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January
24, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
This
is Terrorism?
David
Vest
Idiot
Wind
January
23, 2002
Terry
Waite
Guantanamo
Prisoners:
Justice or Revenge?
Molly
Secours
The
Case of Abu-Ali:
Racism and the Death Penalty
Robert
Jensen
Speak
Out, Get Slimed
January
22, 2002
Brendan
Cooney
Moby-Dick
and the Hunt
for Osama bin Laden
Rick Giombetti
Progressive
Pols for Enron?
Judith
Resnik
Invading
the Courts?
Kevin
Alexander Gray
The
Crisis in Black Leadership
January
21, 2002
Marjorie
Cohn
Will
Walker's Words
Be Used Against Him?
Ahmad
Faruqui
MLK
Jr. and the Palestinians
January
19. 2002
Jordan
Green
Enron
Stole Our Future
January
18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
The
Enron Model
Walt Brasch
Enron
at the White House
CounterPunch
Wire
Human
Rights Groups Says Guantanamo Prisoners Must
Be Treated as POWs
January
17, 2002
Gideon
Levy
Bulldozing
Rafah
Uri Avnery
That
Weapons Shipment
January
16, 2002
John Chuckman
The
Angel and the Pretzel
Lawrence
McGuire
Subverting
the
Geneva Convention
Kathy
Kelly
An
Open Letter to
Richard Perle on Iraq
January
15, 2002
George
Monbiot
Greenpeace,
Lord Melchett
and the Business of Betrayal
Jack McCarthy
Follow
the Pretzel
William
Blum
Atta
and the Times:
Follow the Changing Story
Edward
Said
Emerging
Alternatives
in Palestine
January
14, 2002
David
Vest
Open
Bag. Eat Pretzels.
Patrick
Cockburn
Collapse
of Georgia
Ignored by the World
Mokhiber/Weissman
Enron's
Accountants:
When In Doubt, Shred It
January
13, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
Why
We Kill People
January
12, 2002
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Forbidden
Truths
January
11, 2002
Lee Balllinger/Dave
Marsh
Neil
Young's Duet with Ashcroft
January
10, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Bush,
Enron, UNOCAL
and the Taliban
St. Clair/Cockburn
Greenpeace
to Greenwash?
Hans von
Sponek
Iraq:
Is There an Alternative
to Military Action?
Jim Lobe
Israeli
Human Rights Group Assails Army
Marina Mayakova
Russia's
Top Military Astrologer Predicts More Attacks from OBL
January
9, 2002
David
Vest
The
Super-Burqa
and the Big Tent
ND Jayaprakash
Winnable
Nuclear War?
Rafiq
Kathwari
Kashmir
Will Make Ground Zero Look Like a Bonfire
January
8, 2002
Prudence
Crowther
Sting
Like a B-52
Nelson
Valdés
Al-Qaeda
at Guantanamo Bay
John Chuckman
Dark
Tales from the
Ministry of Truth
Richard
Corn-Revere
Do
We Fear Freedom?
Joan Hoff
The
Nixon You Haven't Heard
January
7, 2002
Lawrence
McGuire
Confusing
Economic Tales About Argentina
Wael Masri
They
Are Taking
Our Rights Away
Philip
Farruggio
Better
Medicine
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
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EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
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Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
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January 25,
2002
"It
Wasn't a Shortage, It Was a Shakedown"
Report: Cal Energy "Crisis"
Was A $71 Billion Hoax, And It's Not Over
Santa Monica, CA. --The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights
(FTCR) issued the first comprehensive review of the California
energy crisis today, exactly one year after the first rolling
blackouts hit California. Using government and industry data,
the 58 page report, entitled "Hoax:
How Deregulation Let the Power Industry Steal $71 Billion From
California," shows that the California electricity
system did not fail according to the laws of supply and demand,
as it has been widely portrayed.
The California energy crisis, instead,
was a hoax -- orchestrated by a power industry freed from price
regulation -- that will cost $2,200 for every Californian. For
nearly a year, the energy industry, state officials and President
Bush claimed there was a shortage of energy in California. But
the crisis suddenly disappeared late last spring after Governor
Gray Davis committed the state to spending at least $43 billion
for energy over the next twenty years.
The report shows that the power industry
manufactured blackouts and threatened more of them as tools to
gain unprecedented profits and overpriced, long-term contracts
during the crisis. The report also warns that unless the state
of California regains control of its electricity supply, and
makes it publicly accountable, additional artificially-created
crises will occur in the immediate future.
"The energy crisis was a hoax, set
up by deregulation, to suck billions of dollars out of the state,"
said Harvey Rosenfield and Doug Heller of FTCR, a non-profit,
non-partisan research and advocacy group based in California.
"The utilities, energy companies and power traders backed
deregulation because they knew it would be a license to steal.
Once freed of state scrutiny -- once the cop was off the beat
-- they held the state hostage until we agreed to pay their demands.
When they stole as much as they thought they could get away with,
the 'crisis' mysteriously disappeared -- leaving the people of
California stuck with the tab."
"It wasn't a shortage, it was a
shakedown," FTCR said.
Among its findings, the report shows
that:
- The rolling blackouts, which occurred
on generally low-demand days, were not caused by a shortage of
power plants, but by energy companies looking to maximize their
prices and profits.
- Throughout late 2000 and 2001, when
prices skyrocketed, California used less electricity than prior
years, in which prices were stable and there were no blackouts.
- Californians overpaid $8.5 billion for
electricity between January and October of 2001 alone -- and
will overpay at least another $20.5 billion over the next decade.
- While the U.S. entered a recession during
the first half of 2001, power companies, such as Enron, Duke
and Reliant, reaped unprecedented windfalls.
The crisis suddenly ended -- without
the predicted summer blackouts -- not because of Californians'
conservation, mild weather or new power plants, but because the
energy industry had achieved its goals, and was facing investigations
and legislation that threatened to "kill the goose that
laid the golden egg": deregulation.
More Crises
Unless Deregulation Ended
The report concludes with a series of
policy prescriptions including the development of a long-range
plan for a hybrid energy system that is part private and part
publicly-owned power, and well regulated. The study also calls
for regulatory and statutory changes that will save consumers
billions of dollars, such as a retroactive ban on "direct
access," a re-allocation of the electricity rate structure
and the formation of a Consumer Utility Board.
CONTACT:
Doug Heller - 310-392-0522 x309
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