Bob Filner: “It is amazing that an administration which stresses States' rights and wants to keep the government off our backs will…”

“It is amazing that an administration which stresses States' rights and wants to keep the government off our backs will not allow us to do that. It costs 2 or 3 cents a kilowatt to produce electricity. We are paying in California anywhere from 30 cents to 50 cents to $1. It went up to $2 last week. Could go to $5, who knows. The cost of production has no relationship to what they are charging us nor to the amount of electricity available. And the same for natural gas, by the way. Turns out that the El Paso Gas Company, which controls the pipeline into California, kept the pipeline empty to drive up the prices. So the guys who charge us for electricity say, we have to charge you more for electricity, the price of natural gas went up. Well, the price of natural gas went up because the cartel, which is a subsidiary of the same electric companies that are saying they have to pay this, shot up the prices arbitrarily also. It is the prices, stupid, to coin a phrase.”