# Screw you, Enron **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 18, 2006, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screw-you-enron/364943 "2006-07-18T00:05:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screw-you-enron/364943/21 "2006-07-18T15:22:47Z")
[QUOTE=T\_SQUARE] OK, so I’ll grant that Enron is guilty of taking advantage of a fucked up deregulation system with ambiguous rules that was apparently created by a bunch of assbutts that didn’t know what they were doing. (I will not grant that they were guilty of price gouging because price gouging does not exist). My point is Enron is not to blame for California’s NIMBY policies since the 70’s that resulted in an over reliance in out of state power, specifically Northwest Hydro, which is bound to be too low sooner or later. (And if building a power plant is as easy as KGS thinks, you would see lots of them going in in the state) Nor is Enron to blame for extreme hot weather, high natural gas prices, insufficient peaking capacity and a fucked up deregulation model. My second point is that if you want to be mad at Enron, your anger would be applied more efficiently to be pissed about them cooking their books. To me, that is a more serious crime by several orders of magnitude than the California situation. [/QUOTE] While I tend to agree with you here, it should be noted that Enron did break the law in “gaming the system” (as it’s called) during the CA energy crisis several years ago, even if it was an opportunity that should never have been presented them in the first place if the dergulation process hadn’t been designed so poorly. There’s lots of blame to go around-- and, oddly enough, Gray Davis is gone and so is Enron. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screw-you-enron/364943/22 "2006-07-18T15:30:07Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] Not quite. You can’t just go and build a power plant w/o going thru a lengthy approval process, and the deregulation (which was only a partial deregulation) had only taken place in 1996-- the crisis started in 2000. While Enron played a part in the crisis, it couldn’t have done so without the “help” of the crazy deregulation system in CA-- wholesale prices were deregulated, but retail prices were still regulated. This created the opportunity, when wholesale prices were higher than retail prices, for companies like Enron to engage in energy arbitrage. And since retial prices were fixed, demand was largely unafected by rising wholesale prices. This is basic econ 101, which too many politicians seem to have slept thru. [/QUOTE] Enron was a participant and was found to have engaged in some illegal practices during the California Energy crisi. But they were one of dozens and actually not the biggest. And even though that activity was illegal and damaging, there were man yother factors involved, such as the lack of new generation, dry winters, natural gas price craziness, etc. As for building new power plants, while the nevironmental red tape was a deterrent, the biggest deterrent during the deregulation period was the fact that the major utilities could not enter into long term contracts for power. They were forced to buy on the day ahead spot market. Who is going to invest hundreds of miullions of dollars into a power plant with such uncertainty? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screw-you-enron/364943/23 "2006-07-18T17:23:45Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] LA and SF will drag us their way whether we like it or not. [/QUOTE] Hey, _someone_ has to keep the Republicans from screwing things up (again). 😉 (Arnold Schwarzenegger? What were those folks thinking?) ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screw-you-enron/364943/24 "2006-07-19T17:07:32Z")
Ah the good old days when Bush explained how the heavy foot of regulation must be removed to allow power companoes to flourish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screw-you-enron/364943.md?page=1)