OT CA energy crisis: I agree, there are no "innocents" in this situation. IMO it's become a crisis because of a failure of management and leadership, both at the utilities and in state government. The CA legislature simply doesn't know what it's doing, they're just spouting cliches - no rate hikes! we need more power plants! etc - there's no distinction between what needs to be done short term and long term, and they are running out of time. They could use some leadership from the governor to enable them to rise above the special interest groups, but they're not getting that either.
latimes.com
Wednesday, January 31, 2001
Power Crisis Puts Lawmakers in Hot Seat
Pressure to quickly end the mess has pitted party against party, Senate against Assembly, and led to many sleepless nights.
As for the utilities, they are practically schizophrenic because they have two "masters" - their shareholders and the public. In that situation the public will always get the shaft - it's what happened in NH, whose monopoly utility, PSNH, has managed to get its customers - who have no choice! - to foot the bill for their mistakes while sparing their shareholders. CA's consumer advocates have more clout so that may not happen in CA, at least not to the same extent. IMO either the utilities should be taken over by municipal style management, or the system should be opened up to true competition. Problem is no one knows how to get there from here. |
