Ken Lay

Dan Walters has some comments on the late Ken Lay.

The purveyors of revisionist political history are back at work this week, inspired by the death of Enron Corp. founder -- and convicted felon -- Kenneth Lay to revive the myth that were it not for Enron and Lay, California wouldn't have experienced its 2001 energy crisis.

Well, at least these purveyors actually believe Lay is dead. But they continue to pile on him in death as they did in life.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer had the good manners to remain silent about Lay's death from heart disease three months before he was to be sentenced for lying to mask the failing company's condition. It was Lockyer who in 2001 told an interviewer that "I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey.' "

As for his role in deregulation, yes he did advocate it.

Did Lay's Enron play a role in the crisis that continues to cost California consumers tens of billions of dollars? Of course, but it was just one of many factors, and not even the most important one.

Lay was an advocate of electric utility deregulation, but so were many others. Properly constructed, deregulated energy markets have worked elsewhere and could work in California, but the state's politicians fumbled.

Indeed, at the time of the energy crises, there was a fellow from the Reason Public Policy Institute who was explaining the system to people, and I was sure he had to be making it up. Only politicians could design something as stupid as what we were dealing with.