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Pastimes : The California Energy Crisis - Information & Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Roger A. Babb who wrote (812)	8/7/2001 12:12:29 AM
From: portage	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1715

True Roger, but we still don't know if our vote didn't count, or they didn't count our vote. On a higher note, Hebert just resigned as head of FERC effective in a few weeks, and they found a smoking gun tape of El Paso gas execs colluding on the phone to limit supply (if I heard the news right), which even FERC couldn't ignore. Surprise, surprise. Also, we might actually get a serious, balanced energy plan out of this : www0.mercurycenter.com Hewlett charity pegs $10 million to study solutions BY JOHN BOUDREAU Mercury News Perhaps the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation can do what government so far hasn't: solve California's energy crisis and develop a long-term national fuel policy. The Menlo Park foundation is expected to announce today a $10 million initiative to analyze the state's energy quagmire, offer policy solutions and take inventory of the costs and benefits of everything from wind to nuclear power. The money will also be used to promote conservation and to study how to persuade people to keep switching off the lights long after the immediate problem has ended. The energy program, which could become ongoing, is designed to give decision-makers the tools they need to set a lasting energy plan for California and the nation, said Paul Brest, president of the $4 billion foundation. ``We tend to have short attention spans,'' he said. ``The good part of that is we don't hold grudges. The bad part is, we tend to be crisis-oriented: As much as there is interest now in having a national energy policy, that could disappear once the sense of crisis ends.'' Expert help The foundation will tap economic energy experts Severin Borenstein at the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University's Frank Wolak to provide a complete review of the state's deregulated energy program and suggest policy to help untangle the mess that has led to soaring bills and rolling blackouts. ``Even if this is a cool summer and there are no more rolling blackouts, it's quite clear there is work to be done in restructuring electrical energy in California,'' Brest said. The foundation also will work with other organizations to create a database of oil, gas and coal resources on Western public land. The study will analyze the economic and environmental costs of extracting the fossil fuels. ``We are not going to try to answer the question of what should be extracted and what should be protected,'' he said. ``We want to provide the information that others who have to make those decisions can rely on.'' Other areas of study Other areas of examination will include alternative fuels, the use of technology to improve automobile fuel efficiency and different approaches to the Kyoto Protocol in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In September, the Hewlett foundation will host a meeting of experts to determine the best ``philanthropic action'' to address global warming. Furthermore, the foundation will fund efforts to promote conservation in poor neighborhoods, where rising energy costs have hit people harder, and develop strategies to permanently change the public's energy consumption habits. People are more likely to recycle if they know that their neighbors recycle, said Robert Cialdini, a professor of psychology at Arizona State University who will work with the foundation. ``We don't have to twist their arms or anything,'' Cialdini said. ``Just tell them something they don't know: A lot of their neighbors are doing this. They want to fit in with what their peers are doing. It's a very strong motivation in all of us.''