Change State’s Electricity Landscape

Regarding electricity and other areas of endeavor, medical care included, we have to get the private sector completely out of the picture [“Regulation, the Cure for Energy Ills, Is Coming,” May 12]. They have no business bumbling around in essential public services.

The privateers have plenty of sand boxes that they can play in and muck up to their heart’s content, but essential functions, upon which society as a whole depends, should be constitutionally off-limits to them. That’s the problem with the private sector--it can never rise above its own self-interest.

This notion that everyone acting exclusively to their own benefit somehow translates into the public good is just so much hogwash, and we have an unlimited number of examples to prove the point. We’ve elevated the “marketplace” to religious dimensions and, like other religions, image far exceeds reality, resulting in a nation with no values that extend beyond the cash register.

Phil Bittle

San Gabriel

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I am not a fan of Enron, its culture or business practices. However, I see no firm basis for getting a conviction.

Enron may be guilty of arrogance and pushing beyond the edge. The underlying question is, did Enron and other merchant energy companies or utilities violate any laws, rules or regulations associated with California’s flawed deregulated electric market? Or does fault rest with the rules on which California’s failed deregulation is based and those agencies in place to implement, monitor and enforce the system?

I see a lot of finger pointing, but no solutions other than returning to the regulated cave we evolved from. Having been part of a retail direct-access company at the dawn of California’s deregulation, I can safely say there were a lot of holes in the way the California PX and ISO were set up in the late 1990s.

From the start, many set out to claim legitimate advantage in the game, including some utilities themselves. So before we assign guilt, let’s be sure all suspects stand before us, including those that took part in crafting this game in the first place.

Give us a chance to have evidence clearly presented before judgments are made on the fate of deregulated electric markets. The evidence may prove Enron and others guilty as charged, but the real criminal before us is the state of California and its failure to implement deregulation on a playing field that could work.

Robert D. Hoffman

President

Energy Dynamix Corp.

Redondo Beach

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For Jim Flanigan, whose praise for the efficiency of the markets over the years has been constant, to call for regulation of the energy markets now, is refreshing.

Many of us have been saying since 1996 that energy can’t be deregulated because it’s not subject to supply/demand curves any more than is the air we breathe. Our voices were silenced by those with more money to spend on their speech.

Roy Ulrich

Santa Monica

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