I am just shocked, shocked, shocked - I mean, they seemed like such nice guys: When a forest fire shut down a major transmission line into California, cutting power supplies and raising prices, Enron energy traders celebrated, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports. "Burn, baby, burn. That's a beautiful thing," a trader sang about the massive fire. Four years after California's disastrous experiment with energy deregulation, Enron energy traders can be heard – on audiotapes obtained by CBS News – gloating and praising each other as they helped bring on, and cash-in on, the Western power crisis. "He just f---s California," says one Enron employee. "He steals money from California to the tune of about a million."...The tapes, from Enron's West Coast trading desk, also confirm what CBS reported years ago: that in secret deals with power producers, traders deliberately drove up prices by ordering power plants shut down. ..."They're f------g taking all the money back from you guys?" complains an Enron employee on the tapes. "All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?" "Yeah, grandma Millie, man" "Yeah, now she wants her f------g money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her a------ for f------g $250 a megawatt hour." And the tapes appear to link top Enron officials Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling to schemes that fueled the crisis. "Government Affairs has to prove how valuable it is to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling," says one trader. "Ok." "Do you know when you started over-scheduling load and making buckets of money on that? Before the 2000 election, Enron employees pondered the possibilities of a Bush win. "It'd be great. I'd love to see Ken Lay Secretary of Energy," says one Enron worker. That didn't happen, but they were sure President Bush would fight any limits on sky-high energy prices. "When this election comes Bush will f------g whack this s--t, man. He won't play this price-cap b------t." Crude, but true. "We will not take any action that makes California's problems worse and that's why I oppose price caps," said Mr. Bush on May 29, 2001. Why isn't this being made into a campaign ad already?
6/03/2004
About Me
- Name: Josh Eidelson
- Location: Sacramento, California, United States
Josh Eidelson received his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Political Science from Yale University, where he helped lead the Undergraduate Organizing Committee. He has written about local and national politics as an opinion columnist for the Yale DailyNews, a research fellow for Talking Points Media, and a contributor to CampusProgress.org. Views expressed here are solely his own. Contact: "jeidelson" at "gmail" dot com.
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