Randy wrote:
This is partly correct. When they were planning how many generating plants
to built several years ago, they did not factor in the present and future
illegal (undocumented) immigrant consumers into their forecasts. That's why
they are scrambling now to try to get some more plants on line (and facing
lots of resistance for a variety of reasons). But this current energy
"crisis" really has more to do with some bad business and regulatory
decisions made when they were setting up the deregulation. In exchange for
the windfall the utility companies would get from selling off their plants,
they had to agree to have a cap on the prices they would charge. But,
unbelievably, on the other side of the deal, the new generator plant owners
were not likewise capped on what they could charge the utility companies!
There were also rulings and decisions made by the Cal. Public Utility
Commission (who oversees all of them moreso than any other legislative body)
which resulted in giving some advantages to the generators on what they
could charge (some open-ended price formulas). The prices they could charge
the utilities escalated and the utilities claimed they could not meet the
payment schedules. The utilities don't pay for a few months and now the
generators are having a problem meeting their own production costs and have
to cut back on the power they can provide -(hence - "rolling blackouts").
It's really a miasma of events that have caused this but it has mostly to do
with some miscalcuations all around. Things are apparently being worked out
now, but let's hope the costs incurred to straighten it out are not going to
come back to haunt us.
Kakki
