Gregory Palast is an American expatriate journalist whose alarming Guardian and London Observer investigations into the 2000 U. S. Presidential campaign went virtually unreported in the nation where it occurred.

In a series of recent reports, Palast has examined the forces molding Bush's energy plan. Smells Like Texas, California Reamin', and Policy or Payback? analyze the influence corporate contributors have gathered inside the Whitehouse, a condition where Former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower charges, "They've eliminated the middle man. The corporations don't have to lobby the government any more. They ARE the government."

Palast's studies of California and Texas provide examples from which the rest of the nation may benefit. "Vending machine" governance, where corporations basically purchase relaxed regulation, is fully on display in Texas. Palast tours Texas, the number one state in emissions of greenhouse gases and toxic chemicals, a state filled with caustic air, ground, and water. Texas based companies, such as oil-refinery operator Exxon, are proposing voluntary emission cutbacks, while Bush has axed the million E.P.A. fund for civil enforcement to deter pollution, leaving law enforcement to Texas' weak state oversight. Further, Bush has reduced public access to estimates on the impact of catastrophic failures--via explosion or chemical exposures--to residents living near toxic producers

California's "energy problem" is a case study in manipulated shortages. Palast writes, "Power shortage? Nope. The California power grid operator reported that, just over the California border at the 'Henry Hub' gas pipeline switching centre, you could buy plentiful gas for (