-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! <A HREF="http://www.originalsources.com/OS12-00MQC/12-28-2000.1.html"> Original Sources</A> http://www.originalsources.com/OS12-00MQC/12-28-2000.1.html California’s Power Crisis - a natural result of rampant Environmentalism Nothing was done to plan for the future by improving water supplies or electrical power By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com) December 27, 2000 I lived in Northern California for 25 years, most of it in El Dorado county which is the source of much of the water used in Sacramento. However, in all the years I lived there, almost nothing was done to plan for the future by improving water supplies or electrical power for the county. This has been a problem in California for many years. At one point, Marin county, which is across from San Francisco, simply refused to improve its water supply, in spite of a growing population. The thinking behind its, and El Dorado County’s, backwardness was simple. If the people living in those counties refused to provide for an increase in population, through zoning ordinances or failing to plan for them, they could keep the population down. Of course, it didn’t work. At this point there are over one million illegal aliens in California. There’s been a natural increase, in spite of everything the no-growthers could do to convince folks they shouldn’t have children. At the insistence of the no-growthers, California voters opted in 1989 to shut down its Rancho Seco nuclear power plant near Sacramento. There was no plan to build another, or fix Rancho Seco So, guess what? There is a shortage this winter of electrical power in California and electricity prices are sky-rocketing. This has prompted California’s Democrat Governor, Gray Davis, to go to Washington, D.C. and threaten Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers with “using his emergency powers” against power-generating companies. One of his threats was to declare an emergency and call out the National Guard to take over the power plants as long as the emergency lasts. "The problem is that the generator can charge anything they want today and the only people that have control over them are the [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission], which has refused to take any control over them," Governor Davis said on the "Nightly Business Report" on PBS. "I am not going to let these generators, making eight or nine hundred percent [profits), frequently gaming and market-sharing the system unduly, drive California to its knees," he said. He also warned the power-generating firms that "if deregulation fails in California, deregulation is over in America." According tothe Washington Times today, “Consumers in California this winter are faced with a choice between power shortages and skyrocketing electricity bills, while the state's utilities are veering toward bankruptcy because of the astronomical prices they have to pay to import the energy needed to supply the state. “Also yesterday, the parent company of Southern California Edison Co. revealed that it wants to raise consumer electricity rates by almost one-third, effective next week. “Many California businesses, including vital Silicon Valley companies that have driven growth in the nine-year economic expansion, are faced with paying the escalating electricity bills or shutting down and laying off workers.” It’s not very likely that Gray Davis and the Californians are going to have a great deal of sympathy for their self-inflicted plight. The problem is not de-regulation. The problem is in the no-growthers determined effort to push all the responsibility for its needs onto other states. For example, when they closed the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant, how was that loss made up for consumers in California? They simply began to buy more electricity from generation plants in the Four Corners area where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico come together. California eliminated a nuclear power plant, which produced the cleanest and most efficient electricity available, in favor of electricity produced by plants that use coal or natural gas to generate electricity. It didn’t bother California in the least that by closing down Rancho Seco they were increasing the pollution for people in New Mexico, Arizona and even in Mexico. After all, they didn’t live there. Now, it appears from the Washington Times report, California’s short-sighted no-growth policies of the past 20 plus years are coming home to roost and spilling across its borders to the rest of the nation: “This winter's record-high prices for natural gas are partly the result of a leap in demand for gas from California utilities, which must use the clean-burning fuel to meet environmental regulations. “Other Western states have seen their electricity prices skyrocket as utilities divert their electrical supplies to California, many of them under orders to do so by the Clinton administration. Any bankruptcy by California utilities threatens to destabilize already-troubled financial markets.” Of course, in typical socialist fashion, Governor Davis is taking no blame whatsoever for the situation California finds itself in. In fact, he blames the energy crisis on “greedy power generators who are exploiting the recent deregulation of wholesale power prices to gouge California utilities and consumers.” That's like Clinton blaming “greedy” American oil producers for the fact that, during his Administration, the price of oil rose from $10 a barrel to $37 a barrel. Oil producers in America went out of business in droves during the Clinton Administration, making us heavily dependent upon foreign oil. Why? Because that’s what the environmentalist goal was - as articulated by Al Gore. Raising the price of fossil fuels and putting refineries out of business in America was a deliberate effort to force people to use less fossil fuels. In a speech earlier this month, the Alan Greenspan warned that persistently high energy prices could derail the record-long economic expansion the United States has enjoyed in recent years. The situation in California could cause more than just higher natural gas and electricity prices for Californians. Some analysts say that the situation “is creating serious financial risks because a major bankruptcy and default by one of the California utilities would roil already traumatized markets.” Edison International told the Securities and Exchange Commission it wants to raise consumer electricity rates by 30 percent on Jan. 4. Utilities say they will have to start rationing electricity if they are not granted the rate increases. Before the election, Gray Davis was able to get temporary help from the Clinton Administration which issued an order instructing Western utilities to make power available to California just before Christmas. However, many out-of-state utilities are reluctant to sell power to California utilities because of the financial problems. Wall street ratings agencies are threatening to downgrade California utilities debt, making it impossible for them to get loans to pay for the imported power. All of this does not bode well for the rest of us. However, it undoubtedly is music to the ears of Californian environmentalists. They have succeeded in making fossil fuels, gasoline and natural gas scace and expensive, while eliminating a nuclear power generating plan and creating a shortage of electrical power in California as they blame the whole mess on “greedy” business people. Of course, California’s windmills, built at the insistence of the environmentalists, are still working. At least when the wind blows. Wrong again! A reader informs me that the windmills are off line - down for State of California mandated maintenance in the middle of the power shortage! Are you listening, Governor Davis? To comment: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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