Electricity of the Rich & Famous
Last night there was a program
(Travel Channel, MTV, or something like that) showing viewers
around some fabulous California homes. We were following a lady
"power broker". She was having a party at a friends
home were they could "Smooze" (Boston term). She mentioned
her (woman owner) electric bill was $5,000 a month. The house
was 57,000 square feet. Gee...am I jealous! I pay 60 to 100
a month for 2,000 square feet. Should I apologize? Nope!
John
Peoples Republic of Massachusetts
* * *
Rolling Blackout Theme Song; (To
the theme music from "Rawhide")
Rollin', rollin', rollin', Though the state is golden, Keep
them blackouts rollin', statewide.
A little colder weather, And we all freeze together,Wishin'
more plants were on the line.
All the things I'm missin', Like lights and television, Are
waiting 'til we can pay the price.
Turn 'em on, turn 'em off, Shut 'em down, block 'em out, Turn
'em on, turn 'em off, statewide!
Brown 'em out, black 'em out, Charge 'em more, give 'em less,
Let the pols fix the mess, statewide!
Keep movin', movin', movin', Though they're disapprovin', Keep
them rates a-movin', statewide.
Don't try to understand 'em, Just raise, charge, and collect
'em.
Soon we'll be livin' high and wide.
My heart's calculatin', Nuclear plants will be waitin',
Be waitin' at the end of my ride.
Turn 'em on, turn 'em off, Shut
'em down, block 'em out,Turn 'em on, turn 'em off, statewide!
Brown 'em out, black 'em out,Charge 'em more, give 'em less,Let
the pols fix the mess, statewide!
STATEWIDE!!!
FRom:Elle
* * *
California and Electricty
The environmental lobbyists pressured
the California legislature to write law that legislated deregulation
of the electric power industry. There was also a provision in
the law that fixed the price of electricity to the consumer
even if it was sold at a loss. This is flunking Economics 101
big time. Now to compound the problem the California Legislature
is taking a page from the way the failed communist governments.
Draw this parallel. The commies
discredited the operating people who ran the countries power
industry. The managers, engineers and operating personnel were
jailed or executed after public display trials and replaced
by politically correct party cronies who never had any experience
running anything. The systems were run into the ground and became
part of the reason for the failure of communism world wide.
The present attack on the Bush
energy policy borrows a page from the same communist book in
an effort to discredit the people with real energy backgrounds
in a world that runs on oil
* * *
If it turns out that CA. customers
were over charged and are due a refund, don't you think that
a refund if any should go to the poorest utility buyers in say
AK. TN. NM. etc rather than the richest 10% in CA. I'm sure
dicky gep, tommy d. teddy k. even babs boxer etc. would go for
that.
Frank - From Texas
* * *
California Energy Crisis
I would like to propose a new word,
that word is Corpaphobia. It is rooted from observations that
Corporations are perceived as evil and managed with the sole
purpose to rape the public to make the rich richer and poor
poorer. A preposterous phobia triggered by years of subtle indoctrination
by the schools, colleges, unions, subversive groups, special
interests, and media. When something goes wrong often politicians
try to deflect blame toward corporations. California's Power
Generators being the current Evil Corporations afflicted from
inept Government regulations.
This country maintains a challenging
balance between business and a reasonable Government to mitigate
excesses. This balance has fostered the most powerful country
and beneficial way if life ever known. Corpaphobia is a foolish
uninformed view of a reasonable regulatory Government and enterprise.
Without business's commendable
abilities to innovate, evolve, and grow the Western World would
be in a state of decay. Strong men or fiefdoms would rule in
constant conflict with one another. The greater population would
be chattel with no hope of gaining a better life. Lacking businesses
there would be little organized opposition to unbearably high
taxes and unions never would have existed.
* * *
I have worked for PG&E for
15 years and I have lived in CA for over 20. My 401K is worth
about 1/3 of its value from 6 months ago, and I have to explain
to the kids every night that I still have a job because the
company hasn't filed for bankruptcy yet... This really pisses
me off.
If you want to REALLY understand what the hell is going on the
California Power Crisis - please carefully examine the day to
day chain of events that started in about April of 2000. It
is a textbook example of failed, arrogant socialist policy that
has simply refused to acknowledge any error, and is intent on
dragging others down to save it's sorry butt.
It looks like this (in a nutshell). PG&E and SCE both saw
the spike coming down the road. They knew the law; they saw
the break in the market and they knew the situation was fundamentally
unfair - it was counter competitive and BOTH companies were
in a VERY BAD - UPSIDE DOWN position. So they tried to send
signals and messages, NONE of which were received by the groups
responsible to protect the citizens of the state.
PG&E and SCE are and were - in fact - both very savvy companies,
politically and financially. After weighing a variety of options
- both companies began to aggressively pursue legal remedies
for the situation. Having been in the electric business - in
California - for a combined total of well over 100 years, the
companies realized it was absolutely ecessary to get out of
the AB1890 transition / CTC recovery period and be able to remove
the rate freeze. By their own accounting, the CTC's were recovered
by August and rates should have been allowed to change, which
could have allowed a great deal more time to fix the fundamentally
flawed experiment.
The Utilities were consistently blocked in this effort by a
variety of forces, including Gray Davis, who by this time saw
the election looming on the horizon , and determined to screw
the people of the state of California by systematically denying
all motions of the utilities to stave off the impending crisis.
This was a crisis indeed - a political crisis with a very carefully
calculated outcome - California elected officials thought...
if we can keep the focus on the utilities till after the election
- keep denying there is a problem - keep making the Utilities
look like Chicken Little - we can keep our jobs and deal with
whatever crisis ensues afterward. After all - many of them thought
- these companies are always interested in raising rates. We
we can play the same game we always play and we will win in
the end - after all, we are the Government...
The real problem was and still is denial. The CPUC's relationship
with California Utilities is and has been terrible for years.
This is a matter of public record. Ecological interests and
Rate payer interests, and social objectives - have driven their
policies for years. This unfortunate fact caused the CPUC -
which is chartered with securing reliable power for the state
- to be a spectacular failure. It is amazing to me that NOBODY
has noticed that they - the CPUC, the Governor and the State
legislature have failed so completely and totally to safeguard
their constituencies.
How did they fail? LOOK AT THE TRAIL OF THE UTILITIES AS THEY
TRIED TO CORRECT THE PROBLEM. LOOK AT THE DECISIONS made by
their OPPOSITION and CONSIDER THE MOTIVES. A few choice quotes
from the CPUC decisions, the Governor, the FERC, and Rate payer
advocates are all it will take for you to show that any number
of actions could have been taken to prevent the current situation
from getting this bad - but they were deliberately not taken.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, it is clear that neither the CPUC,
the Governor nor the Clinton FERC wanted to hear what the Utilities
had to say. This was a failure of the Government to negotiate
in good faith, and the public will be hurt by it. This was not
the first time that a federal or state agency failed to safeguard
the public interest because they had their own agenda, but it
may well become one of the most famous. The price for their
failure may be the whole deck of cards - first in California
and ten in the rest of the country. It will be a Greek tragedy
of epic proportions. When the public begins to understand that
the Utilities did not cause this crisis - that a proud, arrogant
and completely self-absorbed self-important government caused
it - maybe they will get pissed off too.
In order to cover up their blame - and to continue to pursue
a socialist agenda, these same forces have driven two large,
successful companies to the brink of bankruptcy to continue
to cover their butts. The basic fact that we have had 8 days
of Level 3 emergencies and rolling blackouts should be a HUGE
signal that the government didn't do its job. Who the hell took
an oath to protect the interests of the state and failed? I'll
give you a hint - it wasn't the utilities.
This is the closest I have ever been in my lifetime to a government
cover-up - and it right in front of your nose. And get this
- they never give up - these same Socialist bozos will now "rescue"
the utilities by seizing their remaining assets. Gee - that's
a novel idea... Please go back to the newspapers and public
decisions of the CPUC and the legislature in 1999 and look badly
how they wanted to obtain the Hydra system... Do you think it
a coincidence that this "solution" should be offered
now???
The systematic screwing that SCE and PG&E are getting from
California is only matched in recent years by the justice department's
case against Microsoft. And look at that fiasco - billions of
dollars lost - and nobody any better off. I think this could
be worse...
Pissed
* * *
Calif. Energy crisis
In our last two blackouts here
in San Diego County, citizens noted that two of our major power
plants had three of its four generators shut down by order of
our state's independent power distribution authority. There
is another 240-megawatt power plant, called the Silvergate and
located in the Logan Heights area of San Diego, that has been
completely shutdown for two years. The plant is capable of operating.
It is also documented that Simpra Corporation recently moved
millions of dollars out of its San Diego Gas & Electric
Corporation to save their financial resources and to make it
appear that SDG&E is on the brink of bankruptcy. The California
power companies several years ago had our California legislators
create a law that will not allow California cities or counties
to create their own municipal power companies like Los Angeles
has right now. That municipal power authority buys electricity
at 4 to 5 cents per kilowatt hours from Bolder Dam and then
sells it to San Diego for 35 cents per kilowatt hours. Mix these
situations in with the laws created by our environmental wackos,
our California politicians' goof on alleged energy deregulation,
and the purchasing of energy power on the spot market by our
state, and most Californians feel that our energy crisis is
manufactured. (I admit that many California voters are very
apathetic on this subject, but hopefully the public schools
systems have not dumbed them down enough to where they cannot
take back their "power.")
Things could get better if Governor Davis (a.k.a. Govenor "blackout"
or "gray out" Davis) would show some leadership. But,
don't count on it. Only private industry can really turn things
around if competition is allow to flourish.
FYI: The Roger Hedgecock radio talk show and irate citizens
in San Diego are hosting an all-day protest demonstration today
in front of the closed down Silvergate power plant. It will
be interesting to see if our left-coast news media will cover
it.
Mike
* * *
Solar Power
I have been hearing a lot about
solar power again these days, of course mostly from the liberal
environmentalists. I have a serious concern about the extensive
use of solar power. People like to talk about the unlimited
power that we can get from the sun. This "unlimited power"
source is exactly one and the same as the power source that
powers our environment. What are the long term ramifications
of intercepting this power before it reaches the surface of
the earth? There has to be an affect on the environment.
I don't understand how environmentalists can propose
this as a solution to our energy/environmental problems.
Carlski3
* * *
Just a note for clarification.
While it is true that wind power only represents 1% of this
nations power, it is not because wind is not a viable wind source.
Rather it is because under the democratic leadership of this
country during the past several years and their decisions to
continue to rely upon fossil fuels to supply our power needs.
Had they actually attempted to utilize solar and wind power
during their tenure in the white house this situation of California
power problems would most likely not be a concern at this time.
I greatly enjoy your show and the astounding insights that God
has given you in the operations of the governance of this country.
Sincerely, George
* * *
Calif. Energy Price Caps
The request by Gov. Davis to get
Pres. Bush to cap wholesale energy prices is merely an attempt
to get the rest of us to pay for California's bad judgement.
If wholesalers cannot recoup the costs of supplying California's
unplanned demand, they must pass the cost on to other customers.
Not meeting their demand is not a viable option. This forces
the residents of other states to pay for California's stupidity.
It is true that this will also force prices higher in the long
run, but in the short run we pay.
* * *
Bailout (California Power vs Savings
& Loan)
The nice liberal lady from California
suggested that the US Taxpayer bail out the California Utilities
just as they did the Savings and Loans.
Difference is that the Savings and Loans were insured by the
US Government (spelled taxpayer), while the California Utilities
are private. The US Taxpayer has no obligation to bail out California's
failed liberal experiments in economic manipulation of their
private institutions.
I'm getting awfully tired of the liberals expecting the conceratives
to bail them out from their social engineering while trying
to place the blame on everyone and everything except where it
belongs.
Robert / Pasco, Washington
* * *
As for price caps on electricity
to the consumer - That plan was promoted again by the utility
companies. The fear was that prices were likely to drop and
they wanted to protect their income with what they saw as a
floor not a ceiling. Obviously they were wrong! Too bad we can't
tell the truth when discussing this issue - Perhaps the fear
is that the truth weakens the argument.
* * *
Subject: On open letter to America
America has engaged in some finger
wagging lately because California doesn't have enough electricity
to meet its needs. The rest of the country (including George
W. Bush's energy secretary Spencer Abraham, who wants Californians
to suffer through blackouts as justification for drilling for
oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) seems to be
just fine with letting Californians dangle in the breeze without
enough power to meet their needs. They laugh at Californians'
frivolity. Well, everybody.
Here's how it really is:
California ranks 48th in the nation
in power consumed per person.
California grows more than half
the nation's fruit, nuts and vegetables. We're keeping them.
We need something to eat when the power goes out.
We grow 99 percent or more of the
nation's almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, kiwi fruit, olives,
persimmons, pistachios, prunes, raisins and walnuts. Hope you
won't miss them.
California is the nation's number
one dairy state. We're keeping our dairy products.We'll need
plenty of fresh ones since our refrigerators can't be relied
upon. Got milk?
We Californians are gonna keep
all our high-tech software in state. Silicon Valley is ours,
after all.
Without enough electricity, which
you're apparently keeping for yourselves, we just plain don't
have enough software to spare.
We're keeping all our airplanes.
California builds a good percentage of the commercial airliners
available to fly you people to whereyou want to go. When yours
wear out, you'd better hope Boeing's Washington plant can keep
you supplied. There isn't enough electricity here to allowus
to export any more planes than we need ourselves.
And while we're at it, we're keeping
all our high-tech aerospace stuff, too, like the sophisticated
weapons systems that let you sleep at night, not worried you
might wake up under the rule of some foreign kook.
Oh, yeah, and if you want to make
a long-distance call, remember where the satellite components
and tracking systems come from. Maybe you could get back in
the habit of writing letters.
Want to see a blockbuster movie
this weekend? Come to California. We make them here. Since we'll
now have to make them with our own electricity, we're keeping
them. Even if we shot them somewhere else, the labs, printing
facilities, editing facilities, and sound facilities are all
here.
Want some nice domestic wine? We
produce over 17 million gallons per year. We'll need all of
it to drown our sorrows when we think about the fact that no
matter how many California products we export to make the rest
of America's lives better, America can't see its way clear to
help us out with a little electricity. You can no longer have
any of our wine.
You all complain that we don't
build enough power plants. Well, you don't grow enough food,
write enough software, make enough movies, build enough airplanes
and defense systems or make enough wine. This is your last warning,
America. Lighten (us) up before it's too late.
Love, The Californians - April
4, 2001
