177 lines
8.0 KiB
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177 lines
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From fork-admin@xent.com Thu Sep 26 11:04:29 2002
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To: fork@spamassassin.taint.org
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From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com>
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Subject: California needs intelligent energy deregulation
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Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:39:40 -0400
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--- begin forwarded text
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Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 13:57:15 -0400
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To: Digital Bearer Settlement List <dbs@philodox.com>
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From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com>
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Subject: California needs intelligent energy deregulation
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Sender: <dbs@philodox.com>
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http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4144696.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
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Posted on Tue, Sep. 24, 2002
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Dan Gillmor: State needs intelligent energy deregulation
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By Dan Gillmor
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Mercury News Technology Columnist
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The facts were trade and government secrets at the time. But the energy
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industry failed the smell test in 2000 and 2001 as it tried to justify
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soaring wholesale electricity and natural-gas prices in California.
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Now, as investigators and regulators unravel the reasons for a financial
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and fiscal mess we'll be cleaning up for decades, we're learning what
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everyone suspected. Market games helped engineer the price spikes.
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The latest manipulation was highlighted in Monday's finding by a federal
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administrative law judge, who said a dominant natural-gas company squeezed
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supplies in order to squeeze customers. His ruling came a few days after
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California's Public Utilities Commission reported that electricity
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generators mysteriously failed to use available capacity during the crunch,
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also driving up prices.
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And don't forget the sleazy games by energy traders who gleefully worked
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the system, in schemes best summed up by an Enron insider's boast in a
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memorandum made public in May, that ``Enron gets paid for moving energy to
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relieve congestion without actually moving any energy or relieving any
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congestion.''
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How much of this was illegal, as opposed to simply amoral, remains to be
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seen. Unfortunately, California's response -- confusion, lawsuits and
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policy tweaks -- hasn't been sufficient.
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More unfortunately, even if the state suddenly did all the right things --
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including a hard-nosed program designed to free ourselves from the gougers'
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grips -- we would need a willing federal partner. But it's foolish to think
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that the Bush administration would do much to help one of its least
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favorite states, or do anything that conflicts with its love of
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traditional, non-renewable energy sources.
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If the lawsuits against various energy companies and traders bear any
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fruit, the best we can expect is to pay off some of the massive debts the
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state amassed to prevent a total collapse in early 2001. That's a
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reasonable approach, but don't expect miracles.
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State policies are moving the wrong way on utility regulation, meanwhile.
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Instead of relentlessly pursuing smart deregulation -- still a good idea if
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it gives customers genuine choices -- state laws and regulations ``put the
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utilities back in the business of buying energy for captive customers,''
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notes V. John White, executive director of the Sacramento-based Center for
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Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (www.ceert.org).
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It's tempting to call for an outright state takeover of the utilities --
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tempting but a bad idea. When there's genuine competition, as we could
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achieve in electricity generation, the private sector tends to do a better
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job. Instead of abandoning deregulation, California should find a way to
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inject real competition into the market.
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We do need to recognize that the current system of delivering electricity
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defies privatization, at least under current conditions. Smart regulation
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is essential.
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But the best response to gouging is to use less of what the gougers
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control. There are two ways: conservation and replacement. We need more of
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both.
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The best recent step is a new state law that slowly but surely ratchets up
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the use of electricity from renewables. By 2017, California's utilities
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will have to get 20 percent of their power from solar and other renewable
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sources. Several power companies are expected to do this even sooner.
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But this law has an element of old-line thinking, the captive-customer
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model we need to be getting away from, not sustaining. Lip service to newer
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ideas isn't enough.
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The state should be removing barriers to micro-generation systems, small
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generators that can run on a variety of fuels and provide decentralized,
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harder-to-disrupt electricity to homes and businesses. This technology is
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coming along fast. State policies are not keeping pace.
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Investing to save energy is increasingly the smartest move of all.
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California should be doing more to encourage this, whether through tax
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incentives or outright grants in low-income households. California hasn't
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done badly on conservation in a general sense, and energy customers did
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react to last year's soaring rates and blackouts by cutting back, but it's
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lunacy to wait for the next crisis when we can do something to avoid it
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altogether.
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Maybe this is all pointless. The Bush administration's energy policies, so
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grossly tilted toward the unholy trinity of oil, coal and nuclear, are
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making us all more vulnerable. Never mind what might happen if the coming
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war in Iraq goes badly.
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It's pointless to hope for a sane federal policy -- a crash program to
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drastically speed the inevitable transition to a hydrogen-based energy
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system. But the largest state, one of the world's major economies in its
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own right, does have some clout. We can hit the rip-off artists where it
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hurts, and protect ourselves from even more serious disruptions. Maybe next
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year.
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--
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-----------------
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
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The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
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"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
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[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
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experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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--- end forwarded text
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--
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-----------------
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
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The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
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"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
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[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
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experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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