Ken Lay's Indictment: Meaning for California

Former Enron CEO Ken Lay has been indicted--a vindication for Californians who blamed his company, Enron, for the State's Energy crisis. The Sacramento Bee spells this out:

Although the indictment of Lay unsealed Thursday focused on his ties to the accounting scandal that sank Enron Corp., officials in California were quick to recall Enron's role in the state's energy crisis. They said Lay's indictment doesn't bring the story to a satisfactory conclusion.

The criminal charges "will not put money back in the pockets of ratepayers," former Gov. Gray Davis said in an interview.

Enron officials lobbied California officials feverishly in the early and mid-1990s, preaching the virtues of free-market energy and warning that the state's economy would stagnate if it clung to the traditional, regulated electricity system. "The patient is on the ground bleeding," Lay protege and one-time Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling told the Public Utilities Commission in 1994.

When deregulation came apart in 2000 and 2001, producing rolling blackouts and crushing the state's big utilities with billions of dollars in debts, Lay urged California to stay the course. Deregulation would work, he argued in meetings with California officials.

Odd to say, but Gray Davis is right on. The indictment may make some Californians feel good, but it does nothing to solve the State's energy woes.