The head of Russia's state electricity grid Unified Energy Systems, Anatoly Chubais (you know who), wants to use as a model for the company's reotganization... Celifornia. I kid you not. ChrisD
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It's a great deal for the corporations that manage the vast infrastructure, but are not directly responsible for its development, function and repair. Whoever gets stuck with the material facilities will crash and burn while those who manage the distribution will rake off obscene profits and then evaporate. If the state owns the facilities then they will take the hit. Meanwhile the customers will get sky high bills while the infrastructure deteriorates and collapses.
>From a cynical corporatized state point of view the best deal is to
sell off the material facilities and get rid of them so the state is
not responsible for building and maintenance, then contract the
distribution systems so the state can skim off as least some of the
profit through fees.
If the Russians are at all interested in stopping this plan, the best place I think to see its endgame is in India. Ravi who used to be on this list knew about it. Do some digging around in google or the news background on Enron. Enron had arranged a deal similar to their California plan in India about two to five years before. The Indian Minister of Energy or Electricity development named, Abraham (yes same last name) was involved. It was the name confusion that lead me to the Indian stories on the web.
Chuck Grimes
ps. I just remembered the Austrailians got hosed the same way, so maybe Catherine Discoll has more. I think the Aussies got hit about the same time as the Indians.