"This is what happens when they don't build a new power generation facility in over 10 years, require that current ones convert to natural gas or shut down"
Ron, I am not trying to point fingers at the causes of the electrical industry problems in California. I will leave that to Ollie North and his friends who are so adept at laying blame rather than developing answers.
The only real question I view as important in this event is whether the industry is colluding to force on the voters something which the voters have voted against. If the industry is actually using force to coerce the public to do something the public has *voted* not to do, I think we have a serious problem. 'Industry is using Force to coerce' is the way it is being viewed by many, and industry PR is coming up with *reasons* why the situation developed. If industry cannot play within the rules set by the voters, they have no authority to use force to change the rules. Industry simply ought to bow out and say "we cannot do it under these rules". To see industry using force to get their way is extremely frightening. To use California as the test bed to subsequently do the same thing to the rest of the nation is the situation I see unfolding. United we stand, single we fall. This is the age-old story of Power vs The People, and is simply taking on the image of electrical power generation in this act of this play. This extends well beyond spot markets, limited resources, and maintenance of equipment, regulated or otherwise; this is the very problem which allows industry to do as they wish regardless of the will of the people to direct their own lives and futures. Californians are not against paying more for what must be paid for; as with all people, paying for someone's physical might over their lives leads to a feeling of extortion and this is the real problem here.
I do not wish to assess the events leading up to the problem, I only wish to assess whether or not industry is using force to extort the public. If so, the public needs to respond with imprisonment and fines for those involved. This would be a great crime against the people. If not, the public needs to pay money for whatever needs to be done to alleviate the problem, assuming a problem actually exists. Fifty four percent of Californians do not believe there really is a problem. The real problem for the industry is Californians are not so gullible as to believe the media and the PR, thus industry must resort to force to achieve their goals. It will be difficult to dispell that notion.
"You can't tell everyone to build gas-fired plants and not permit exploitation of the hundreds of trillions of cubic metric feet of proven natural gas reserves currently locked up on Federal land"
My comment here is if the industry is not facing a shortfall and can manipulate prices, why give them more resources to further capture the market that they may manipulate the prices on an even grander scale? Until there is an actual resource shortfall in the offing, making available more resources seems imprudent given the attitude of industry to hold captive the populace subject to their wishes. Why give them a bigger club to beat me with?
Regards,
Martin Thomas |
