Scott Lewis of the Voice of San Diego, wrote a piece criticizing a presumptuous editorial in the Union Tribune for its lack of facts and for being deliberately misleading. As weak as the San Diego Union Tribune editorial was on the airport issue, attacking CAIVP Chairman Peace on California’s electricity crisis was even more bizarre. When you consider that the same paper actually criticized Peace for opposing electricity deregulation, then, after the electricity crises unloaded, they shamefully parroted the Enron party line, one should pause before accepting their reporting as fact.
After all, it was Peace whose testimony in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) correctly fingered FERC and Enron as the culprits. Then Senator Peace even called on San Diego customers to refuse to pay what he called “illegal” bills. The paper ran the quote in massive headlines, while playing Enron and company on its editorial pages. As a result, reporters all over the country bought the Enron spin hook, line, and sinker. History proved Peace right. Additionally, his warnings that the California energy crisis wasn’t about energy at all, but instead about reckless market manipulation and the failure of regulators to enforce the rules. Sound familiar? It should. It’s the same behavior that led to the mortgage meltdown, thanks to irresponsible speculation and a brain-dead federal government. Peace’s track record is well documented in the following documents: