Creditors and Predators in California's Power Crisis
Sept 5, 2001

       MARINA DEL REY, CA--California lawmakers will vote this week on a bill to stave off the bankruptcy of Southern California Edison (SCE) with an unprecedented $2.9 billion bond issue, which will be used to repay some of SCE's creditors--but not all.

       The lawmakers' preferred creditors include "alternative" energy producers and banks. The rejected creditors are the big energy producers, like Enron and Duke Energy--those that have actually kept the lights on in California, but which Governor Gray Davis has demonized as "profiteers" in California's energy crisis.

       "In effect, our lawmakers have decided it is politically expedient to be seen bailing out these preferred creditors and punishing the big energy producers for the failure of the so-called energy deregulation," said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. "And as if the injustice of this discrimination were not enough, the lawmakers propose to finance the bonds by raising the electricity rates of large and small businesses. The obvious principle in both parts of their immoral scheme is: prey on those who produce."

       "In spite of the rhetoric, the fundamental conflict here is not economic or political--it is ethical," said Dr. Brook. "A basic issue in business ethics is: Does a company exist solely for its own profit? Does it have a moral right to demand payment for goods or services rendered? Or does it have an altruistic duty to sacrifice itself and its profit--in this case, to bail out the unjust, incompetent lawmakers of California."

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Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews. To interview Dr. Brook or book him for your show, please e-mail media@aynrandcenter.org

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