Arnold's Enron liaisons beg answers

Ten days after rolling blackouts darkened California for two consecutive days, Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is reported to have entertained a private rendezvous with then-Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay at the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel on May 17, 2001.

Something tells us that Schwarzenegger and Lay did not talk about the societal implications of "Kindergarten Cop." Nor did they discuss the deeper meaning of "Last Action Hero."

So what did happen on that fateful day?

No one knows, but California should.

In fact, even Schwarzenegger claims to have forgotten the meeting.

Well, allow us to refresh his memory.

Our new governor-elect had a meeting with a Texas energy extortionist in the middle of the biggest energy and financial disaster in recent history. Our highest public office-holder had a private sit-down with the man who took advantage of the people of California. We deserve to know why.

This meeting is definitely cause for alarm. Deregulation, Enron and Lay are responsible for the financial debacle, the high energy prices and the rolling blackouts of two years ago.

Now that he's governor, Schwarzenegger wants to, yet again, deregulate and give the free market another try.

But, there's one problem. Energy is a necessity. It is independent of market forces because "the public safety and economic necessity of electricity require customers and most businesses to buy power at any price," said Douglas Heller, senior consumer advocate at the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in an Oct. 14 letter to Schwarzenegger.

If energy providers remain unregulated, the door is open for greed, and unexplained price hikes loom around any corner, just like what happened with Enron and Lay in 2001.

Nice, Arnie. You were elected by the people of California on the ticket that you were something different. You were going to "think outside the box," as the cliché goes. But, now, in the early stages of your honeymoon period, you are already re-hashing what did not work before.

There also remains the financial question. In the upcoming year, California is facing an $8-10 billion budget deficit. While in office, Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante were working on a lawsuit that would regain $9 billion of the money squeezed from the pockets of Californians by Enron.

Now that we're finding out that our own "cybernetic organism" is chummy with the powers that were at Enron, will we ever see this money again?

This meeting brings up a slew of questions. Is the energy crisis of 2001 going to be repeated? Why is Schwarzenegger deregulating energy? Is it for the people of California or is it for Arnie's good buddy Kenny? Also, are we going to see reparations for the scheme we were the victims of or is Arnie just going to let his buddy fly?

California is begging for answers. We deserve to know the basis behind this meeting. We're giving Arnie a chance. We deserve to know whether our new governor is planning to take us to the cleaners like Lay or if he really does care about California and restoring it to what it can be.