 begin forwarded text date wed NUMBER sep NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER to digital bearer settlement list dbs philodox com from r a hettinga rah shipwright com subject california needs intelligent energy deregulation sender dbs philodox com URL posted on tue sep NUMBER NUMBER dan gillmor state needs intelligent energy deregulation by dan gillmor mercury news technology columnist the facts were trade and government secrets at the time but the energy industry failed the smell test in NUMBER and NUMBER as it tried to justify soaring wholesale electricity and natural gas prices in california now as investigators and regulators unravel the reasons for a financial and fiscal mess we ll be cleaning up for decades we re learning what everyone suspected market games helped engineer the price spikes the latest manipulation was highlighted in monday s finding by a federal administrative law judge who said a dominant natural gas company squeezed supplies in order to squeeze customers his ruling came a few days after california s public utilities commission reported that electricity generators mysteriously failed to use available capacity during the crunch also driving up prices and don t forget the sleazy games by energy traders who gleefully worked the system in schemes best summed up by an enron insider s boast in a memorandum made public in may that enron gets paid for moving energy to relieve congestion without actually moving any energy or relieving any congestion how much of this was illegal as opposed to simply amoral remains to be seen unfortunately california s response confusion lawsuits and policy tweaks hasn t been sufficient more unfortunately even if the state suddenly did all the right things including a hard nosed program designed to free ourselves from the gougers grips we would need a willing federal partner but it s foolish to think that the bush administration would do much to help one of its least favorite states or do anything that conflicts with its love of traditional non renewable energy sources if the lawsuits against various energy companies and traders bear any fruit the best we can expect is to pay off some of the massive debts the state amassed to prevent a total collapse in early NUMBER that s a reasonable approach but don t expect miracles state policies are moving the wrong way on utility regulation meanwhile instead of relentlessly pursuing smart deregulation still a good idea if it gives customers genuine choices state laws and regulations put the utilities back in the business of buying energy for captive customers notes v john white executive director of the sacramento based center for energy efficiency and renewable technologies www ceert org it s tempting to call for an outright state takeover of the utilities tempting but a bad idea when there s genuine competition as we could achieve in electricity generation the private sector tends to do a better job instead of abandoning deregulation california should find a way to inject real competition into the market we do need to recognize that the current system of delivering electricity defies privatization at least under current conditions smart regulation is essential but the best response to gouging is to use less of what the gougers control there are two ways conservation and replacement we need more of both the best recent step is a new state law that slowly but surely ratchets up the use of electricity from renewables by NUMBER california s utilities will have to get NUMBER percent of their power from solar and other renewable sources several power companies are expected to do this even sooner but this law has an element of old line thinking the captive customer model we need to be getting away from not sustaining lip service to newer ideas isn t enough the state should be removing barriers to micro generation systems small generators that can run on a variety of fuels and provide decentralized harder to disrupt electricity to homes and businesses this technology is coming along fast state policies are not keeping pace investing to save energy is increasingly the smartest move of all california should be doing more to encourage this whether through tax incentives or outright grants in low income households california hasn t done badly on conservation in a general sense and energy customers did react to last year s soaring rates and blackouts by cutting back but it s lunacy to wait for the next crisis when we can do something to avoid it altogether maybe this is all pointless the bush administration s energy policies so grossly tilted toward the unholy trinity of oil coal and nuclear are making us all more vulnerable never mind what might happen if the coming war in iraq goes badly it s pointless to hope for a sane federal policy a crash program to drastically speed the inevitable transition to a hydrogen based energy system but the largest state one of the world s major economies in its own right does have some clout we can hit the rip off artists where it hurts and protect ourselves from even more serious disruptions maybe next year r a hettinga mailto rah ibuc com the internet bearer underwriting corporation URL NUMBER farquhar street boston ma NUMBER usa however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity predicting the end of the world has not been found agreeable to experience edward gibbon decline and fall of the roman empire end forwarded text r a hettinga mailto rah ibuc com the internet bearer underwriting corporation URL NUMBER farquhar street boston ma NUMBER usa however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity predicting the end of the world has not been found agreeable to experience edward gibbon decline and fall of the roman empire 