I wonder... why is this story breaking, and who will benefit in the short run from this story coming out? Such tactics are becoming commonplace among the pull merchants to stuff more money into their pockets...

There's also the power company angle - which are easily (and commonly) manipulated to geterate a false "crisis" to up the cost of (insert whatever here)... Saw it on the left coast a couple years ago, the pull merchants out there, er, the "Independent System Operator" played that one to the hilt, browning out major markets and bringing in rolling blackouts to invalidate contracts and create a false shortage to up prices. And of course, once prices go up, the pull merchants make sure they don't go back down.