Massive Blackout in NYC More of the Same from Big Business?

I've been living in California for over eleven years now. I can remember the "rolling power blackouts" that many in our state suffered through. The catch was, and I think even many of us Californians have forgotten this, it was a completely manufactured situation. The energy companies were later found guilty of manipulating the price of electricity. The power outages were done intentionally to make us think our supply of electricity was very low when really it wasn't. See, a low supply means high prices.

So, we bought into it to the tune of $9 billion. That's the amount California decided the energy companies owed the people of California. Of course, in all these years, I haven't seen any checks from corrupt energy companies.

Now, have a look at this mystery blackout in Queens, NYC. The thing is, it's getting hot all over America. Climate Change sure seems to be hitting the US hard this summer and while extreme draws on electrical supplies should be expected, there's no reason for a system to fail like the one in NYC has. Like I said, this heat and power-draw has been expected.

The headline of [http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/437428p-368557c.html|a July 23, 2006 article] at NYDailyNews.Com describes describes the situation in Queens this way:

No ideas, no light & no end in sight!

Here's a bit more from the article:

Con Ed's top boss apologized yesterday to the 100,000 Queens residents suffering without power for a sixth consecutive frustrating day. But in his first public comments on the blackout, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Burke said he was still in the dark about what caused the outage or when service would be fully restored.

Asked why it took so long to inform city officials about the true scope of the outage in Astoria, Sunnyside, Woodside, Hunters Point and Long Island City, Burke said, "I do believe that we were communicating with our customers and with the government officials."

But that further angered local leaders, who noted that it wasn't until Friday that Con Ed revealed the outage was 10 times more widespread than previously reported.

"I don't know how anybody could be satisfied with his response," said City Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside). "I don't know how he can say they didn't realize the extent of the problem. A blind man could see how bad it was by walking down the streets."

I remember this argument being used against the government for Katrina, 911, Iraq and more. I remember thinking similar things during California's power crisis. I wondered just why the massive energy companies, now free of regulations suddenly had trouble supplying their customers with the only product they produce.

My opinion about all of those things above, and the blackout in Queens is this: Either you're idiots or you did it on purpose.

They don't have a lot of answers, so it really is about the idiot vs. intentional argument.

Meanwhile, good old Greg Palast, the man behind uncovering the buying of the 2000 & 2004 presidential elections and the unusual similarities between those elections and the recent Mexican general election reminds us in [http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0720-22.htm|a July 20, 2006 piece] at CommonDreams.Org that he also knows a thing or two about corruption in big business, too.

Here are a couple of clips from Ken Lay's Alive!:

Don't check the casket. I know he's back. When I saw those lights flickering out at La Guardia Airport yesterday and heard the eerie shrieks and moans in the dark, broiling subway tunnels, I just knew it: Ken Lay's alive! We can see his spirit in every flickering lightbulb from Kansas to Queens as we head into America's annual Blackout season.

It wasn't always so. For decades, America had nearly the best, most reliable electricity system on the planet and, though we grumbled, electricity bills were among the planet's lowest. It was all thanks to Franklin Roosevelt and the Public Utility Holding Company Act which allowed for tough regulation of the power monopolies. They were told what they could charge, the maximum profit they could take and -- what I think about when the lights dim -- exactly how much they had to invest to keep the juice flowing.

But then, in 1992, a Texas oil man, George H.W. Bush, ordered to evacuate the White House by two-thirds of the US electorate, gave his Houston crony, Ken Lay, a billion-dollar good-bye kiss: Bush's signature authorizing deregulation of electricity.

But Lay's operation didn't pick up the really big bucks until after December 21, 1994, when the Enron chief wrote to the incoming governor of Texas, George W. Bush, asking the Governor-elect to grant him a special wish for Christmas:

"The Public Utility Commission appointment is an extremely critical one. We believe Pat Wood is best qualified…. Linda joins me in wishing you and Laura and the whole family a joyous holiday. - Sincerely, Ken."

And Georgie-Boy granted Kenny-Boy's wish, appointing Wood and thereby giving Texans an electricity regulator who stumped for Ken Lay's right to earn unlimited profits without any obligation to keep the lights on. Thus, by 1995, electricity deregulation had a foothold in the Lone Star state that would spread nationwide like Dutch Elm Disease.

...

By now, you've got to ask: after the profiteering from Katrina, after the California power scandal of 2000, after the Great Black-out of 2003, even after the hand-cuffing of Ken Lay, why are we still under a deregulation regime that Ken Lay seems to rule from the grave? Why is it that we're still at the mercy of power vampires?

The answer, in part, is that the bloodsucking is a bi-partisan feast. Entergy, the New Orleans nuclear company, is well defended in the US Senate by their former lawyer, Hillary Rodham, who now protects them under her new alias, Senator Clinton.

Ken Lay's gone, but the ghost of Ken Lay -- the marauding ghoul called deregulation -- stays to haunt us.

Go check out [http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0720-22.htm|that article]--there are way more examples of corruption in the power industry and how regulation was probably way better than no regulation at all.