwarzenegger. The meeting was meant to be an opportunity to gain business community support for Enron's "comprehensive solution" to the energy crisis. In one e-mail, Enron's VP of Public Relations wrote: "We'd like to position this meeting as an insider's conversation of what's going on with the energy situation. This meeting should be for principals only." (emphasis in original) Here's the emails discussed in the article:
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/utilities/rp/rp003709.pdf Context. It's a beautiful thing.
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