I've been hanging out at this site for a long time. Never had much to say, but now I do. Many thanks to the people who have been posting here but the majority of the posting are mainstream media news. There is no investigative reporting, and no investigative reporting left in the major media.

I've watched the energy crisis unfold, first in California then in other states. Now it is creeping into all the states. States that never de-regulated, states that have not been careless with their energy supplies. Now everyone is looking at energy shortages by this summer.

Something stinks very, very badly here. Yes, I think part of the problem is Y2K related, but only a fraction. It strikes me as funny that the number of power plants in California that are down for planned maintenance is the same number that are down, unplanned.

It seems funny that Bush decides to cancel the federal order to sell power to CA. only after the Gov. of CA assures him they can pull their supplies together.

It seems very strange that electricity, gas, propane, and natural gas all went into short supply at the same time. The population of the country didn't expand that much in 2 years. OPEC didn't cut it's production that much, it didn't raise its prices that much. Not all the utility companies have been irresponsible.

Yes, I'm suggesting a conspiracy, a huge one. I can't put my finger on it, but something is not right here. Something is "New World Order" here. Bush is in it, Clinton was in it, Republicans and Democrats are in it. I'll bet hundreds of politicians are funding their re-election campaigns right now, at consumers expense. And when they miraculously save California and all the other states in crisis, won't the voters be pleased. Who would dare question what really happened.

Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone and the energy crisis spreading across the U.S. today is not accidental. It is being carefully planned and timed to achieve a goal. The goal might be the NWO or it might be another plundering of American wealth like the S&L fiasco, or it might be both, but is not accidental or natural. Things just happened too fast and CA. makes a great scapegoat.

Follow the money; those are the phones that should be tapped, the e-mail that should be read. But it will never happen because the government has no commitment to John Q. Public, he isn't rich enough or powerful enough. I think America has some very tender anatomy caught in a vice.

Something really, really stinks. Think about it. I know Spider will.

-- Tom Flook (tflook@earthlink.net), February 06, 2001

Answers

OOPS, something I forgot to mention. The California utilities paid out 5 billion in dividends while ringing up 12 billion in debt. Do you really think the people who run the utlities are that stupid. I don't think so. I'd say they are very clever. Now other utilities around the country have discovered the same golden goose.

-- Tom Flook (tflook@earthlink.net), February 06, 2001.

Cheers Tom! It's good to hear another thinking human being.

-- Ken (n4wind@aol.com), February 07, 2001.

Wish someone would pay for the desired "investigative reporting"... As a working citizen just trying to help Martin and Rachel out a bit, am thinking that pulling together info from various sites and sources is better than not doing it. BTW, although intriguing, it isn't easy to find reliable sources for the conspiracy theory, as, to my best knowledge, is required by this board. :-)

-- Swissrose (cellier@azstarnet.com), February 07, 2001.

Tom said

"It seems very strange that electricity, gas, propane, and natural gas all went into short supply at the same time. The population of the country didn't expand that much in 2 years. OPEC didn't cut it's production that much, it didn't raise its prices that much. Not all the utility companies have been irresponsible".

That is what's been going on in my mind as well tom.. I've said that from the beginning. Why all of these at once?? (Utilities that is)

-- Me (nope@hatespam.com), February 07, 2001.

The only way to fight back is to be energy independent. Kudos to those that are and had the foresight to allocate personal resources towards the effort. Also I'm proud of anybody that buys a Honda Insight (the electric/gas hybrid that gets the best gas mileage), rather than an SUV. If I had an extra $20,000, I'd buy one too, instead I drive a Geo Metro.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@altavista.com), February 07, 2001.

Tom,

I read your post yesterday and have been thinking about your comments about 'investigative reporting'. I think this board is as about as close that you can come to that. I find it very discouraging that all the time I have put in to this really boils down to a NWO conspiracy. If the entire media is part of the conspiracy then I really am wasting my time on this forum. I believe that the only way to know what is going on is to read from many different sources. Almost every article has a something a bit different than than the others or a different slant on the subject.

Maybe this forum has outlived its original purpose and its time to go on to something else. Thats what I ask myself probably every day. I really do not know the answer. I have 'met' a lot of nice people over the past year that have really kept me going on this. That is why I would hate to see the forum stop.

Regards,

Martin

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 07, 2001.

While I, too, believe Y2K is a MAJOR part of this (just not happening as fast or soon as some doomers predicted), I'm not going to holler conspiracy just yet. At least conspiracy as it's normally thought of. If you mean a "conspiracy" of greed, "fast-food living" type mentality, "not in my backyard" and out of control "ecologists", then you are talking about most Americans and THAT I will agree with.

However, you do bring up a point--what worked in the 70s with the "gasoline shortage" will work again because of the nature of the beast.

-- Shamrock (maboulden@gilanet.com), February 07, 2001.

First off, I would hate to see this forum cease. My biggest disappointment is that until this post came along, most went unanswered. Until recently, I too was a silent observer. Except for one exchange concerning "global warming" (A climate change primer for Bush's smokestack cabinet) my comments have elicited no response. I hope this is a harbinger of a new era. Only through the free exchange of ideas will we arrive at the truth.

Whether everyone sees the NWO as a major culprit, it can't be ruled out entirely. There are a lot of smelly things going on. That's why I named the powers behind the throne the "New World Odor". Maybe, if we work together on thia, each bringing our particular skills to the problem we can get to the bottom of it, or reasonably close, and absolve the NWO of any involvement.

Before a problem can be solved, its cause must be clearly identified. The power shortage is basically a supply and demand problem, there isn't enough generation to meet the users needs. Either demand exceeded expectations or something has happened to reduce generation below its planned capacity. There is some discussion of increasing demand due to growth in population and tech industry, but precious little about what happened to the generation side. All the political posturing and verbal gymnastics doesn't contribute to specific identification of the problem. Sure, it's obvious that more generation is essential. That isn't going to happen in any short period. However, to avoid a repetition of the current mess, prudence dictates that the problem be defined to the best of our abilities. Why isn't this being done> In large part, the fault lies with the popular press. Hardly an article appears that doesn't lay the debacle at the doorstep of "deregulation". There are a couple things wrong here. What took place in California was not deregulation. Even if it had been, there is no explanation of how what happened either increased demand or reduced power generation. Without that missing piece, the continued cry looks suspiciously like a straw man, or worse.

The post on this site "Energy deregulation-taking a second look" on or about 2/5/01 is but one example of this misdirected and erroneous blame game. My Answer to it has, of this writing, yet to arouse a response. In brief, my case is that: 1.the persons repeatedly using the term "deregulatio" do not know its meaning, 2.they are unfamiliar with what actually took place or 3. they are purposely misusing the term. It is difficult to imagine that so many writers and editors don't know either 1 or 2. If they don't, they have no business peddling news! The seemingly logical conclusion, then, is they must have some reason to keep spreading the misinformation and avoiding the question of; "where has all the power gone?".

For some alternative views not repeating the party line, try some alternative news sources. Reason Online, Original Sources, Ether Zone, WorldNetDaily, The Washington Times and JewishWorldViews have all offered some good stuff. Take a look and let's hear your response.

-- Warren Ketler (wrkttl@earthlink.net), February 07, 2001.

Warren- May I suggest that you yourself contribute by selecting articles from the new sources you prefer and posting them here? This would certainly enhance the scope and depth of coverage. Also, I'd like to point out that posting articles, at least in my case, does not necessarily mean that I agree with the content. Swissrose.

-- Swissrose (cellier@azstarnet.com), February 07, 2001.

Swissrose

What a novel idea.:)

Martin

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 07, 2001.

At this point in time, I have found no one in a role of public responsibility with an abiding interest in even learning about the ways that Y2K-related embedded control system problems could be impacting the energy sector. To assume that there is deliberate obfuscation going on is to assume that the alleged obfuscators have a clue concerning the basic technical facts of the matter.

Some of these matters have been discussed on other threads here and on ezboard including

http://pub5.ezboard.com/fyourdontimebomb2000.showMessage? topicID=21122.topic

Lots of interesting postings on that thread. The thread is entitled: Where Will We End Up On the Y2K Scale?

-- Paula Gordon (pgordon@erols.com), February 08, 2001.