PROBES TO NOWHERE.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)

Outside of President Bush, the most unpopular figures in Sacramento are out-of-state power wholesalers. Likened to murderers by California Gov. Gray Davis, they'll likely be officially vilified when the state completes its pricing probes.

Whether or not the wholesalers have purposely cut supply to drive up rates, much of the public believes they're guilty of price gouging. Charges and guesswork have been confused with fact so often that one wonders when Californians will take up pitchforks and torches to storm the wholesalers' gates.

Though there'll be some harsh rhetoric when the probes are finished, we suspect they will turn up nothing that proves the wholesalers have rigged prices.

It reminds us of the 1970s oil crunch and the myths it spawned. One rumor that was hard to kill had tankers anchored just off the coast, allowing oil companies to cry low supply and drive up prices.

It turned out those tankers were ghosts.

Chasing ghosts in Sacramento more than two decades later are a couple of legislative committees, the Public Utilities Commission, Attorney General Bill Lockyer and a host of lawsuit-happy lawyers. The combined reasoning power of this group is staggering.

Start with Lockyer. Here's a former state senator who voted for the re-regulation mess that put California in its present straits. But he's eager to deflect blame elsewhere.