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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DavesM who wrote (242598)	3/27/2002 12:17:01 AM
From: Selectric II	Respond to of 769670

Small businesses and consumers were screaming about their electric bills, as I recall.

To: DavesM who wrote (242598)	3/27/2002 12:20:23 AM
From: MSI	Respond to of 769670

In the beginning, the utility company was frozen out of supply, had to buy on the spot market due to manipulation, but had to sell at the controlled price. There is now a cap for normal rates {9-cents, say), and overuse at up to 13 cents, which penalizes usage beyond last year's baseline. Also, there were rolling blackouts on a monthly basis that helped discipline usage, since prices couldn't be changed to match wholesale price increases. It wasn't simply the governor saying "if you want, you can cut electricity use, or not, depending on how you feel that day". It was more like "we have a situation here, you can help by voluntarily reducing unnecessary usage", with several examples, like car lots' blazing lights reducing 50%, various building lights, etc. On a national level, voluntary call to action I'm convinced would generate an huge amount of creative ways to reduce and replace unnecessary petroleum useage. On a personal level I know I can cut 10% without reducing my lifestyle, especially if it means reducing support for terrorists. I'm sure many others can also.