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To: CVJ who wrote (1412)	12/14/2000 2:32:02 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 74559

Hmm... well, deregulation, as a matter of principle, should be encouraged, since the opposite is govt subsidized monopolies of certain industries. But with electrical deregulation should come deregulation of the source fuels industry, namely coal, gas, and oil, and more controversially, nuclear. This nation has hundreds of trillions of metric feet of natural gas supplies, 10s of billions of barrels of oil, and hundreds of years worth of coal, locked up on Federal land, at a time when we are importing the energy we require from unstable regimes in politically tense regions of the world. That is simply a recipe for disaster. You can't deregulate electricity and create the incentive for meeting growing power demand through market prices, without permitting the utilities access to economically viable heating fuels. But the situation would be even worse under regulation, because it would be incumbent upon the government -ie: the taxpayer- to provide the necessary subsidies to utilities to maintain operational profitability. Otherwise, they would just shut their doors and log off the power grid or have to be nationalized by the federal govt and kept operating at a loss. No easy answers here, but it starts by creating the incentive to find, exploit, and deliver our own energy. We're to the point where something has got to give between enviromental concerns and the nation's energy needs. And while we've experienced historic economic growth over the past 9 years, our energy infrastructure has contracted. We haven't had a new refinery built in 10 years, and oil imports have increased to where we now import some 60% of our oil from overseas. That's greater than was our reliance at the time of the Arab oil embargo... Regards, Ron