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

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (1493)	10/7/2002 10:00:20 PM
From: Bearcatbob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1715

Ray -what I am saying is that the politicians who run California did the evil. You are trying to divert attention and responsibility from the doers to the nefarious devils who "made them do it". It is breath taking to me that you do not see that distinction. Is there no fault at all to be found in your mind at all in the lousy government of that state? BTW - I find the following refreshing: ca.news.yahoo.com Deregulated Ontario Faces Tight Power Supply TORONTO (Reuters) - Ontario could face more power shortages and price spikes due to tight generating capacity, but Canada's biggest and newly deregulated market has so far escaped questionable trading practices that marked California's free-market experiment, a report said on Monday. The first report from Ontario's Market Surveillance Panel in the wake of the May 1 deregulation blamed this summer's shortages and volatile prices on insufficient generating capacity and months of sweltering weather, and warned major new investments could be several years off. "The summer period revealed clearly that the province depends upon imports to satisfy electricity demand," said the panel, which prepared the report for Ontario's Independent Market Operator (IMO). "Indeed the report also finds that in July and August imports were required to maintain reliability 21 percent of the time." The panel said part of the supply crunch, which caused brief price spikes in the province of 11 million people, was caused by nuclear stations being mothballed in the late 1990s. However, much-needed new capacity will not be added to the grid unless more players are lured to compete in order to establish a better handle on prices, it said. In addition, government-owned Ontario Power Generation, the spinoff from the old Ontario Hydro monopoly that operates most of the capacity, should make good on obligations to divest facilities as soon as possible, the report said. "It is therefore important that potential private investors have a clear idea about how the market is operating and will continue to evolve, so they can realistically assess their investment opportunities," the panel said. Two years ago, a crippling supply shortage hit California after it deregulated its electricity market, causing wholesale power prices to skyrocket to astronomic levels and forcing a series of rolling blackouts. In the aftermath, state legislators accused generators of manipulating the market with a host of schemes, generating huge profits as Californians suffered through power shortages. NO EVIDENCE OF MARKET ABUSE But the Ontario panel said it was confident that the province's price spikes this summer were a function of supply and demand, and not profiteering by market players. The newly established Market Assessment Unit did not see find any collusion, predatory pricing or other abuses that would prevent competition, it said. ----------------- continued at link