Cheyenne
Ms. Smarty Pantsless
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2000
- Posts
- 59,553
This article was sent to me on a different discussion list I belong to. For all you Californians in the dark, I thought you might be interested in it.
http://www.insightmag.com/archive/200102279.shtml
By John Elvin
elvin@insightmag.com
The Sierra Club environmentalists told the leaders tasked with assuring that California would have plenty of electric power that their objective was to shut down the state.
As the lights go out in California, thanks to the Democratically controlled Legislature’s flawed deregulation scheme, the search for solutions is under way.
Although other states, such as Pennsylvania and Texas, have deregulated without incident by providing incentives to increase production facilities, the California plan concentrates on guaranteeing retail rates while freeing wholesale prices to increase with demand. And while the industry was eager to sign up when it looked like wholesale prices would be low, the unexpected upward zoom in demand has raised the wholesale price of spot electricity, set by bidding in the daily market, to levels that are threatening to bankrupt some companies.
Yet instead of taking steps to encourage the building of private power plants, the California Legislature has been discussing solutions such as “socializing the peak” — building government plants that would come online when demand is greatest. But it is quite possible that an educated public might not want to foot the enormous bills for government power plants, particularly since they already are paying the nation’s highest electricity prices. And there is talk of socializing the industry’s debts also, by approving bond issues to bail them out. But the real problem, say conservative critics, is that California has a built-in aversion to new private plants as a result of many years of ecological proselytizing by environmental groups. The crisis is the result of California ecological dreaming.
.....(The article continues from here- it is LONG)
http://www.insightmag.com/archive/200102279.shtml
By John Elvin
elvin@insightmag.com
The Sierra Club environmentalists told the leaders tasked with assuring that California would have plenty of electric power that their objective was to shut down the state.
As the lights go out in California, thanks to the Democratically controlled Legislature’s flawed deregulation scheme, the search for solutions is under way.
Although other states, such as Pennsylvania and Texas, have deregulated without incident by providing incentives to increase production facilities, the California plan concentrates on guaranteeing retail rates while freeing wholesale prices to increase with demand. And while the industry was eager to sign up when it looked like wholesale prices would be low, the unexpected upward zoom in demand has raised the wholesale price of spot electricity, set by bidding in the daily market, to levels that are threatening to bankrupt some companies.
Yet instead of taking steps to encourage the building of private power plants, the California Legislature has been discussing solutions such as “socializing the peak” — building government plants that would come online when demand is greatest. But it is quite possible that an educated public might not want to foot the enormous bills for government power plants, particularly since they already are paying the nation’s highest electricity prices. And there is talk of socializing the industry’s debts also, by approving bond issues to bail them out. But the real problem, say conservative critics, is that California has a built-in aversion to new private plants as a result of many years of ecological proselytizing by environmental groups. The crisis is the result of California ecological dreaming.
.....(The article continues from here- it is LONG)
