Casey Carol on thu 21 dec 00
Just to jump in, I worked for an electric utility and
I tremble (and shiver) to think what will happen if
the whole country is deregulated. I'm very sad for
Californians but thank the state for being such an
obvious early example of how wrong deregulation is. I
hope the rest of the country watches and decides that
electricity and natural gas are not commodities to be
traded on an open market but necessities that must be
regulated by government with the interest of its
citizens at its core.
If you read the companies' literature they say their
main job as deregulated utilities is to "return value
to the shareholders"; not a word about keeping their
customers' lights burning or their houses warm. And if
you're poor, as usual you will pay more. If you
conserve, you'll pay more per kilowatt hour because
the whole idea is to make money from consumption.
Burning up the world.
Guess you can see I'm pretty darn mad about it. In
fact, I hate it.
Carol Casey
ccasey1950@yahoo.com
--- Stephani Stephenson
wrote:
> The problems in California are complex. The
> situation involves both
> electricity and natural gas .Here is the gist of it
> .
>
> 1.ELECTRICITY
> The current rate crisis this year in San Diego area
> was brought on by
> deregulation of the power industry. San Diego was
> one of the first to
> try deregulation. Several other parts of the state
> are soon to follow,
> and other states will be voting on the issue, so do
> pay attention to
> what is happening here.
> With deregulation, local and regional power
> companies have to purchase
> power in the open market, though how open the market
> is questionable.
> Some of the energy utilities, like SDGE, did not
> make very wise energy
> purchasing decisions. They did not enter into long
> term contracts
> which would have allowed them to purchase power at
> a set price for a
> set amount of time, i.e they did not obtain a good
> price they could lock
> into . Instead they were forced to basically do a
> lot of day trading,
> and weren’t able to get the cheap stuff.They are
> paying VERY dearly
> for the megawatts. There are all kinds of
> accusations of price gouging
> and collusion among the energy providers .
>
> It is hard to know really what is going on, but
> last summer,
> electricity rates here went from 4 cents per KWH to
> 29 cents per KWH ,
> and rates have not come back down. Needless to say,
> EVERYONE feels the
> bite of an increase like this. There has been
> temporary relief in the
> form of a credit on our power bills, but the
> arrangement can be
> rescinded and we may have to pay it all anyway.
> The utilities now
> claim, because they cannot pass on the full cost of
> the increase to the
> consumer that they too are on the brink of
> bankruptcy.
>
> On a regional level, California energy needs
> outstrip the ability it has
> to produce energy. California is a huge consumer of
> power. Therefore
> it must purchase power from other sources, primarily
> the Pacific
> Northwest and Canada, areas with good hydroelectric
> resources.
> Hydroelectric is the cheapest form of power on the
> market.
>
> Right now the northern regions do not have a great
> surplus , A,
> because it is winter and they have increased demand,
> and B, they have
> lower water levels in reservoirs, i.e. not as much
> potential turbine
> turning at the dams. The Northwest periodically has
> dry seasons which
> lower the reservoirs. They also have crucial issues
> with regard to the
> salmon runs and water levels. Naturally, the region
> wants to take care
> of its own energy needs first. Even if they have
> some surplus, they
> are likely to sell electricity to states like
> California , again, AT A
> PREMIUM PRICE. As someone who has lived in these
> areas most of my life,
> cannot say I blame them.
>
> 2. NATURAL GAS.
> They say natural gas prices are about to increase
> tenfold. They have
> already increased 200%- 300% this year. They say
> this is a supply
> problem , not a demand problem, i.e. the problem
> isn’t that we are using
> more than the pipes can deliver, the pipes just
> aren’t full. .This is
> also an area where the lawsuits are flying, claiming
> companies are
> artificially controlling the supply to jack up the
> price. These claims
> would appear to have merit.
>
> Another part of the problem is that many power
> generating plants BURN
> NATURAL GAS TO PRODUCE ELECTRICITY. So higher
> natural gas prices serve
> to jack up the price of electricity and so on and so
> on.
>
> Last year the gas bill at the studio was $400
> dollars a month for our
> kilns. This year it is $900 a month, and that is
> with a lighter firing
> schedule. Obviously if it jumps to $ 9,000 a month
> we are out of
> business, THIS MONTH, just like the brick company,
> there is just no way
> around it.
>
> 3. POWER
> There have not been any new power producing plants
> coming on line in
> California, I think in the last 10 years, and there
> are no new ones
> under construction. They say it takes 6-10 years to
> get a power plant
> online from start to finish, largely due to siting,
> review and
> regulations.
>
> As you can see, it is complex. The entire western
> United States is on a
> power grid and the interests of private enterprise
> ; state , local ,
> federal governments; power companies and the
> individual are often
> conflicting. The relationships will get testier.
> Deregulation , a new
> experiment, seems to have accelerated a problem
> which was already in
> motion. It would not seem that it is a good idea at
> this point.
>
> I also think crises like this bring up the issue of
> energy
> conservation on a large scale. We DO need to cut
> down on usage. Our
> western United States IS periodically prone to
> drought, and resources
> are NOT infinite, though I have heard the babble
> that they are. So
> consumption and increasing population in energy
> dependent areas are
> also part of the picture . Environmentally and
> economically , I think
> most people want a balance and come down somewhere
> in the middle of
> the “drill it all, mine it all, cut it all,
> deregulate it all”
> viewpoint and the “don’t touch anything, clamp down
> on everything”
> viewpoint.
>
> Having said that, I must disagree with those who
> posted saying that the
> current problem is the result of environmentalists
> and environmentalism
> . I think this is a VERY simplistic and not quite
> accurate view of the
> situation.
>
> Stephani Stephenson
> Leucadia CA
>
>
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