Drifting to the left

I have been reading James Michener's Caribbean the last few days. I found the chapter on the English Jamaican sugar producers to be an eye opener. In order to protect their lucrative sugar trade the took over the British parliament for several years during the 18th century. They managed to stifle all legislation that would have increased competition and lowered the price of sugar. Does that sound familiar, it should. That is very similar to what we have seen in the energy sector right here in the 20th and 21st century United States. I'm talking about the deregulation of gas and electricity distribution. That deregulation led to artificial shortages and price gouging by companies like Enron and the eventual collapse of Enron because of ponzi like accounting. We in Portland have a special interest in this because our local electric utility, Portland General Electric, was owned by Enron. Something that would not have been possible before deregulation. After the collapse of Enron the City of Portland attempted to purchase PGE from Enron. While Enron did negotiate with the city those talks were terminated by Enron. I think it's safe to say that Enron never gave in serious consideration to allowing PGE to become a public utility.

A few years ago I would have opposed any takeover of PGE by condemnation. I now support such a takeover. Electricity is a vital part of the infrastructure and I think recent history has shown us that for profit (above all else) companies cannot be trusted.

I will have more on my drift to the left as it relates to health care in the future.