Fraud Traced to the White House
How California’s energy scam was inextricably linked to a war for oil scheme
By Katherine Yurica
This story begins with the California energy crisis, which started in 2000 and continued through the early months of 2001, when electricity prices spiked to their highest levels. Prices went from $12 per megawatt hour in 1998 to $200 in December 2000 to $250 in January 2001, and at times a megawatt cost $1,000.
One event occurred earlier. On July 13, 1998, employees of one of the two power-marketing centers in California watched incredulously as the wholesale price of $1 a megawatt hour spiked to $9,999, stayed at that price for four hours, then dropped to a penny. Someone was testing the system to find the limits of market exploitation. This incident was the earliest indication that the people and the state could become victims of fraud. The Sacramento Bee broke the story three years later, on May 6, 2001.
Today, Californians are still paying the costs of the debacle while according to state officials the power companies who manipulated the energy markets reaped more than $7.5 billion in unfair profits.
During those early months of the Bush administration, and even during the prior transition period, Dick Cheney was deeply involved in gathering information for a national energy policy. The intelligence he gathered would provide justification for a war against Iraq but would also place White House footprints all over a fraud scam. This is how it all happened.
What follows is an amazing and chilling series of events which places the current near-collapse of California fairly, squarely at the doorstep of the White House (namely its current tenants) with a lot of stops at cronies, backroom deals and a Middle East dictator on the way.
Essentially, California was being thrown under a truck as a reason for war - until September 11, 2001. Then the rationale changed. But California is still paying the price.
There are links to the supporting documents included in this story. Take a few minutes and absorb this. It'll change you.
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