[SunRescue] OT: CA: It's Our Turn

[Ken Hansen]

Pete - how does this relate to the price of Hard Drives in NV? ;^)

Besides, as I understand it (from my *very distant* perspective, the issue isn't that there isn't enough electricity "on the grid" to support California, and it's not that other states are unwilling to sell (not "share" - what a California term ;^), the real problem (again, as I understand it) is that the utility companies are unwilling/unable to *pay* for the electricity they need to supply their customers.

That demand spiked, that the price went up on the spot market, that the utilities could not engage in long-term supply contracts, etc all contributed to the confusion/problem you folks now face. Of course, lop-sided legislation (again, as I understand it) accelerated the problem. No one thing would have pushed California into it's current power "crisis", it was a conspiracy of several factors that all came together that made this such a dramatic problem for 'yall.

Oh, and by the way, I take issue with some of the number cited in the note you shared... like 48th in power consumption per capita - I suspect this is *residential* power usage... ISP colo facilities use tremendous amounts of power, and are up 24x7, unlike an office tower, and those chip fabrication plants, they must use a fair bit of electricity as well. I suspect that if you divided total electricity usage for the state and divided it by the number of residents, you would *at least* place much closer to the middle of the range...

But, we wouldn't want to get off-topic! ;^)

Ken


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter L. Wargo [mailto:pwargo at basenji.com]
> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 5:25 PM
> To: rescue at sunhelp.org
> Subject: [SunRescue] OT: CA: It's Our Turn
> 
> 
> Going around work... I couldn't resist, based on previous topics..
> 
> -Pete
> 
> > > America has engaged in some finger wagging lately
> > > because California doesn't have enough electricity to
> > > meet  its needs.

<snip>