...When All is Said and Dunn

Oliver Hardy, of Laurel and Hardy fame, said it best, “Well, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.” And what a mess we here in California are in, and the majority of us are to blame.

Why are we to blame? Because the majority of us bought into the whole deregulation of the power company thing a few years back. And a majority of us backed the political forces at the time and, unlike a presidential election, the majority rules. But how the hell were we supposed to know that in five years we would be on the brink of darkness? All we did is follow the lead of our elected officials.

This pill would probably be easier to swallow if we had been given a little warning or even compassion from Southern California Edison. From the second this disaster ran up and slapped us in the face, Edison’s henchman/CEO/spokesman John Bryson was suddenly there. His complete lack of people skills were evident for all to see in his “I told you so” commercials where he informed us we were going to have blackouts and we better get used to it.

Southern Cal Edison objected at the point when deregulation was about to become a reality, but we haven’t heard a peep out of them since. That was until last summer when we started getting black- and brown-outs on a regular basis. The term “Stage 3 Alert” was suddenly a part of everyone’s vocabulary. If Mr. Bryson and all the other big kahunas at Edison knew we were in for trouble, what took them until the holiday season to tell us about it? Was this some ploy to add drama to the situation? It sure seems like it to me. Nobody goes $12 billion dollars in debt overnight when you're one of the biggest companies in the world.

I don’t know about you, but I paid my bill last month, and by doing so I expect my lights to come on when I flip the switch. Not maybe come on or come on for a brief period of time. If the power company and our state government have some problems they need to work it out, I say get to it! What are we paying these bozos for if they can’t do their jobs? Again why did everyone wait for the situation to get to Code Red?

One place we should be able to look to for some assistance is Washington. As I am sure you already know, the big help we got there was a 2-week extension from “The Shrub.” After that, he promised the people who are providing us power that there would be no further extensions. I guess as far as he is concerned the most populous state in his country and the sixth largest economy in the world doesn’t require his further consideration. You can bet if it were Texas having this crisis he would invade Mexico to secure the power.

Let’s see by a raise of hands how many of you are fed up with the politicians selling us a bill of goods and running for the hills when their plan goes south. Or equally as bad is a politician who sees a disaster coming and does nothing to prevent it from happening. I am of course referring to our ex-Governor Pete Wilson who signed the deregulation bill into law and who has been invisible since the “you know what” hit the fan. And our current Governor Gray Davis who has stood on the tracks watching this train rushing towards us. Now that’s a bipartisan team for ya.

One of the best short-term ideas I’ve heard is switching back to daylight savings time until things have worked out. That would help save tons of energy at least for now. Unfortunately that suggestion didn’t come from any of the parties involved. It came from a newsman on KTLA Channel 5. I hope some of the parties involved were listening.

Today I am introducing a new feature. At the end of each week’s article, from now until I get bored with it or George W. leaves office, whichever comes first, I will give a pearl of wisdom from our new President. I am calling it “The Shrub Speaks.” Considering that this is his first week in office and considering the topic of this week’s article, I thought the following seemed appropriate.

“The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating plants and then not enough power to power the power of the generating plants.”---- From an interview with the New York Times, January 14, 2001.