Bush's California Energy Stance Faulted [It's all Bush's fault, not Gov. Davis', don'tcha know?]

New York Times ^ | Wednesday, May 8, 2002 | By DON VAN NATTA Jr.

[d14truth]

I give the FTCR credit for asking and pursuing the 'good' questions. So far, I can't find any good solutions from them, or, for that matter, many proposed solutions at all. It appears that they would place ALL the risk on the providers, and none on the consumers; and yet, deny the providers 'market' prices.

[d14truth]

"I have a feeling that had temporary caps not been put in place, the utility companies would have faced a much reduced demand."

.... which would have evened out 'supply and demand' and stabilized or even reduced prices. In addition to the market benefit of increasing use of 'cheaper' alternatives. 'Necessity being the mother of invention.' Because non-market forces intervened, the 'new solar alternatives' will wait awhile longer, and the governor takes credit for solving a problem of his own short-sighted creation.

[d14truth]

"What do you supose the utility companies did with that 20 BILLION DOLLARS?"

They probably gave a lot to their officers and stockholders like CALPERS. I hope they didn't invest too much in Enron, Arthur Andersen, Global Crossing, or the .coms. {;~)

[lucysmom]

"I was fooled for too long by 'Greenpeace', 'People for the American Way', and 'Planned Parenthood' titles not to look for 'warm, fuzzy, organization names being fronts for far left, or far right, 'agendas'."

I know what you mean. One of my favorite quotes is "We're being fed chocolate covered s**t and then wonder why every one's breath is so bad".

[lucysmom]

"Because non-market forces intervened, the 'new solar alternatives' will wait awhile longer, and the governor takes credit for solving a problem of his own short-sighted creation."

About 25 years ago I overheard a conversation in a restaurant between three utility company people. They were discussing solar power and the threat it posed to their business because they couldn't meter individual units. It seems to me if solar power were not a viable alternative for residential users they would not have been so concerned.

[d14truth]

"It seems to me if solar power were not a viable alternative for residential users they would not have been so concerned."

We agree that 'solar power' will eventually be a 'cheap energy option'. It will only get cheap, if it goes through its 'expensive' stages, like TVs, combustion engine cars, computers, telephones, cell phones. Just like electric cars, there has to be 'market incentives' to producers. The incentive is called 'profit', which 'Big Brother' government calls bad, and 'horse and buggy' industries do not want to give up.

We might have seen several 'solar' improvements develop last year had the governor chosen NOT to protect his butt by signing the outrageously priced energy contracts. Deferring the costs of his cowardice, the governor also deferred the advancement of alternative energy, IMHO.