Gray Davis doesn't mince words when it comes to the energy industry. The California governor likes to describe them as "the biggest snakes on the planet" or whatever his public-relations staff thinks will convince California's voters to re-elect him.
There was one piece missing from Davis' story. He didn't back up his accusations--that power companies in Houston have royally screwed California--with numbers. He didn't provide any information on how much the state paid, and to whom, for electricity over the past several months. All he did was slam private power companies. His leftist friends took it from there. They accused private companies of being motivated only by profits, whereas the public utilities took care of their customers. They blamed capitalism and the free market for causing the energy crisis.
A couple of weeks ago, lawsuits succeeded in getting the information Davis didn't want Californians to see. It turns out that publicly owned utilities charged the state an average of $344 per megawatt of electricity during the first three months of the year. During that same period, private utility companies were charging about $250 per megawatt.
That's right. The privately-owned utility companies were actually charging LESS for electricity than the publicly-owned utilities right there in California!
Gray Davis has known about this all along. His entire story is a lie. It's all been a campaign to bash corporate America, extol the virtues of socialism, and promote the candidacy of Gray Davis for governor.
But you probably didn't know any of this, because the entire nation was absorbed in the Gary Condit-Chandra Levy story...and anything that makes a prominent Democrat like Gray Davis look bad doesn't get much press.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-taylor072701.shtml
There was one piece missing from Davis' story. He didn't back up his accusations--that power companies in Houston have royally screwed California--with numbers. He didn't provide any information on how much the state paid, and to whom, for electricity over the past several months. All he did was slam private power companies. His leftist friends took it from there. They accused private companies of being motivated only by profits, whereas the public utilities took care of their customers. They blamed capitalism and the free market for causing the energy crisis.
A couple of weeks ago, lawsuits succeeded in getting the information Davis didn't want Californians to see. It turns out that publicly owned utilities charged the state an average of $344 per megawatt of electricity during the first three months of the year. During that same period, private utility companies were charging about $250 per megawatt.
That's right. The privately-owned utility companies were actually charging LESS for electricity than the publicly-owned utilities right there in California!
Gray Davis has known about this all along. His entire story is a lie. It's all been a campaign to bash corporate America, extol the virtues of socialism, and promote the candidacy of Gray Davis for governor.
But you probably didn't know any of this, because the entire nation was absorbed in the Gary Condit-Chandra Levy story...and anything that makes a prominent Democrat like Gray Davis look bad doesn't get much press.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-taylor072701.shtml
