Actually, my understanding was that it was a forced sell-off. PG&E had no choice. They weren't allowed to keep the generators.

From: mdevney@teamsphere.com [mailto:mdevney@teamsphere.com] Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 3:11 PM

On Thu, 18 Jan 2001, Roeland Meyer wrote:

...

What's wrong with this picture? I see the generators, holding a shotgun at PG&E's neck, and telling the state that they'll pull the triggers if the state doesn't come up with the dough. They're not even wearing a mask! Yet, no one is seeing anything wrong with this and they're acting like it's PG&E's fault.

Also note that:

Half of these generators used to be owned and operated by PG&E; they were spun off quickly after deregulation in an effort to boost profits. Had I been out of diapers at the time, I would have seen this day coming back then.

Root cause, then: PG&E can't get us electricity because they decided profit was more important than assured service.