California's Energy Confusion:
Thinking Outside the traditional Box

The State’s energy crisis is surely the work of incompetent men. But maybe it is not all incompetence. Historically, African Americans have had to look beyond the facades and false syllogisms and see the truth of the situations they have been placed into when White America has accepted that situation as the norm. This type of thinking--outside the box-reasoning that all others were accepting--has been a method Black people have used to understand reality and to maintain their sanity. 

Maybe this type of critical thought is needed in this situation, where Californians are asked (told) to pay billions of dollars to bail out PG &E and Southern California Edison while those companies are concerned about dividends to their shareholders—a few well-to-do investors—and hide sums of money through diversionary accounting procedures.

Maybe this affair is not simply the incompetence of a cabal of standard White elites on all of us this time. Maybe it is as African Americans have had to see in the past, an almost automated system that attempts to rationalize its shady actions through accounting shell games and other dialectics that rationalize, even justify, the exhausting of the State’s announced surplus and the reaching still further into the pockets of Californians for more, simply because they know they have more. 

When we look at the confusion that is the energy crisis, one thing is certain: we, the public, are confused about what really is happening, and who really is to be held accountable. From its initial smell, it seems Republicans and big business are in a boat discussing ways to take our money and give it to the businesses and the rich elite who manage those businesses. But Sacramento has Gray Davis, who is quite gray indeed on this deal. Surely, he is a part of the incompetence that surrounds California’s energy fiasco. 

Yet, an examination of the complexity of the California energy situation shows the level of confusion that one is confronted with as he/she attempts to wade through the issue. This confusion may be a designed confusion so that the various companies who are now exhausting the State’s surplus and reaching still further into the citizens’ pockets can do so without fear of discovery of what they are really doing. 

Of course, to many, this is nothing short of a conspiracy theorist’s blueprint. However, I have never been viewed as a conspiracy theorist. But  for those who refuse to see a conspiracy regardless of how explicit it is, you should  stop reading now. 

It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine where the vital points of control really are in this California energy nightmare. PG&E and Southern California Edison claim that they are near bankruptcy because of high energy prices, and cannot pay their bills. Consequently, Californians have been introduced to rolling blackouts as a new term in their lexicon and a new situation in their lives. This, no doubt, is to punctuate the energy companies’ point. 

It should be kept in mind that while we try to discuss this confusion rationally to show its confusion, Enron Energies, a Texas company, has had stock prices soaring, along with their 89% profits this quarter--another name to add to our glossary of terms. 

Just last week, PG&E stated that there is no progress being made in their negotiations with the State. And the State officials are demanding that the negotiations and the costs the State is spending for energy be kept secret—Nixon’s secret negotiations in Vietnam, anyone?  On the other hand, the State’s officials say that good progress is being made in their negotiations with PG&E to bail out the energy company. Instead of taking these companies over as a matter of the public’s good—a simple process of Eminent Domain, the State is willing to bailout PG&E and Southern California Edison  so that they can make regular dividend payments to their shareholders and raise the utility rates on a regular basis. PG&E wants a State bailout of $7 billion and an increase in the rates by 45%. But when PG&E is confronted with this energy shortage, as to why and how it has occurred, they refer to others as the real culprits. 

PG&E and Southern California Edison will raise the names of Independent Energy Qualifiers when pushed into a corner. So we add more new terms to our glossary. Then the Western Power Trading Forum, an energy association, weighed in and stated that at least a 30% rate increase for the next decade is the base minimum that is needed for California’s energy. Aside from this new name we must add to our glossary of terms, this group is asking to lock in at least a 30% rate increase for the next ten years. This is in the face of the power generators having overcharged Californians by $6.2 billion, as alleged by the California Independent Systems Operators (ISO)—two additional new terms.  And, of course, there is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, whatever they do. 

The Power Generators have said that a number of in-state power suppliers and some out-of-state suppliers have overcharged them for their electricity, and that is the reason they have charged us as they have—they are just passing their costs on to the public. 

With all of these terms and accusations, it is difficult for the average John Q. Public—and it is that person who pays the utility companies, whomever those companies may be, and the State—to figure out who generates the electricity that comes into our homes, who regulates its so that we do not have our pockets picked, as we seem to be having in a grand fashion now; it is also confusing to know what PG &E and Southern California Edison do, since they both disclaim any blame, responsibility, or control for the mess we are in. Who are these anonymous systems operators? What is the role of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Public Utility Commission in California? Who are these Independent Power Suppliers? Is someone over-looked in this panoply of actors? 

The fact is that all of this seems to be a shell game where there in no coin under any of the shells—except, that is, in the public’s shell, and we are not even in the game. 

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