Energy Crisis

Deregulated power corrupts--absolutely! HEIDI WINN Bakersfield

NEW YORK -- Jeffrey Skilling, the former chief executive of defunct energy giant Enron Corp., could win early release from prison in a deal with the Justice Department, according to a report Thursday. CNBC said Skilling's attorneys and the Justice Department were discussing a deal, but that it was unclear how much his sentence could be shortened. Skilling, who was convicted on charges of conspiracy, fraud and insider trading, has been serving a 24-year sentence since 2006. Quiz: How well do you remember 2012?

A weeks-long energy crisis that has left tens of thousands of Russians freezing in their homes claimed the first political scalps of President Vladimir V. Putin's year-old administration. Energy Minister Alexander Gavrin resigned after Putin signed an unusually blunt decree accusing him of a "chronic inability to solve the sector's problems."

SACRAMENTO -- A federal court this week ruled that two government power agencies are liable for overcharging California ratepayers by more than $1 billion during the state's energy crisis of 2000 and 2001. The California Public Utilities Commission, which has been pursuing the overcharging claims for 11 years, announced that the U.S. Court of Claims in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Bonneville Power Administration and Western Area Power Administration sold electricity at extremely high prices.

Sempra Energy has agreed to pay $400 million to settle accusations that the San Diego energy company engaged in "Enron-style gaming" of power markets and "a pervasive pattern of market manipulation and abuse" during the California energy crisis of 2000 and 2001. The money will reimburse electricity ratepayers at the state's three big investor-owned utilities: Southern California Edison Co., Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co., which is a Sempra subsidiary.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) wants to blame the Bush administration for not putting out the fire, i.e., the "energy crisis," but isn't interested in who's responsible for starting it ("Bush Opened Door to Enron, but Not to a State in Crisis," Commentary, Jan. 30). She knows full well that the culprit is Gov. Gray Davis. You don't have to pay for what you don't buy, and Davis could have stopped the energy crisis in a nanosecond simply by allowing the retail cost of electricity to be priced at market.

Bertram Wolfe and Chauncy Starr ("State's Energy Problem Has Roots Nationwide," Commentary, Jan. 3) assume that demand for energy will continue to grow uncontrollably and that we should try to satisfy it at all costs, even if this means building more nuclear power plants. But the problem lies only partly with the limited supply of energy. As long as it was cheap, we were not careful with how we used it. Conservation should be our main focus in this energy crisis, for it is the only solution that is inexpensive, reduces our dependence on foreign governments and cartels and poses absolutely no environmental threats.

California's energy nightmare of 2001 appears to be coming to an end. The most urgent problem left from this year's energy crisis, the fiscal fate of Southern California Edison, seems to have been solved in a reasonable fashion. Now there's an obvious solution at hand to another lingering matter, the sale of a bond issue needed to repay the state budget for billions of dollars spent to buy power. A bill that would do so, approved overwhelmingly by the Legislature, is on the desk of Gov.

Re "All We Need Fear Is Bush's Tale of Doom," May 23: Arianna Huffington's analysis is perfect and, coupled with Paul Conrad's cartoon ("OPEC oil production executive Cheney"), addresses the so-called energy crisis for what it really is: political payback, greed and obscene profits in spite of the massive windfalls the energy and oil companies continue to reap. Dan Pellow Los Angeles The California Public Utilities Commission is releasing information it has known for many months about the well-orchestrated manipulation of California's electricity market ("PUC Allegations Detailed," May 19)

SACRAMENTO - California electricity ratepayers could get rebates of as much as $1.6 billion from more than a dozen power wholesalers that allegedly manipulated the market during the energy crisis of 2000, the state Public Utilities Commission announced. The commission in a statement released late Tuesday praised an "initial decision" issued Friday by a federal administrative law judge who ruled in favor of the state in a complaint filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

SACRAMENTO -- California electricity ratepayers could get rebates of up to $1.6 billion from more than a dozen power wholesalers that allegedly manipulated the market during the energy crisis of 2000, the state Public Utilities Commission announced. The commission in a statement released late Tuesday praised an "initial decision" issued Friday by a federal administrative law judge that ruled in favor of the state in a complaint filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

There is a kind of clarity that an academic mind can bring to a complex subject like the energy crisis; there is a kind of information overload that a scholarly approach can produce as well. The new documentary "Switch" has a bit of both as it examines the many raw and refined materials that fuel our lives. Dr. Scott Tinker, a geologist and associate dean for geosciences research at the University of Texas in Austin, is the film's central figure and one of its producers and writers.

The first pitch of Japan's baseball season has been pushed back so that people don't waste gasoline driving to games. When the season does start, most night games will be switched to daytime so as not to squander electricity. There'll be no extra innings. Tokyo's iconic electronic billboards have been switched off. Trash is piling up in many northern Japanese cities because garbage trucks don't have gasoline. Public buildings go unheated. Factories are closed, in large part because of rolling blackouts and because employees can't drive to work with empty tanks.

For as clear a sign as you could want of the nation's haphazard approach to energy policy, look no further than the roof of the White House. In 1979, solar panels blossomed there, installed by President Carter to symbolize his commitment to weaning the country off oil. Seven years later, President Reagan took them down; at the time, a White House spokesman said the panels were in the way of a repair job, but few missed the symbolic significance of...

Sempra Energy has agreed to pay $400 million to settle accusations that the San Diego energy company engaged in "Enron-style gaming" of power markets and "a pervasive pattern of market manipulation and abuse" during the California energy crisis of 2000 and 2001. The money will reimburse electricity ratepayers at the state's three big investor-owned utilities: Southern California Edison Co., Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co., which is a Sempra subsidiary.

Customers of Southern California Edison and California's other big investor-owned utilities won't see a refund on their bills from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power -- but they'll be getting $113 million in relief just the same. The DWP was accused by the three big utilities and state agencies of overcharging for electricity during the energy crisis that hit California and other Western states in 2000 and 2001. The L.A. utility, however, wasn't paid, as complaints worked their way through the regulatory and legal process.

Malaise is a disease of the spirit, a crippling affliction often marked by lethargy and despair. For the last 30 years, Jimmy Carter has been branded by the word. In the roiling wake of Watergate and Vietnam, confronted by gasoline shortages and an apathetic or distracted citizenry, President Carter infamously described the doldrums consuming the nation as a malaise during his televised address of July 15, 1979.