Uploaded June 2011 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
In early 2001, California was still recovering from the energy crisis the summer before. Out of state power "providers" had bought up electricity on the open market and intentionally failed to deliver it in order to create shortages and drive up prices. This information was not widely known at the time and in fact the Federal Government (newly-elected Bush Administration) refused to get involved, possibly because of the number of buddies in and level of campaign contributions received from Texas.
But the Californian government and press were trying to make a case that the power shortages were not due to a lack of available power but instead a case of market manipulation. This process was underway here in February, 2001 when this promo aired. The process would be interrupted before pressure could be brought to bear on the energy companies due to the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Later these companies would collapse on their own due to overleveraging, bad market conditions and general poor business.
It would be interesting to see the actual report given and what the companies Dynegy, Enron, Reliant and El Paso had to say when confronted by KTVU.
This spot aired on FOX during the Sunday, February 25th, 2001 showing of The Simpsons.
In early 2001, California was still recovering from the energy crisis the summer before. Out of state power "providers" had bought up electricity on the open market and intentionally failed to deliver it in order to create shortages and drive up prices. This information was not widely known at the time and in fact the Federal Government (newly-elected Bush Administration) refused to get involved, possibly because of the number of buddies in and level of campaign contributions received from Texas.
But the Californian government and press were trying to make a case that the power shortages were not due to a lack of available power but instead a case of market manipulation. This process was underway here in February, 2001 when this promo aired. The process would be interrupted before pressure could be brought to bear on the energy companies due to the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Later these companies would collapse on their own due to overleveraging, bad market conditions and general poor business.
It would be interesting to see the actual report given and what the companies Dynegy, Enron, Reliant and El Paso had to say when confronted by KTVU.
This spot aired on FOX during the Sunday, February 25th, 2001 showing of The Simpsons.
