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Topic: 2000 California energy crisis

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	California electricity crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Part of California's deregulation process, which was promoted as a means of increasing competition, involved the partial divestiture in March 1998 of electricity generation stations by the incumbent utilities, who were still responsible for electricity distribution and were competing with independents in the retail market.
		Then, in 2000, wholesale prices were deregulated, but retail prices were regulated for the incumbents as part of a deal with the regulator, allowing the new power producers to recover the cost of assets that would be stranded as a result of greater competition.
		The crisis, and the subsequent government intervention, have had political ramifications, and is regarded as one of the major contributing factors to the 2003 recall election of Governor Davis.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/California_electricity_crisis (3203 words)

	California Energy Crisis
		Contrary to popular opinion, the California energy crisis was not the result of environmental regulations that prevented power plants from being sited or even entirely the result of the state’s electricity restructuring legislation.
		The present crisis is the result of a complex web of events many of which predate the state’s actual electricity restructuring, and many that were not even a part of restructuring.
		The private utilities were cutting the energy efficiency budgets and acquisition levels back by thousands of megawatts and refusing to acquire the 1400 MW of clean cogeneration and renewables that were cheaper than utility power plants, simply because they were from competitors.
	www.jbsenergy.com /Energy/Papers/California_Energy_Crisis/california_energy_crisis.html (4146 words)

	Wind Performance Report Summary 2000-2001
		Dubbed the "perfect storm" of the West, the California energy crisis was a culmination of decisions by policy makers and actions by the electrical industry that predate the actual industry deregulation.
		California ratepayers are still dealing with the repercussions of an unstable and deficient market structure.
		California has one of the most diverse electricity supply systems in the nation, with an abundant mix of natural resources such as wind, biomass, geothermal, hydroelectric, and solar.
	www.energy.ca.gov /wind/documents/2000-2001_wprs_report (613 words)

	Subsequent Events-California's Energy Crisis
		Although there is not universal agreement on the causes of California's problems, there is general agreement among industry leaders on a core set of factors contributing to the energy crisis.
		During 2000, approximately 10 gigawatts of generation capability was out of operation during some of the high demand times, which contributed to power shortages.
		August 3, 2000: The CPUC issued a rate stabilization plan for SDG&E. The plan was designed to provide electricity price relief for some residential and commercial customers served by SDG&E. August 30, 2000: The California legislature passed a law (AB265) that established rate caps of 6.5 cents per kilowatthour for SDG&E customers.
	www.eia.doe.gov /cneaf/electricity/california/subsequentevents.html (2533 words)

	The Environmental Literacy Council - California Energy Crisis
		In the Spring and Summer of 2000 the demand for electricity in California grew beyond supply, and power disruptions, in the form of rolling flouts, began to rock the state.
		For that reason, they designed an energy market that required the utilities and their suppliers to buy and sell on a short-term “spot market.” While the utility companies and the suppliers were exposed to shifts in the wholesale electricity market, consumers were protected from price increases by a state-imposed price cap.
		Since California energy consumers continued to pay the same low price — even though their state was actually in a deepening energy shortage — they continued to use electricity at the same high rate.
	www.enviroliteracy.org /subcategory.php/155.html (825 words)

	Former PUC president Loretta Lynch on the unlearned lessons of California's 2000 energy crisis
		Loretta Lynch, who was president of the PUC from 2000 to 2002, says there's a simple reason for this dejá vu: the state won't acknowledge that its partial deregulation of the power industry failed.
		California had plenty of power, through 2000 and 2001, that could have been generated in-state.
		California trusted that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would step in and regulate if necessary, which was a huge mistake — the FERC has never shown any ability to regulate on a state-by-state basis, much less the political will to do so.
	www.berkeley.edu /news/media/releases/2005/04/26_lynch.shtml (1950 words)

	California Energy Crisis
		The California Public Utilities Commission has approved average rate increases of 37 percent for the heaviest residential customers and 38 percent for commercial customers, and hikes of up to 49 percent for industrial customers and 15 percent or 20 percent for agricultural customers to help finance the State of California's 2001 energy purchases.
		Total forecast spend in 2001 on energy by Californians is $55 billion, compared to around $7 billion in the years prior to the crisis.
		California power capacity is expected to be 115% of demand by late 2003.
	www.solarbuzz.com /CaliforniaEnergyCrisis.htm (1048 words)

	Jason Leopold: How Reliant Energy Bilked California Consumers
		Energy corporations such as Reliant, Duke, Williams and Enron have said publicly over the past two years that they have acted "properly" and have laid all of the blame on California's crisis on the shoulders of state lawmakers.
		California was the first state in the nation to deregulate its power market in an effort to provide consumers with cheaper electricity and the opportunity to choose their own power provider.
		California is demanding that FERC order the energy company's to refund the state $8.9 billion for overcharging the state for electricity during its yearlong energy crisis.
	www.counterpunch.org /leopold02032003.html (1439 words)

	Drift And Disarray: The California Energy Crisis Continues
		California's rates will be far above the national average because ratepayers are being asked to pay for nearly $20 billion of utility debts, for more than $10 billion for state power purchases incurred during the energy crisis, for state energy bonds, and for about $43 billion in long-term state power purchase contracts.
		California's landmark 1996 legislation which restructured the electricity market designed a limited transition period to full retail and wholesale competition that would end March 31, 2002 and would provide a "cumulative rate reduction for residential and small commercial customers of no less than 20 percent by April 1, 2002." (AB1890 of 1996, Section 1(b)(4)).
		The California electricity market is on life support, stable thanks to high-cost intensive care in the form of long-term power contracts arranged in early 2001 during the height of the energy crisis.
	www.consumersunion.org /telecom/driftrptwc.htm (6588 words)

	California Title 24 Energy Standards
		Because energy efficiency reduces energy costs, increases reliability and availability of electricity, improves building occupant comfort, and reduces impacts to the environment, standards are important and necessary for California’s energy future.
		We learned during the 2000/2001 California energy crisis, and the East Coast flout in the summer of 2003, that our electric distribution network is fragile and system overloads caused by excessive demand from buildings can create unstable conditions.
		To standardize calculations and to provide a basis for presenting the criteria, the Energy Commission has established 16 climate zones, which are used with both the low-rise residential and the nonresidential standards.
	www.title24express.com /title_24_codes.htm (782 words)

	BBC NEWS \| Business \| Enron 'manipulated energy crisis'
		The disgraced energy firm is now reshaping itself as an old-fashioned power company after its move into global energy trading ended in disaster.
		California's two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, are now demanding a criminal investigation by the US Attorney General to see whether the company has committed fraud.
		The FERC is investigating Enron's behaviour during the crisis, which saw wholesale power prices rise by a factor of ten and almost bankrupted three major utilities.
	news.bbc.co.uk /1/hi/business/1972574.stm (644 words)

	Dan's View On The World: California Announces Lawsuit Against Sun
		Thursday's suit was the latest in a string of lawsuits filed in response to the energy crisis by various state and municipal agencies.
		California has thus far had limited success in pursuing the energy companies it blames for creating the crisis that drove wholesale power prices to unprecedented levels and bankrupted the state's electric utilities.
		Under the California deregulation model, wholesale power prices were allowed to fluctuate in response to market demand while prices paid by consumers were frozen at a discount to historical rates.
	www.misterbg.org /blog/000137.html (463 words)

	Rebuild America - EnergySmart Schools - Energy Education (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-31)
		Meanwhile, renewable energy sources are inexhaustible with many environmental benefits, but they aren't necessarily as convenient, readily available, nor able to meet all our nation's energy needs.
		Today, as a result of the 2000 California energy crisis and growing concern over global warming, national security and the health effects of poor air quality, renewable energy is gaining the attention of the general public as well as our state and national governments.
		For example, the amount of energy wasted through poorly insulated windows is equivalent to the oil pumped through the Alaskan pipeline each year.
	www.energysmartschools.gov /sectors/SectorPages/EnergyEdu_10Reasons.asp (635 words)

	How Enron Fabricated a Fake Energy Crisis in California
		By the fall of 2000, California's major electricity generators had a big problem: They were facing power shortages but realized that they could not afford to buy power from the companies selling it on the spot market, as deregulation required them to do.
		By December 2000, the situation was perilous: That month, the state experienced its first Stage Three "rolling flout"—meaning that the state was close to exhausting its electricity reserves.
		And contrary to popular opinion outside California, 170 new generation and cogeneration facilities had been built in the state in the 1990s, plenty to meet the energy needs of the populace.
	members.verizon.net /deleyd/bush/enronca2.htm (1893 words)

	Enron defrauded California out of billions during energy crisis (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-31)
		Several weeks after the memos were written outlining the company’s strategy to manipulate California’s market, Enron CEO Kenneth Lay—the largest single contributor to Bush’s political career—successfully prompted the Bush administration to appoint free-market advocate Pat Wood as the head of the Federal Energy Regulation Commission.
		At the time California’s Democratic governor and senators requested federal intervention to hold down the cost of electricity and charged that energy providers were manipulating the market to boost their profits.
		California officials are seeking to recover some of the $30 billion Governor Gray Davis says Enron “extorted from the state.”; But that will be difficult because the company has filed for bankruptcy and sold off its energy-trading division.
	www.wsws.org /articles/2002/may2002/enro-m10.shtml (1535 words)

	business.iafrica.com \| business news Enron accused of rigging power market
		Documents released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday showed market manipulation was a major factor sending prices surging in six states in the western United States.
		FERC said Enron's strategies included "creating, and then 'relieving' phantom congestion on the (California) transmission grid; and megawatt laundering (called 'ricocheting' in the memoranda)," in which electricity would be moved outside of California and then re-imported to avoid price caps and boost profits.
		California Governor Gray Davis said the documents should justify the state's call for 8.9 billion dollars in refunds for overcharges by California to Enron and other energy companies during the crisis.
	business.iafrica.com /news/938683.htm (660 words)

	Report: California "Energy Crisis" II
		California State officials now acknowledge that power companies withheld more than enough power to have averted the flouts, and they did it to drive up prices and profits.
		Inexplicably, it is the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that is facilitating the Costa Azul project and clearing the way for LNG as a major new energy source for the state.
		In a letter to the commission, Sempra Energy maintained that evidentiary hearings are not required, giving the example of the CPUC's approval, without such hearings, of a $500 million dollar program to support small distributed generation units (eg: small gas turbines, wind turbines, photovoltaics, fuel cells and diesel generators).
	www.truthout.org /cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/10333 (1514 words)

	California Energy Crisis: Causes and Solutions
		Increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy must be part of the solution to the crisis in California and to avoiding similar problems elsewhere.
		California’s electricity demand has increased 13 percent since 1988, but that is only half the national average [1].
		Renewable energy standards and funds should also be implemented in other states and at the federal level.
	www.ucsusa.org /clean_energy/clean_energy_policies/california-energy-crisis-causes-and-solutions.html (974 words)

	Timeline of the Enron scandal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		January 8 California governor Gray Davis calls Enron and other energy companies "out-of-state profiteers" during the 2000 California energy crisis.
		June 21 Skilling is hit in the face with a pie during a visit to California.
		June 25 FERC upholds as binding billions of dollars in long-term contracts signed by western utilities and the state of California.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Timeline_of_the_Enron_scandal (2571 words)

	California Energy Crisis A Sham - CBS News
		The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released two Enron memos describing company plans to inflate energy prices during California's energy crisis of 2000.
		It's vindication for state investigators upset that energy companies blame the crisis on everything from the weather to not enough power plants.
		State officials say the California energy crisis of 2000 was manufactured by power companies who held back energy to make more money, reports Vince Gonzales.
	www.cbsnews.com /stories/2002/09/17/eveningnews/main522332.shtml (580 words)

	(12/31/2000) California "Energy Crisis" Tied to Stock Market
		California accounts for 14 percent of the nation's economy.
		Moody's Abbott said that the feared domino effect of deregulation's demise in California cutting off the free market other states -- and thus, the investments of utilities' unregulated affiliates in those states -- is highly unlikely.
		A poor California economy was what restructuring was supposed to remedy in the first place in the early 1990s when rates were 50 percent higher than the rest of the nation and the state of Idaho was trolling to lure away businesses to the potato state with its offering of lower rates.
	www.monitor.net:16080 /monitor/0012a/caenergycrisis.html (1012 words)

	CNN.com - US - Greg LaMotte on California's energy crisis - December 20, 2000
		In essence, this is a cesspool for people who love conspiracy theories, because it would seem that all of the entities that could conspire to come together to create such a situation have come together.
		They've been unable to pass these costs onto the consumers and consequently two of California's biggest utilities are saying they are billions of dollars in debt and that they are going to go into bankruptcy if they don't get some help in the next few weeks.
		One of the things that is going on, with the California utilities saying they're billions of dollars in depth and facing bankruptcy, a number of outside power suppliers...
	archives.cnn.com /2000/US/12/20/lamotte.debrief (858 words)

	Boston.com / News / Nation / Washington / Feds indict firm in Calif. energy crisis (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-31)
		Reliant Energy Services is charged with wire fraud and conspiracy and could face millions of dollars in fines on counts of wire fraud, conspiracy and commodity manipulation.
		Reliant previously agreed to return the $13.8 million it made by cutting back the energy production and paid an $836,000 fine to settle Federal Energy Regulatory Commission charges of abuse during the crisis in 2000 and 2001, when the state was hit with a series of rolling flouts and energy prices skyrocketed.
		Several other energy companies have paid fines stemming from the energy crisis.
	www.boston.com /news/nation/washington/articles/2004/04/08/feds_indict_firm_in_calif_energy_crisis_1081455596 (458 words)

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