Well, today's the day that the Oregon Public Utility Commission will approve the Texas Pacific takeover of PGE. There may be some conditions attached, but I'm betting the deal will go through.

Why?

The PUC is two Democrats and one Republican. They've all been in Salem too long. With the City of Portland waiting in the wings to institute Big-Time Public Power, there's no way the Republican can vote no on TPG-PGE. And the two Democrats are Governor Ted's guys, which means they're also likely good buddies with that Certain Someone who had his name on the top of the deal before the value of his name was so righteously cancelled out.

One of the two PUC commisioners ran the Oregon Department of Energy for 10 years, and he worked there for another six before that. I worked with the Oregon DOE for a while around 15 years ago. It seemed to me at that time to be an extremely odd organization that went out of its way to run interference for big corporate interests.

And so I have every expectation that the breathtaking announcement at 11 this morning will be splendid news for the good old boys at Texas Pacific. Thus, we can expect Lil Erik to be all red in the face when he shows up for the followup press conference this afternoon. And like Sheriff Andy to his Opie, the mayor will be there swearing to keep the city safe from the Robber Barons. They'll wind up spending even more millions on top of the million-plus they've already burned out of the city's property tax pot to pay for this quixotic little adventure.

Public power activist Dan Meek will chalk up another bitter defeat. He knows he's right, but once again, nobody listened.

And tonight a pack of fat cats up in the West Hills will be patting their wallets and winking and smirking at each other. In this town, for some people, life is always very good indeed.

And if I'm wrong about all this? It will be a great day for the rest of us.