Bush Wants Electricity Set at Market Rates

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration called Monday for a major change in the way federal power suppliers charge their customers -- basing rates on market prices at the time rather than the cost of producing the electricity.

Western lawmakers from both parties vowed to block the proposal, which they said could raise electric power rates in the Pacific Northwest by as much as 20 percent.

Besides the Portland, Ore.-based Bonneville Power Administration, which supplies power to four states in the Pacific Northwest, the plan also would affect three other regional agencies that supply power to dozens of states: the Colorado-based Western Area Power Administration; Georgia-based Southeastern Power Administration; and Oklahoma-based Southwestern Power Administration.
...
The proposal immediately faced trouble in Congress. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called it "politically untenable," adding: "Every once in a while, administrations of either party come up with this idea, and I won't support it."

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-budget-power-agencies,0,1523921.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[VegasWolf]

1. He got this great idea direct from Ken Lay. n/t

[aquart]

35. Who is not, I understand, in jail?

Why not, I wonder.

[Lindacooks]

38. Because he's a Repuke.

[BrightKnight]

49. They sent Martha to jail. - n/t

[BiggJawn]

53. "Let's send them a clear signal and throw Martha straight in Jail..."

"..She's and uppity old rich bitch, but at least she isn't male, so fuck You all so very much..."

[Jawja]

54. He's a special repuke.

He's *'s Sugar Daddy.

[stepnw1f]

2. Please God...

Why Do The People Have To Suffer for This Man's Shortcomings

[Newsjock]

3. They don't even try to hide the plundering of this once-great nation

What the hell will it take for the great unwashed masses to wake up? Perhaps a few thousand dead in the next Chicago cold spell.

[NYC]

15. No, they don't.

They will attempt to take it all right under our defenseless noses.

[struggle4progress]

46. In their ideal America, the rich would live in gated communities,

protected by mercenaries, and their drivers would navigate the streets in armed hummers with tinted bulletproof glass windows, while everyone else worked multiple jobs to keep food on the table. Say goodbye to public water supplies, public garbage collection, public law enforcement. Say hello to tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, and the diseases of poverty. It's the free market miracle of the Ownership Society, with help from the theocrats.

[theorist]

4. Isn't that kind of thing up to the states?

So much for the "state's rights" party.

[baby_bear]

17. Bonneville Power Administration is federal

The hydroelectric dams are federal, but they are located in the northwest states. It's very complicated. We have largely electrical utilities (dryers, stoves, etc.) here because it was a trade-off for cheaper electricity. If the feds now make us pay higher electricity, then natural gas will be cheaper, but the large part of our infrastructure is based on electricity because of the cheaper electricity. So it would be expensive to convert to gas.

I think you can see where the people in this area are going to get royally screwed.

I wonder when the last time was that Bush paid a utility bill or purchased a clothes dryer. Hah! It's so damned ironic for someone born into fortune and power is put in office by those who have neither - unfortunately, those of us who voted against will suffer right along with those who voted for.

b_b

[whistle]

5. Bush could then appoint his wealthy buddy Ken Lay.....

...national energy czar and revive Enron as the chief energy monopoly in the country. Great idea!

[asjr]

13. And Mr Lay is obviously available to help his good buddy Shrub.

[Turbineguy]

6. OK, I'll agree

but in exchange, I want a President who is actually elected.

[Skittles]

7. that bastard has nothing to lose now

gonna put the screws to EVERYONE

[Sanity Claws]

8. Ugh -- don't they ever learn?

We in the west got screwed when alleged market forces took over and Enron manipulated the market and screwed us.
Sen. Cantwell is pushing for an investigation by PERC but Enron's cronies (appointed by guess who?) is hampering it. How can he talk about market forces after this disaster that has not been fully examined?

[Trajan]

11. They 'learned' ...

they could do it and get away with it ....

with all the poor white trash 'republicans' feasting on a steady diet of rush-hannity-o'lielly-savage lies while propping up religiouos icons in the public square: they have no fucking clue what is going to hit them ....

Not until they stop worshipping at the church of bush will they see it ...

[kikiek]

27. You hit the nail on the head. No one cared what happened in CA,

Of course hard to care about it when it isn't exactly made a news subject. Very little press about it.

[girl gone mad]

33. I remember listening to NPR at the time.

They were portraying Enron's critics as "conspiracy theorists" who needed to wake up and realize that the crisis was real.

[Trajan]

9. Blatant market gaming ....

Straight from yours truly: Mister President Mushroom Cloud ....

Funny how during the "electricity crisis" BOTH Bush and Cheney and the rest of their lying minions went about the nation blaming 'tree huggers' and 'eco-fascists' for the crisis ....

Of course: we knew they were lying the whole time ....

The whole time ...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. Hrm

"This is the same as a billion-dollar tax hike on Washington state, and as far as I'm concerned, it's dead on arrival," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. "To think we would arbitrarily pay more for power generated right here in the Northwest is ludicrous."


Cantwell whips out "ludicrous." Will wonders never cease?

[saracat]

12. That absolute fuckhead. We can't survive as it is!

How is THAT supposed to help small business as he ia always saying?

[Seldona]

14. Is this man insane???

Seriously. How can ANYONE who isn't a major stockholder vote for this maniac?

Unbelievable.

[pinto]

16. agree with the "fuck this guy" sentiment. we've been raked over the market

coals enough as it is with energy scams. The market is rigged..or at least riggable. History has shown that to the tune of billions of dollars in "energy" debts from California's misguided foray into deregulation under Wilson's steerage. Not again.

[pinto]

18. and, in true Bushco smoke 'n mirror style, the real gambit is that state

laws and federal law differences leave room for a shell game.

They call it profit in the energy business.

He's proposing cementing that loophole. (Surprise!)

[davekriss]

19. uh oooo here comes monopoly pricing! (n/t)

[Lostnote03]

22. Socialize the Costs-Privatize the Profits

[davekriss]

25. Unfortunately that is the "American" way (n/t)

[distantearlywarning]

20. Is this administration even bothering

to TRY to hide their actual objectives anymore? Good lord. They must think we are a bunch of dumb asses to keep believing that anything they do is for the benefit of the common man.

[Lorien]

34. They control the media and the voting machines

why should they worry?

[Lostnote03]

21. I seriously am beginning to consider

....that the GOP Dung Crusaders are intentionally pushing our nation in the direction of a revolt to achieve their goal of a non contestable Oligarchy.....If their is such a thing as a moderate Rep. now is the time to pay particular attention to their actions or non action....

[Jacobin]

23. Great idea!!! Unregulated Monopolies!!!!!

Wheeeeee!!!! Its back to the 19th Century we go...........!!!!!!!

[Judi Lynn]

24. Pete Domenici recognizes it's a nasty proposal

and has resorted to the old worn out attempt to pass the blame to the Democrats. What about this, from the snip above:

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called it "politically untenable," adding: "Every once in a while, administrations of either party come up with this idea, and I won't support it."

Who has EVER heard of Democrats trying to get prices raised on utilities? That's blatant, trying to pass off this crime as something you could expect from Democrats. Nice try.



Remember this, from May, 2003?

Bush-Cheney-Domenici Energy Bill Would Give Billions in Taxpayer Money to Build Dangerous, Unneccery New Atomic Power Reactors
Bill Approved by Senate Energy Committee Would Set Nation on Wrong Energy Course for Decades



The Senate Energy Committee today approved a comprehensive energy bill that would provide huge new taxpayer subsidies to the nuclear power industry, including direct taxpayer funding of new commercial nuclear reactors—a path that wasn't chosen even during the gung-ho days of nuclear development in the 1970s.

"The Senate Energy Committee is facing backwards," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). "They are getting ready to throw the public's hard-earned cash at the most dangerous and most obsolete technology of the 20th century. Instead of attempting to secure a future that will meet our needs for both energy and a clean environment, committee chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) has fashioned a bill that would do little but enrich a few nuclear utilities and reactor manufacturers with the public's money.
(snip/...)

http://www.nirs.org/press/05-01-2003/1

[lovuian]

26. Does this guy just stay up at nights thinking of this stuff!!!

I hope companies would pay their fare share too!!!

which I doubt!!!

[Rose Siding]

42. This was probably high on the list made at Cheney's secret mtgs

He's just now getting around to it- No fear now that the energy meeting docs will ever come to light, knowing AG the AG is running Justice.

[cliss]

28. Time to start thinking about campfires.....

and wood-burning stoves.

Cause we will not be able to afford these rate hikes. I was on the way home from work, and they made the announcement on the news. Governor Kulongoski (Oregon gov.) came on with a shaky voice, and said that this would "devastate the Oregon economy", which is just hanging on by a thread, anyway.

Time to think about the Survivalists.

[54anickel]

29. WTF? This is crazy. No wonder Greenspin has been praising the

invisible hand of the free markets lately. BASTARDS!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1218059&mesg_id=1219682&page=

[vpigrad]

30. I like it!

I pay way higher than market rates for my power. My local power company charges what it costs them to produce the power rather than the lower market rate that they buy it for when they can't meet demand. It would drastically help around here. Of course, since my power was cut-off a few months ago, I guess it doesn't really matter either way for me personally.

[Mend]

31. Did our party ever really suggest this as domenici says? eom

[KayLaw]

50. I hope you get an answer

I'd like to know that, too.

[girl gone mad]

32. I've officially put off switching to alt. energy..

for too long now.

Time to get the wind turbine up.

[Selteri]

36. Fleeing the country looks better and better every time

Shrubuya opens his assho---mouth.

[Sabriel]

37. When the menu says "market price" for fish, I don't order it

Unfortunately, I don't have the same option for my home heating and cooling. Fuckers!

Why does this remind me of the middle part of Atlas Shrugged, when the government is doing everything it can to fuck the country? Only in the real world, it's big business who's doing it and the "people" who are going to pay the ultimate price.

[VegasWolf]

39. Neo Conservative thinking says that being poor is a sign of disfavor

by god.

[kodi]

45. that is a critical attribute of the Protestant Work Ethic meme.

In a classical sense, Weber linked capitalism in Europe to Calvinistic predetermination and the Protestant Work Ethic, careful not to waste money, save it, invest it, and that economic prosperity reassured people that God favored them. Therefore, to Weber, capitalism grew out of this Christian philosophic base and this religious superstructure determined the infrastructure, the economics of capitalism.

However the Right articulates such a framework it still does not pass muster as a consistent rationale for modern society, and I think one of the reasons that evolution is currently being attacked is that the intellectual tools of reason, logic and critical objective analyses that creat the theory of evolution can also be trained on the Right's artifical and self-serving economic theories.

[MissWaverly]

40. Still waiting for Bush to promise a car in every garage

We need one to drive us into the next great depression or maybe Bush will let us all be backseat drivers.

1928 Presidential Campaign Slogans
A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage – Herbert Hoover
Claims that the everyone will be prosperous under a Hoover presidency




:bounce:

[VegasWolf]

41. Now it is $600 dollars in every garage and don't dare bitch about

the benevolence of the US administration.

[leesa]

43. You frickin' fools that voted for this creature....we all get what YOU

deserve. Hey Pete, they OWN you, don't they? Haven't you been going down on Bush with your stockings and garters for a long time?

[kodi]

44. To be consistent, he should advocate repeal of the Price-Anderson Act.

Free market? Ba Ha!

Only when it is to their advantage, just like conservatives love-hate relation with "states' rights."

[MsMagnificent]

47. This may be a deliberate overshot

say something REALLY outrageous and your other statements (Social Security, for one) MUST sound more reasonable

[Pallas180]

48. Solar panels are now farily small - GET ONE FOR YOUR HOUSE -

and screw the contributors to this fascist .

And by the way, the names of those involved in energy companies who contributed to the gop ought to be looked up and just how much they
contributed to get this windfall.

[salin]

51. WHY do this? The current system works fine,

but bushco hasn't been able to deliver big to his energy backers.... So change the way the utilities charge - and create new avenues for gaming the system - and voila - those energy cos who are doing quite well right now... get delivered to them even quicker ways of doing "get rich quick schemes" (allegedly the gaming in the west was going on for a couple of years before it culminated in the rolling blackouts and "crises")... and bush now delivers to his backers.

There is no way that such a system benefits consumers - and since there is no problem right now in terms of delivering energy to consumers of utilities - there is no problem to be solved... for consumers and citizens. Only problem is that MORE profits could be squeezed out for energy corps ... the TRUE bush constituency.

[Maeve]

52. Off to the DU Store for Bush?Enron merchandise!

[mbperrin]

55. "by as much as 20 percent."

I'm sure that's small thinking from the folks wanting to rape Grandma Millie!

Musta left off a zero! 200%.....sounds more like it............