Stardate 20010921.0542 (On Screen): Remember the California Energy Crisis? Somehow or other all the predicted blackouts didn't happen, but there's still have immense mountain of debt that Pacific Gas and Electric managed to pile up before finally declaring bankrupcy last spring. Now they've described a plan to try to recover from it all and pay that debt down. I have no opinion about whether the plan is any good, but I note the usual outcries about "protecting the ratepayers". That's hopeless. One way or another, this company (or these companies) will have to raise extra money over a period of years to pay back that thirteen billion dollars, and the only place that extra money can come from is their customers; they have no other source of income.
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