Second day of rolling blackouts starts

Thu Jan 18 19:00:53 UTC 2001

At 10:45 AM -0800 1/18/01, Roeland Meyer wrote:
>What's wrong with this picture? I see the generators, holding a shotgun at
>PG&E's neck, and telling the state that they'll pull the triggers if the
>state doesn't come up with the dough. They're not even wearing a mask! Yet,
>no one is seeing anything wrong with this and they're acting like it's
>PG&E's fault.

Welcome to the PRC, ... Peoples' Republic of China^WCalifornia.

I pointed out to a co-worker that the "state-mandated
low-rate,low-supply,high-demand" power problem was tried in most parts of
the former Soviet Union... and those citizens prepare for winters by
stocking up on heating supplies as they "Expect" power to go out. This was
a known-failed experiment before CA tried it.

But, California essentially tried the same thing... high-demand, low-rate,
and (through AQMD and other fun things) low-supply. They (through doing
this) convinced people that they have a "right" to expect power at
below-market-value. Who can blame PG&E's suppliers for being on the
"winning side" of a supply-side-economics issue? Who can blame PG&E for
being handcuffed by the state's rules? The people of California can, for
some reason that boggles this CA resident.

But maybe that's cuz I'm not a native. It seems that the natives are all
upset, and the "non-native" folks I work with tend to blame California
residents themselves for voting/etc. that put the price-fixes in place.
"You wanted it, you got it, see how stupid it was? Now pay the price and
move on instead of whining".

Seem to be in the minority here though. ;-)

D
(This is operational, insofar as its good advice that "if you want to have
consistent power for your colo, you should consider states that don't do
silly things to power companies". ;-)  )

-- 
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| dredd at megacity.org  | "Conan! What is best in life?"          |
|  Derek J. Balling   | "To crush your enemies, see them        |
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|                     |    lamentation of their women!"         |
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