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

To: MSI who wrote (244128)	3/31/2002 12:57:52 AM
From: DavesM	Respond to of 769670

MSI, The reason there were no consumption spikes, was that active measures were employed by the ISO and the Governor to reduce consumption. When large commercial users are taken completely off the grid, and run off of backup generators just to ease the load on the grid, it is a problem. This is what happened in the summer of 2000, to reduce consumption. During the summer and fall of 2000, because of a drought in the Pacific Northwest, the BPA was unable to send as much electricity as it usually does to California. To make up the difference, gas powered power plants in the state had to run much harder than they usually do. In Southern California, they ran about 3X as hard as they did in past years. In the past, electricity was probably cheaper from a federal hydroelectric facility, than a 50 year old gas fired plant (even if the electricity has to travel hundreds of miles)-it is certainly cheaper to produce. By late 2000, these plants had run so much (more than usual), that they had exceeded the amount of pollution that regulators allow them to produce. Power plants were forced to purchase pollution credits on the open market. The cost of these credits at one point, added as much as $250 to the cost to produce a MW in some of these older power plants. The cost of fuel went up. The price of natural gas (used as fuel) went from less than $4.00 per 1000 cu ft in April 2000, to $19.91 per 1000 cu ft. in Dec 2000. Was there fraud committed by gas pipeline companies? Was there fraud committed by electric producers? Maybe, but it probably isn't as great as you think.