Deregulation and the Power Crisis

* None of us consumers buy Gary Ackerman’s phony Jan. 29 commentary blaming the public and the state government for the electricity crisis. The power plant owners wanted “deregulation,” and now that they’re losing their shirts, they want the government to step back in and save them. We never wanted deregulation. Those who campaigned so hard in Sacramento for this folly, with their massive campaign contributions and advertising, deserve what’s coming to them: bankruptcy. It’s time to put an end to corporate ripoff of the taxpayers and bribery of politicians.

REX FRANKEL

Los Angeles

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Something must be said for our astute legislators, who can spend four long years ignoring the flaws in deregulation and still take only two short weeks to raise the electricity rates (Jan. 30).

HAL FIEBELKORN

Monrovia

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It seems that California’s so-called energy crisis is nothing more than a massive monopolistic ploy that makes the Teapot Dome oil scandal of the 1920s look like small potatoes. We should force the Texas energy moguls who perpetrated the deregulation scam on us to roll back the “deal” and return our power plants to the public domain. I have heard that these people have ties to President Bush. If a special prosecutor was needed to investigate President Clinton’s sexual escapades, it is certainly worthy of this debacle.

DAVE WEINER

Malibu

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The Bush administration has steadfastly asserted that the federal government has no business helping cure California’s power crisis--until now. Vice President Dick Cheney now proposes that the cure for our electricity situation is to drill for oil in Alaska (Jan. 29). Someone should advise him that California’s problem is due to an insufficient number of power plants online. Then he should be advised that California’s fossil-powered plants use natural gas, not oil, as their energy source.

This latest Republican “trickle-down” theory--trickling down the oil and changing it into gas--is about as viable as Reagan’s trickle-down monetary policy. The administration’s original hands-off policy was brilliant compared to this one.

WILLIAM ZINTL

San Juan Capistrano