PLEASE, CONSERVATIVES...

...go ahead and try to blame Gray Davis if you want.

California gave federal energy regulators more than 3,000 pages of confidential documents Monday that Gov. Gray Davis said prove energy companies manipulated the state's power market to drive electricity prices to record highs.

A public summary of the documents filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that most companies that sold power in California during the state's energy crisis in 2000 and 2001 engaged in improper practices similar to those described in Enron Corp. memos that were made public last year.

Sellers of wholesale power withheld electricity, colluded by sharing nonpublic information, routed power to other states to avoid price caps and submitted false electricity schedules that gave the impression of congested transmission lines, said the state.

The state is seeking $9 billion in energy refunds for 2000 and 2001, when power prices soared and the state faced energy shortages and rolling blackouts.

The documents "establish an industrywide pattern of cheating and stealing from California ratepayers," Davis said.

But the red states are allowed to rob the blue states, right? Right?