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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric who wrote (22787)	8/19/2010 11:39:04 AM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 86356

"More people, more regulations." no, more Statists more regulations, has nothing to do with the number of people.

To: Eric who wrote (22787)	8/19/2010 11:51:05 AM
From: Jorj X Mckie	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86356

The list is getting longer every day. More people, more regulations A classic case where regulation has run amok is with the California energy market. If you remember a few years ago California had a major power crisis. There were multiple factors that contributed to the situation. But the two biggest scapegoats were Enron and "deregulation". But if you look deeper, the real cause was the cap (regulation) on the retail prices of energy while the power companies (PG&E and Edison) had to get fuel wholesale. Coupled with the fact that California was (and is) dragging its feet on approving new power plants, there was a serious shortfall of energy. The reason I put "deregulation" in quotes is that only the wholesale side of the equation was deregulated while the retail side remained regulated. The fact that "deregulation" was identified as the cause was a joke. It was the regulation part of the equation that caused the problems, not the deregulation. And Enron wouldn't have been a factor if the regulations weren't in place.

To: Eric who wrote (22787)	8/19/2010 11:53:01 AM
From: TimF	1 Recommendation Respond to of 86356

Well many things are regulated.. Garbage service, the power that comes to your house, the Natural Gas going by your street.. There is some argument for some of that regulation in terms of safety, even when the regulation doesn't involve safety you have potential consumer interest (even if a lot of it doesn't actually help the consumer), a much weaker but not totally unreasonable justification. The ceiling on the amount of services that can be provided, is essentially only in the interest of current providers. Its special interest rent-seeking pure and simple. Remove or even greatly increase the ceiling and medallion owners in New York (and to a lesser extent in other cities), stand to lose a fortune. You can be they know about and care about the issue and lobby based on it. The potential competitors? Usually not well funded, and it probably makes more sense for them to put their time and money in to some other endeavor rather than using it up trying to get the law changed. The consumers? They mostly don't even know about the issue, and those it effects most are generally less influential people, with lower incomes, living in worse neighborhoods. Plus New York City has a culture of government handing out all sorts of special favors, so its seems normal to many people even if they do realize its happening.