(business) Reliant Energy to pay another $460 million to settle claims (moved from ATSNN), page 1

Reliant Energy has agreed to pay $460 million to settle lawsuits arising from claims of its involvement in the contrived West Coast energy crisis of 2000 - 2001. This is in addition to the $65 million it already agreed to pay FERC. This makes 11 energy company settlements for a total of $5.29 billion stemming from the faked crisis, which caused power shortages, soaring electricity bills, and rolling blackouts across California.

www.latimes.com
Reliant Settles Energy Crisis Suit
By Elizabeth Douglass, Times Staff Writer

Reliant Energy Inc. said Monday that it would pay $460 million to resolve claims that it withheld power and overcharged for electricity during California's energy crisis in 2000 and 2001, becoming the last major out-of-state power producer to settle disputes from the troubled time.

The settlement, which would include limited refunds directly to California consumers, closes outstanding civil cases against the company brought by California, its utilities and private plaintiffs, as well as those brought by Washington state and Oregon. Reliant didn't admit wrongdoing.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

This faked crisis is one of the big reasons I lost faith in Corporate America's integrity, and its stake in the vested interests of the American people. That they would play games for profit with a commodity as intrinsic to our way of life as electrical power showed they have little regard for our well-being in the face of increasing their profits.

I'm curious how much of the billions of dollars stolen made its way, possibly as a deciding factor, into the election of 2000. Was this heist, and subsequent revelations of corporate malfeasance, all just part of the plan to prime the pump for the 'war on terror' and the Patriot Act and the assault on civil liberties unfolding all around us? The one does seem to have segued seamlessley into the other.

[edit on 17-8-2005 by Icarus Rising]