They need a few power failures to convince folks that it is a real issue for conservation. And then that should be followed by a rate hike to match the USA national average of energy plus 30%, and folks who are on assistance only the Nat'l Average price. The 30% is to pay off the debt incurred by the retail price cap imposed by the 'DE-regulation'.

When the price of a product goes up, they will use much less of it. Simple economics.

-- (perry@ofuzzy1.com), February 02, 2001

Answers

A correspondent has sent information on the following site. It shows daily planned and unplanned power plant outages in California. The instructions are to click on www.caiso.com/newsroom/pw2000.html Non-Operational Generating Units, then choose one of the .pdf files with the dates, and when it starts to down load, check "Open It". I understand that February 1 is full of unplanned outages.

-- Paula Gordon (pgordon@erols.com), February 02, 2001.

Thanks for the navigational aids, Paula. I clicked through: it looks like 6 or more of the plants down on January 31 were back up and running yesterday. But I see for example that the "Woodland Biomas" generating faciliting remains in an unplanned outage, and remember a flurry of articles about a fortnight ago, on Clinton' closures of the western federal forests and the effect it was having on biomass generating facilities in and around California. I wonder if those EO's have already taken effect and whether there is any connection between them and this plant being sidelined? I.e.: lack of forest byproducts?

-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.cellrelay.tower), February 02, 2001.

Never work. Too sensible. Need something with lots of emotional appeal, like greed, deregulation and the environment. Notice that the state is stepping in to save the day in true socialist fashion. By high, sell low! Note my comments on the Paula Gordon post "Crossposting: Question re role of Y2K in the Energy Crisis".

-- Warren Ketler (wrkttl@earthlink.net), February 02, 2001.

Afterthought re strange silence on unscheduled maintenance of generators. A 12/6/00 SJ Mercury article on GICC noted a shortage of 11,000 megawatts of which 4.500 was scheduled, 4,000 unscheduled and 2,500 down due to having reached the pollution limit! If as claimed several places the total generating capacity was about 32,600 mw, the unscheduled was a little over 12%. Seems high. Another article reported the gov sent out the "power police" to investigate validity. Nary another word. Didn't find what they wanted? Chips, anyone?

-- Warren Ketler (wrkttl@earthlink.net), February 02, 2001.