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Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: whitepine who wrote (3627)	4/21/2001 10:24:13 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23153

Would you kindly define a "just and reasonable price"? If you are thirsty and need a glass of water and I am selling it and it costs me a buck...then a buck and a half or two would be reasonable. If I sell it to you for three bucks I am pushing it. If I sell it to you for five or ten dollars and I sell it to the guy at the back door for fifty cents then that is not just and it is not reasonable. Who should have the power to effect such? The FERC as that is already their responsibility. The price of juice was regulated for a century and the US grew to the most powerful nation on earth with regulated juice. It's hard to argue with success. Deregulation is an experiment. At the moment it is a failed experiment. And, would this apply to everything in the economy? If you find something that is broken by all means search for a solution...just be careful you don't make it worse. If systems are working it is generally not a good idea to monkey around with them...especially on a large scale. So the answer to your question is no. Don't fix the working parts of the economy. Generally things need to be regulated if there is restricted access. You just can't build a power plant anywhere as there are limited optimum sites. I don't want my neighbor firing up a diesel generator as his dog is loud enough. If there is one good path over the mountain pass for power lines...why build three in the name of competition? Build one and regulate the use as you have essentially given someone monopolistic control. What about toll roads? Should the owners be allowed to triple the tolls on hot days when everyone wants to go to the beach? Why not build two toll roads to increase the competition? In California a toll road operator sued the state to prevent the construction of a new lane...they didn't want the competition. Edison did something similar...they didn't want to build a new power plant as they thought there was enough power...the State of California pushed for more power plants and Edison and the Feds fought it and won...and now look who is blaming California for the lack of power plants...the utilities and the Feds have done a pretty good job of spinning this thing away from themselves...it looks like they should share a lot of the blame. (FYI Unleaded gas is more expensive in the CA, but the North Central part of the US also has comparatively high prices.) If the price were five or ten times the price for the same unleaded gas (the California blend is unique which leads to higher prices) then I would think a price cap at two times would be reasonable. IMO price caps for the current situation are in order. I would think the supporters of free market juice would be for price caps. Without out some type of control things will get out of hand and reregulation is assured. Long term I am not so sure. IMO regulated juice is the way to go. I generally don't argue with success. Business and utilities were all for deregulation...the free market mantra of the nineties...some kind of naive concept that privatization is always the way to go...you don't even have to think about it...besides it's politically correct. Well business, the utilities and the politicians all fell flat on their faces. This deregulation thing is utter failure...the coke failure just on a bigger scale. The free market for juice did not bring more juice and it did not bring juice at lower prices...both essentially promised by the supporters of deregulation...which was just about everyone. The whole free market thing is nonsense. The electric market is no where near free. Eliminate all of the long term contracts and sell all of the power including federal power from the Hoover dam through an unrestricted transmission system and then let's talk about a free market. The solution to this mess is really quite simple. It just takes leadership. Davis ain't a leader, the chairman of the FERC is an idealog and Bush snickers to himself as he allows the rape of California and the California republicans impede solutions as they see a Davis failure as a success for themselves...a bit warped in my opinion. Anyway the short term solution is just to drastically cut back on juice. Davis has the right idea but he can't execute. The tiered price for juice will work and the rebates for 20 percent or more reductions will work...although they should be tiered too. He just has to move quicker and more forcefully...a few comments won't cut it. Long term just put it back the way it was. Engineers and scientists can create a power system. Take the power away from the politicians and the MBAs. The LADWP is a working model...all one has to do is open their eyes and look around to see what is working and copy it. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Zeuspaul