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Can the last one to leave California……please pay the light bill. President George W Bush's energy plan is aimed at Texas, not the Golden State
Gregory Palast Sunday May 20, 2001 The Observer
Ah, the smell of Texas in the morning! According to LaNell Anderson, real estate agent, what I'm smelling is a combination of hydrogen sulphide and some other, unidentifiable, toxic gunk. We've pulled up across from a pond on Houston's ship channel, home of the biggest refinery and chemical complex in America, owned by Exxon-Mobil.
The pond is filled with benzene residues, a churning, burbling goop. Though there's a little park nearby, this is not a bucolic swimming hole. Rather, imagine your toilet backed up, loaded, churning and ripe - assuming your toilet is a half-mile in circumference.
I flew to Houston to prepare for last week's official release of President George W Bush's proposal to end the energy crisis in California. The Golden State is suffering rolling black-outs. Its monthly electricity bill has shot up by 1,000 per cent and rising. But as soon as I got a whiff of the President's proposals, I knew his plan had nothing to do with helping out the Gore-voting surfers on the Left Coast. Bush's 'energy crisis' plan reeks of pure eau de Texas, that combination of pollution, payola and power unique to the Lone Star State.
Bush put his Vice-President Dick Cheney in charge of the Committee to Save California Consumers. Recommendation number one: build some nuclear plants. Not much of an offer to earthquake-prone California, but a darn good deal for the biggest builder of nuclear plants based in Texas, the Brown and Root subsidiary of Halliburton Corporation. Recent chief executive of Halliburton: Dick the Veep.
Suggestion number two: drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic Wildlife Refuge. California does not burn oil in its power plants, but hey, committee member and Commerce Secretary Don Evans gave the arctic escapade a thumbs up. Evans' most recent employment: chief executive of Tom Brown Inc, a billion-dollar oil and gas corporation.
And so on. Former Texas agriculture commissioner Jim Hightower told me: 'They've eliminated the middle man. The corporations don't have to lobby the government any more. They are the government.' Hightower used to complain about Monsanto lobbying the Secretary of Agriculture. Today, former Monsanto executive Ann Venamin is the Secretary of Agriculture.
But back to energy. California's electricity watchdog agency claims that speculators and a little club of energy merchants exercised raw monopoly power to overcharge state consumers by a breathtaking $6.2 billion last year. Bill Clinton, before his final bow, issued an order on 14 December, halting uncontrolled speculation in the electricity market. You could hear the yowls all the way to Texas, where the big winners in the power game - Enron, TXU, Reliant, Dynegy and El Paso - are headquartered.
These five energy operators, through their executives and employees, ponied up $4.1 million for the Republican presidential campaign 'cycle,' according to the Centre for Responsive Politics in Washington. They didn't have long to wait before their investment - excuse me, donation - paid off big time. Just three days after his inauguration, Bush swept away Clinton's orders directing controlled power sales to California.
Back in the ship channel, once LaNell picked up the scent of airborne poisons, she hopped from her Lexus, pulled out a big white bucket and opened a valve, sucking in a three-minute sample of air which she'll send off to the US Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA will trace and fine the polluter.
Hunting killer fumes is a heck of hobby. LaNell began after learning she had a rare immune system disease associated with chemical pollution. Her mom and dad died young of lung disease and cancer. She grew up and lives near the ship channel. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she may as well chuck away her buckets. Quietly tucked into Bush's new budget is a big fat zero for the key EPA civil enforcement team. This has no connection whatsoever with the petrochemical industry dumping $48m into the Republican campaign.
LaNell stopped to chat with some Chicano children playing soccer with an old bowling ball. They live in what Exxon-Mobil calls its 'vulnerability zone'. The refinery released 1,680,000lbs of toxic chemicals into the air and water here last year by accident. According to Exxon-Mobil records, if the pentane on site vaporised and ignited, it would burn human skin within 1.8 miles - an area home to 7,300 people. Bush is addressing the problem. He's removing public access to reports on the killing zones.
A giant flare suddenly lit up the other side of the channel. LaNell sped off to investigate. She discovered that a chemical plant had blown a hydrogen line - and the operators, rather than store the ruined batch of ethylene, chose to ignite it. A toxic fireball as big as the Houses of Parliament burned for several hours, exhaling a black cloud over Houston.
LaNell said this sickening 'sky dumping' procedure was all right with Texas state regulators. Now Bush proposes to take air quality enforcement away from the tougher feds to these laid-back state agencies. And Bush's energy plan last week proposed additional loosening of EPA rules on the chemical industry.
On to Dallas, where I met Phyllis Glazer, founder of a group of bereaved mothers in Winona, Texas. They lost their children to rare diseases which they believe are related to a local hazardous waste 'injection well,' a big underground chemical dump. Phyllis wore one of those fancy western dance shirts with the metal bangles and cowhide fringe, so I asked her if she enjoyed Texas two-stepping. 'Actually, I don't do a lot of dancing these days. My bones are deteriorating.'
Phyllis and the moms took a bus to Washington DC. But official doors slammed in their faces. 'They said someone who's given $200,000 or a couple million, their call goes straight through.'
One Texan who made his way through the doors to power is Ken Lay, chairman of Enron, the electricity speculating outfit that made out so well in last week's energy plan. Lay is a Pioneer - and not the kind that lives in a little house on the prairie. A 'Pioneer' designates the elite crew who pledged to raise $100,000 apiece for Mr Bush. There are 400 Pioneers - that's $40m in campaign booty. Lay wouldn't talk to me, but his fellow Pioneer, Senator Teel Bevins, a Texas Panhandle rancher, was friendly. His office walls in the state capital, Austin, sport a pair of riding chaps, his Pioneer medallion and the head of a deceased longhorn. I was assured the back half of the beast ended up on the Senator's barbecue.
Getting the hundred grand for Bush was no problem for the cowboy-politician. Easiest money he ever raised. And Bush never forgets his friends. One unheralded milestone of Bush's first 100 days is his allowing beef packers to zap meat with radiation to kill salmonella, a disinfectant cheaper than non-nuclear methods. (Bush's proposal to permit a bit of salmonella in school lunch meats was withdrawn after the public reacted with loud gagging and retching noises.)
I told the Senator about Phyllis Glazer and her complaint that Washington access required big donations. 'Well, it's easy for the press to take some victim and make her a poster girl. The reality is that individuals in a country with 300 million people have very little opportunity to speak to the President of the United States.'
But what about Pioneer Lay of Enron Corp? His company, America's leading power speculator, is also the top donor to Dubya's political career. Lay was personal adviser to Bush during the post-election transition. And his company held a private meeting with the energy plan's drafters. Bush's protection of electricity deregulation has meant a big payday for Enron, whose profits were up $87m last quarter.
The Senator is nothing if not candid. 'So you wouldn't have access if you had spent two years of your life working hard to get this guy elected President, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars?'
In case I didn't understand, he translated it into Texan: 'Ya' dance with them what brung ya!'
I couldn't argue with that. If President Bush chose to two-step with Lay of Enron instead of Phyllis Glazer, well, let's be honest, Phyllis ain't much on the dance floor these days.
• gregory.palast@observer.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4189168,00.html
-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 19, 2001
This has to be one of the stupidest articles I have read. Obviously this guy DOES inhale!
-- Taz (Tassie123@aol.com), May 19, 2001.
I just post them. Weekends are always slow for stories.
-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 19, 2001.
What a bunch of left-wing clap trap. Disgusting!
-- JackW (jpayne@webtv.net), May 19, 2001.
The headline states a simple fact: The last ones to leave (or the few that don't leave) will be the ones that have to pay the light bill --- whether in cash or in quality of life. That prophetic song, "Hotel California", which forecasts "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." may soon be fulfilled. The cost of moving out will become totally prohibitive.
-- Robert Riggs (rxr.999@worldnet.att.net), May 19, 2001.
Thank you for posting this, Martin. Such political connections need to be made known to the public, in the name of fair reporting, even if Bush supporters don't like them to be known. Swissrose.
-- Swissrose (cellier3@ mindspring.com), May 19, 2001.
It's a well-documented fact that California has not built a new power plant in more than ten years. Ditto transmission lines. During that time they've had a 30%, plus, increase in demand for electricity. Any grade schooler can easily figure the mathematics of this. No growth, bigger demand = shortages. It's not really a complicated formula.Now along comes this guy with a hit piece on Bush, a president who hasn't even been in office four months yet, and tries to scapegoat him for all these past failures of the Democratic Legislatures in that state who are unequivacably beholden to the big environmenatal lobby out there which has sandbagged all growth.
I agree. This is a piece of yellow journalism if I ever saw one.
-- Billiver (billiver@aol.com), May 19, 2001.
Boy, do I ever get sick of that constant chant, Bush is an oil man, Cheney's an oil man. As if, this should be some kind of disqualifier for them trying to fix the long neglected energy problem. We should, conversely, be thanking our lucky stars that we have two experienced leaders who know how to fix the problem.It developed systematically over the eight years of the Clintn administration, whose only energy policy was to restrict growth - taking more than 4 million new acres of Western oil and coal producing lands out of possible production, restricting access to Anwar, throwing up roadblocks, in any way it could, to any kind of new energy development.
Now that this neglect is coming to light, it behooves the no-growth advocates of the Democratic party to foist the blame on someone else. And, laugh of laughs, they are trying to crucify two emmiently qualified people, who are best able to solve the problem.
It's enough to make one want to regurgitate alright.
-- Wellesley (wellesley@freeport.net), May 19, 2001.
Hey, what's going on here? Much anger appears to be cropping up. Isn't there a middle of the road solution to all of this?
-- LillyLP (lillyLP@aol.com), May 19, 2001.
Yes, I'm angry all right.I LIVE in this state overpopulated by nincompoop politicians of the left.
For years now I have watched closely the killing of bill after bill in the state legislaure to alleviate this coming shortage--with authorizations of various kinds of energy development. You'd be amazed at how many bit the dust, never again to see the light of day. Now this same crazy state legislature is going to take out an AD campaign--to blame SOMEONE ELSE? Incredible!
In addition, this criminal neglect has hit me personally. 1. A dear friend with a wife dying of cancer, had his house condemned because it was disrupting the habitat of some rare bird. He later committed suicide. 2. A farmer who accidetally ran over some rare rat on HIS OWN farm, was fined heavily for this "crime." 3. A whole apartment complex was condemned and torn down because some other rare bird was found nesting nearby. Filled with retirement units, many of the elderly effected, drifted away, disconsolantly, and died premeturely.
Am I angry when I read tripe like this piece? You'd better believe it. I am as angry as the famous line from the landmark movie, NETWORK, "I'm mad as hell, and ain't going to take it any more."
-- JackW (jpayne@webtv.net), May 20, 2001.
I think the original intent of this site was to post original articles regarding infrastructure & having a verifiable source, and related articles in response. The gradual increase in partisan & personal comment from people who are not providing sourced information, just opinion, indicates to me that the original intention is eroding. What a shame.
-- Vicki (smithfox@mind.net), May 20, 2001.
Pardon me, but this original piece of trash is nothing more than an opinion piece, disguised as news. There isn't one piece of clearly verifiable information in it. It's nothing more than an accumulation of odds and ends of tid-bit, gossipy garbage.Therefore, it should be answered in kind.
-- JackW (jpayne@webtv.net), May 20, 2001.
Ohio here; I enjoyed reading opinions as to the why of this energy shortage in California. Listening to all sides is important in formulating opinions and solutions. Ohio is far removed right now from the energy shortages ( not the prices!). My gas bill tripled this Winter. Old sayings and usually true, " California sets the tone for the nation", and" so goes California so goes the Nation". my take on it Blessings Judy
-- Judy Whalen (judywhalen@aol.com), May 20, 2001.
Brown and Root tried to build (1) nuclear plant which was the South Texas Nuclear Plant. Houston Lighting and Power grew tired of paying B&R for all of the bungling and fired them. HL&P sued B&R for I believe 2 billion dollars and Becthal was contracted to finish the job. B&R can not build a nuc.Also it no coincidence that Houston has one of the highest cancer rates in the country. Houston also has the dubiuos honor of having the largest cancer hospital in the world which is MD Anderson.
Also, I worked for a company in Pasadena, Texas which had a building overlooking the Houston Ship Channel. Lyondell had major fires about once a month, Champion paper had a major fire while I was working there, and Velero was continually on fire.
Flares continually roar. These flares are 40" to 60" flares and when they light off their flame looks like the sun is rising. Add on top of that small flares are continually being built around these plants which suggests to me these plants have serious problems.
-- David Williams (DAVIDWILL@prodigy.net), May 20, 2001.