If you are lucky enough to be a homeowner in California, consider yourself even luckier now as the state regulators have just passed a measure approving $3 billion in customer rebates for installing solar panels on their roofs. (1) If all goes well, homeowners can help generate 3,000 megawatt hours of solar electricity, (1) and help keep six conventional power plants from being built in the state. (2) But is this bill all silicon-sunsets and caviar dreams or are we in for caviar prices on our energy bills?

The average cost to Pacific & Electric Co., So. Cal. Edison Co., and San Diego Gas & Electric Co., customers in Southern California is estimated to be $12 per year to help offset these costs. (2) So. Cal. Gas Co. customers should expect to pay roughly $1.40 more per year. (2) And Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California's Energy Institute, said we might be into even higher prices “once metering technology and other costs were added in.” (2)

But wait? Are we doing this for cheaper energy now? Or is it about reducing our dependency on unreliable sources of energy such as fossil fuels, the Royal Saudi Family, and greedy Texas energy giants who like robbing California grandmothers? (3) Do we need to hear more taped conversations like this one, that first aired on CBS (3), before we here in California think it is a good idea to at least start doing something about it?

"Just cut 'em off. They're so f----d. They should just bring back f-----g horses and carriages, f-----g lamps, f-----g kerosene lamps." (3) Or how about this now famous conversation:

Employee 1: "All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?
Employee 2: "Yeah, Grandma Millie man. [There are no words I can use to describe the laughter and joy in this evil man’s voice at this point.]
Employee 1: "Yeah, now she wants her f-----g money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her a—for f-----g $250 a megawatt hour."

Unless we want to go back to rolling blackouts and handing over our grandmother’s pensions to greedy Texas energy whores than I think we really need to start thinking about how we are going to start taking care of ourselves, because ultimately, the problem here is very clear: we spent way too long depending on other people to take care of our needs. As a state, we cannot trust this magical market system to ensure that we have energy at affordable prices. When the market is unregulated and big industries within them easily figure out ways of manipulating it to their advantage, we need to be on the offensive and take care of ourselves. If not, companies like Enron will continue to “shut down [power] plants so they could drive up prices”. (3)

Keep in mind that this isn’t just Enron playing this sort of game. It is the entire energy market in this country. Even as Bush paraded around on TV telling the country that the reason for the high gas prices after Katrina was because "we need additional refining capacity ... to be able to meet the needs of the American people," (4) refineries all over the country were being shut down. (5) Exxon Mobil Corp. actually shut down a refinery while oil was at a two-week peak and right in the middle of the our biggest driving season! (5)

(For a related story on Exxon, check our their prestigious (I am being sarcastic here) ranking as the #2 corporation that under-funded their pension while paying their top five executives almost $200 million during the same year! (6)

But Exxon isn’t the only consumer-hating oil whore, Shell is right behind it as The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) released on April 6th, 2004 “internal Shell documents showing the oil refiner is set to close and demolish its Bakersfield refinery despite the fact the site had the biggest refinery margins, or profits per gallon, of any Shell refinery in the nation as of yesterday. (7) And they even refused to put it up for sale when asked! "Only an oil company that wants to short the market and artificially drive up the price of gasoline would demolish a highly profitable refinery rather than sell it," said Jamie Court, president of FTCR (7)

Anyway, I can go on for days about this topic. I think the best thing to do here is to try to relax, calm down, take in a breath of oil-polluted air and ask, “What are we going to do about it?”

(1) Chea, T. (2006). California energy regulators ok solar program. HappyNews.com, . Retrieved Jan 15, 2006, from http://www.happynews.com/news/1122006/California-energy-regulators-OK-solar-program.htm

(2) Douglass, E. (2006). Solar subsidy plan is passed. LA Times, . Retrieved Jan 15, 2006, from http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-solar13jan13,1,4264359.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

(3) Gonzales, V. (2004). Enron tapes anger lawmakers. CBS News, . Retrieved Jan 17, 2006, from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/02/eveningnews/main620795.shtml

(4) Baker, D. R. (2005). Hurricane damage points up need for more refineries. San Francisco Chronicle, . Retrieved Jan 17, 2006, from http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/10/02/BUGN7F0FIE1.DTL&type=business

(5) Jenson, J. (2005). Oil around two-week peak on shutdown of texas refinery. FinanceGates.com, . Retrieved Jan 17, 2006, from http://www.financegates.com/reviews/reviews/2005-05-25/oil2505.html

(6) Jenson, J. (2005). While pensions fall short, ceos fly high. MSN Money, . Retrieved Jan 16, 2006, from http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P119362.asp

(7) Court, J. (2004). Evidence shows shell to demolish profitable refinery, drive up gas prices. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights , . Retrieved Jan 16, 2006, from http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/corporate/pr/?postId=3619