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To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (81156)	12/9/2000 4:14:39 AM
From: White Bear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Doug, It probably is pretty much tied up with the fear of these people. www0.mercurycenter.com Regards, Sahara

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (81156)	12/9/2000 11:53:53 AM
From: excardog	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

Douglas There is starting to be some real concern in Portland over the California power issues. I was unaware that during winter under normal circumstances CA actually sends power up here as the water behind our damns is allowed to build back up. Also the salmon runs are affected by any early release of these waters. We are now being asked to conserve and preparing for a stage 2 power alert next week. It remains somewhat dependant on where this arctic cold front lands. The following is from our local paper this am: Power supply faces frigid test The governors of Oregon and Washington urge the public to lower thermostats and use less hot water as an arctic front nears Saturday, December 9, 2000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Gail Kinsey Hill of The Oregonian staff With an arctic cold front set to hit the Northwest early next week, the governors of Oregon and Washington on Friday warned of a critical electricity shortage and appealed to the public to save energy by turning down thermostats and curtailing hot water use. Also on Friday, an emergency team tracking the region's stressed power system warned that if the weather forecast holds and electricity demand soars, it is prepared to issue a formal Stage 2 emergency alert, which includes reductions of power to some industrial customers, late Sunday or early Monday. "If all these forecasts turn out to be true, the Northwest is going to be challenged to meet (power demand) without taking extraordinary action," said Richard Adams, director of the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee and a member of the emergency response team. The warnings come a day after California experienced an unprecedented power crunch, with electricity supplies for the state's 34 million people so low that blackouts were only narrowly avoided. The situation is exacerbated in California and the Northwest because few areas of the West have extra power to share and some areas are experiencing shortfalls. Gov. John Kitzhaber, speaking from Salem, urged residents to immediately turn off all unnecessary lights and electrical equipment, reduce thermostats to 68 degrees during the day and 60 degrees at night, and reduce hot water consumption between peak-use times of 6 to 9 a.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. "Energy conservation is always a good idea, and I ask Oregonians to be careful with their electricity use all winter -- but especially next week," Kitzhaber said. "I am confident we can get through this energy shortage together without undue burden," he said. "But it will take a conscious effort to conserve." Kitzhaber stopped short of asking Oregonians to unplug holiday lights. But Washington Gov. Gary Locke took the risk of dousing seasonal festivities with a request to keep Christmas trees dark until after 8 p.m. "Voluntary conservation today may mean we'll avoid blackouts when the cold weather arrives Monday," Locke said. Government and energy officials said only the severest of circumstances would force electric utilities to temporarily terminate power to homes and businesses on a rotating basis, a process known as "rolling blackouts." Stage 2 alert is target option Such measures would come only if a regional energy coordinator declared a Stage 3 alert, the last and most severe level of a three-tiered emergency system. At this point, a Stage 2 alert is the targeted option but only if a reassessment Sunday deems it necessary. Stage 2 alerts involve formal conservation requests to the public and require reductions of power to industrial customers with interruptible contracts. Kitzhaber said he hoped a combination of voluntary energy conservation and aggressive action by utilities to ramp up generation and reduce power to large industrial customers would prevent the declaration of a formal alert. "With these measures we should avoid that," he said. In a special meeting Friday, Oregon utility regulators allowed the state's big utilities, PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric, to forge contracts with large industrial customers to cut back on power in exchange for cash payments. "It's important to have this load reduction option in place given the weather forecast for extremely cold weather next week," said Ron Eachus, chairman of the Oregon Public Utility Commission. The cold front is expected to drop temperatures in Oregon and the Portland metro area to as low as 20 degrees with highs in the mid-30s and mid-40s, according to the National Weather Service. A slight chance of snow is forecast for the northwest part of the state. Separately, on Friday morning the Bonneville Power Administration declared a power emergency, a move that Bonneville officials said allows them to immediately release extra water from upstream reservoirs. An immediate power boost Under the Endangered Species Act, that water must normally be held in reservoirs for release in spring and summer to help young salmon reach the ocean. The water will be released Monday from four reservoirs: Dworshak in Idaho, Grand Coulee in Washington and Libby and Hungry Horse in Montana, said BPA spokesman Ed Mosey. The region will get an immediate power boost as additional turbines at those reservoirs are activated. More power will be available throughout next week as the extra water moves down through the Columbia and Snake rivers and passes through turbines at additional dams.

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (81156)	12/9/2000 1:48:17 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 95453

Doug, my understanding is the opposition to the proposed Calpine generating plant is environmental (see Sahara's link). More of the insanely arrogant NIMBY-esque thinking that characterizes California environmental lobbying organizations these days. When your "Master of the technological universe" you can't be bothered with messy trifles such as power, have the serfs in the outlying tech poor states (like Nevada and Arizona) solve it and deal with the problems. I guess it will take some deaths from freezing to change these people's minds, regrettably...<NG> Anyway, its nice to live in a state (AZ) that has a massive, smoothly functioning nuclear power plant in these times of strife, eh?<G>