California Scheming

Even Fox News, in describing pre-trial decisions in the Kenny Boy Lay/Jeff Skilling Enron trials, reports, without equivocation, that Enron traders were at the heart of the California energy crisis a few years ago.

That includes prosecution testimony from former in-house Enron lawyer Richard Sanders regarding his June 2001 meeting with Skilling during which he informed the CEO about the California gaming strategies. Those strategies included making uncongested transmission lines seem congested with fraudulent schedules for energy so Enron could be paid to solve a problem that didn't exist.

It seems like all the people (let's start with George Bush and Dick Cheney and then work our way down to Ahhnold, who largely rode the energy crisis train to his recall election) who blamed, in no particular order:

1) The "nimby" California, alfalfa sprout eating, liberal dopes;
2) The EPA;
3) The Clinton Administration;
4) The Clean Air Act;
5) Gray Davis (no hero, but blame him for his real mistakes);
6) A lack of drilling in ANWR (ok, maybe they didn't, but it was only because they didn't think of it)

owe the rest of us, and particularly the people of California who suffered through insufferable political attacks and profoundly irritating rolling blackouts, an apology.

We're waiting.