Oil takes a nose dive

[safeinOhio]

today.

Gas prices in Toledo are now under three bucks at some stations.

Good news bad news. Also means economy is nose diving too.

[Harmony Blue]

1. We haven't hit the bottom yet

Hold on everybody. :grouphug:

[demosincebirth]

2. I say good news. More money to spend that goes into the economy and

not to Big Oil.

Gas is still 3.80 here in the East Bay.

[DJ13]

3. I wish the price would start diving here in Ca

Just paid $3.75 for regular yesterday.

[demosincebirth]

I think we're getting the shaft in Ca

[KansDem]

14. Enron

The California electricity crisis, also known as the Western U.S. Energy Crisis of 2000 and 2001 was a situation in which California had a shortage of electricity caused by market manipulations and illegal shutdowns of pipelines by Texas energy consortiums. The state suffered from multiple large-scale blackouts, one of the state's largest energy companies collapsed, and the economic fall-out greatly harmed Governor Gray Davis's standing.

Drought and delays in approval of new power plants<4> and market manipulation decreased supply. This caused 800% increase in wholesale prices from April 2000 to December 2000.<5> In addition, rolling blackouts adversely affected many businesses dependent upon a reliable supply of electricity, and inconvenienced a large number of retail consumers.

California had an installed generating capacity of 45GW, but at the time of the blackouts demand was 28GW. A demand supply gap was created by energy companies, mainly Enron, to create an artificial shortage. Energy traders took power plants offline for maintenance in days of peak demand to increase the price.<6><7> Traders were thus able to sell power at premium prices, sometimes up to a factor of 20 times its normal value. Because the state Government had a cap on retail electricity charges, this market manipulation squeezed the industry's revenue margins, causing the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and near bankruptcy of Southern California Edison in early 2001.<8>

The financial crisis was possible because of partial deregulation legislation instituted in 1996 by Governor Pete Wilson. Enron took advantage of this deregulation and was involved in economic withholding and inflated price bidding in California's spot markets.<9> The crisis cost $40 to $45 billion.<10>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_electricity_crisis

Arnold SchwarzeneggerOn May 17, 2001, future Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Los Angeles Mayor Republican Richard Riordan met with Enron CEO Ken Lay at the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills. The meeting was convened for Enron to present its "Comprehensive Solution for California," which called for an end to Federal and state investigations into Enron's role in the California energy crisis.<25><26><27>

On October 7, 2003, Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California to replace Davis.

Over a year later, he attended the commissioning ceremony<28> of a new Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) 500 kV line remedying the aforementioned power bottleneck on Path 15.

There were no power shortages or outages while Schwarzenegger was governor, and the Enron corporate officers were swiftly arrested and tried. Those arrested and tried included Treasurer Ben Glisan, Jr., Andrew Fastow, Lea Fastow, Richard Causey, Jeffrey Skilling, Kenneth Lay, Dan Boyle of Enron and Merrill Lynch bankers Daniel Bayly, Robert Furst, William Fuhs and James Brown.

My sister, who lived in California at the time, swears up and down this was all Gray Davis's fault...:eyes:

[demosincebirth]

20. I remember the outages. It was Enron and their ilk that created the situation here in

California. Davis was a very good governor. He was a victim of circumstances. Of course you know what happened. We, the dumb voters, in California decided it was his fault, with the help of the republican propaganda machine and the rest is history. We rewarded ourselves by electing Arnold for for almost two terms and screwed this state up real good. Now Jerry Brown has to deal with working only with the democratic majority in both state house. The problem is that to pass any sort of revenue bill it has to have a 2/3 majority in the state senate, which we need 2 votes. Hopefully in the next election we will pickup those two seats with the new redistricting. Without new revenue this state is in big trouble. Thanks to those republicans and their no tax pledge.

I think if we had a democratic president at the time, we would have had more people indicted instead of just Ken Lay and some of his cronies...and to further the investigation into who was truly at fault for what happened in California with the power outages.

[banned from Kos]

4. crude is headed to $60 by the end of 2011.

Commodities are all falling.

[SixthSense]

5. oil dropped below $80/bbl today

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CLX11.NYM

[demosincebirth]

21. Closed at $78.75

[TheWraith]

6. Under three bucks? It's still $3.77 here in western New York. nt

[ejpoeta]

11. lol I just posted that it dropped from 3.83 to 3.77. hadn't seen your post.

i live in wny also.

[taught_me_patience]

7. $3.80 for regular in Long Beach, CA

price hasn't fallen much over the last six months.

[JuniperLea]

17. That's what I paid in Cerritos yesterday as well...

You can find 10 different prices in a five mile radius around here. I avoid the gouger stations!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. I'm sure the gas stations will be running out to change the signs.

[GreenStormCloud]

13. They have been doing that here in Texas.

A few weeks ago gas was $3.65, now it is $3.06. So they have been changing the signs.

[kentuck]

9. Low gas prices is good for the economy...

Everybody is helped except the oil companies and distributors.

[ejpoeta]

10. I noticed the price here went down from 3.83 to 3.77 after staying at 3.83

for quite some time.

[Warpy]

12. It was still $3.28 at the robber baron's station yesterday

here in central NM. While the spot market prices have tumbled from $112/bbl to $80+/bbl, we simply haven't seen decreases at the pump that tumble should reflect. It's high time those prices start to ease.

The upside is fewer dinosaurs on the road and more Minis and Smart Cars as well as larger economy sedans and more people still taking the bus. Stops are generally occupied, something that wasn't the case before the prices went up. Lots of people are riding the bus to work and using the car once a week to stock up on groceries.

The reduced demand is likely the only reason they're dropping prices at the pump.

[taterguy]

15. Bad news, people will start driving more

I keed

I keed

:hide:

[PA Democrat]

16. It was $3.49 in Pittsburgh today.

Down from $3.69 last time I filled up.

[former9thward]

18. It is $3.01 in Phoenix.

[RebelOne]

19. I paid $3.11 a gallon today when I filled my tank here

in North Georgia at the RacTrak.

[madinmaryland]

22. Saw $3.31 here in Maryland today. It was in the mid $3.70's earlier this week.