Arnold Schwarzenegger Met With Ken Lay in 2001, and:

Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Ken Lay on May 17, 2001, at a secret energy meeting. The drive to recall California Gov. Gray Davis and replace him with Arnold Schwarzenegger was the result of a plan by Enron to offset a huge lawsuit instituted by Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante on behalf of the People of California against Enron.

Schwarzenegger is now advocating accepting a substantially lesser amount in restitution from Enron than the original Davis-Bustamante lawsuit was seeking.

Arnold’s campaign advisor was former California Governor Pete “Blackout Pete” Wilson. Pete Wilson deregulated the California energy industry in the late 1990’s. This deregulation of California’s energy industry subsequently resulted in a huge energy crisis that cost Californians billions of dollars and basically wrecked California’s economy and state budget.

Schwarzenegger is currently championing deregulation of the energy industry in California once again.

It is clear that, because of his longtime advocacy of energy deregulation, his campaign advisory by Pete Wilson, and his dubious ties to Ken Lay and Enron, Arnold Schwarzenegger is representing the energy industry and interests of the energy industry, and is not acting in the best interests of the People of California.

A drive to recall him should be instituted by the people of California ASAP, or the State will once again experience another energy crisis and financial disaster at the hands of energy corporations, if Arnold Schwarzenegger is successful in his efforts toward deregulation.

Arnold Unplugged - It's hasta la vista to $9 billion if the Governator is selected
Friday, October 3, 2003
Greg Palast

The wannabe governor has yet to deny that on May 17, 2001, at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles, he had consensual political intercourse with Enron chieftain Kenneth Lay. Also frolicking with Arnold and Ken was convicted stock swindler Mike Milken.

Now, thirty-four pages of internal Enron memoranda have just come through this reporter's fax machine tell all about the tryst between Maria's husband and the corporate con men. It turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off.

Here's the story Arnold doesn't want you to hear. The biggest single threat to Ken Lay and the electricity lords is a private lawsuit filed last year under California's unique Civil Code provision 17200, the "Unfair Business Practices Act." This litigation, heading to trial now in Los Angeles, would make the power companies return the $9 billion they filched from California electricity and gas customers.

Now follow the action. One month after Cruz brings suit, Enron's Lay calls an emergency secret meeting in L.A. of his political buck-buddies, including Arnold. Their plan, to undercut Davis (according to Enron memos) and "solve" the energy crisis -- that is, make the Bustamante legal threat go away.

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=283&row=1

Settlement talks put FERC refund decision on hold
By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau
Thursday, July 1, 2004

At the request of California, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has postponed further work on determining refunds from power generators for price gouging during the 2000-2001 electricity crisis while settlements with more than 50 different companies are explored.

Billions of dollars are at stake, although probably not the $9 billion that California has consistently demanded from generators who took advantage of power shortages and a bad state power deregulation law by lying, cheating and scamming to drive up prices.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger applauded the new drive toward settlements in a letter read to the participants at the opening of the talks Wednesday in the commission's chambers.

The commission has indicated that California's refund total could be as little as $3 billion.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/9846938p-10769284c.html

Wednesday, May 5, 2004
Power Play in California
Deregulation déjà vu

If the new political leadership in Sacramento and the energy industry have their way, Californians will soon see a revival of electricity deregulation. That's right: a return to a volatile market of unregulated electricity transactions that put the state in the red and its people in the dark.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Southern California Edison (a lobbying force behind the first deregulation debacle) want to allow energy producers to sell power directly to big-business customers without state controls over supply or price. They are not using the "D" word, but deregulation is precisely what the plan entails.

When the price and supply of electricity are not regulated by the state, it's called deregulation. That's a policy the state moved away from after the blackouts and price spikes of 2000 and 2001 because it was clear that the freer the market was, the more all ratepayers became hostage to profiteers. The speaker and governor say there's little danger in a return to the deregulated market only for the biggest buyers, called "direct access," as they have each proposed. After all, big business can handle itself. It's not the total deregulation, they both argue, under which all ratepayers were invited to bargain with the likes of Enron. Still, both want to put too much power in the hands of the deregulated companies.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/05/EDG9B6FM1S1.DTL

"God Bless the Gropernator," Maria prays every morning in her Catholic church.

Arnold is working so hard to bring them more cash.