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----- Original Message -----
From: Gene Cramer
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2001 6:02 PM
Subject: EnLG 2001mar27 SITE! PERMIT! BUILD! California must generate more electricity; there's no other solution Orange County REGISTER Tuesday, March 27, 2001 RAY HAYNES Republican state Sen represents the 36th Senate District western Riverside County and northern San Diego County This is my last article on energy. It is, getting too frustrating The solution requires leadership The solution requires guts. The solution requires alienating a few retrogressive radicals, but it is simple. Site. Permit. Build. Site. Site. Permit. Build. That is it. Site power plants. Permit them. Build them. That is all. We have a sellers' market in electricity right now. That is what happens when a commodity or product is in short supply. Sellers get to dictate the price. Sellers can game the system to increase their price. Sellers dictate terms. The laws of economics are immutable, unchanging. A sellers' market is a buyer's nightmare. So how do we change this? What can we do to change these immutable laws? The solution is simple. Turn a sellers' market into a buyers' market. Turn a shortage into a surplus. When there is a surplus of a commodity or product, it is called a buyers' market. Buyers dictate terms. Buyers dictate price. Buyers get what they want. We want a buyers' market. We want a surplus of power. It is that simple. So, knowing this, how do we get a surplus? Site. Permit. Build. I have said it so many ways, so many times, that it is getting frustrating. We have blackouts because we have shortages. Put together a red team, and site, permit and build generating plants. Site, permit, and build power plants as fast as possible. Quit worrying about hurting people's feelings, offending people or, quite frankly, campaign fund raising, and site, permit, and build power plants. So, from this article, I will plant little, subtle, subliminal suggestions that, hopefully, will help solve California's power crisis. Part of the frustrations of this current crisis is that politics has consumed so much of the debate. The problem reared its head over 18 months ago, and no one acted (sitepermitbuild). Last summer, when the spike in prices in San Diego brought the issue into the limelight, rather than deal with the crisis, the governor went ostrich on us and stuck his head in the sand, hoping the problem would go away (sitepermitbuild). California could have had long-term contracting at relatively low and stable prices last year through the utility companies without major government intervention (sitepermitbuild). Inaction and regulatory excess turned the problems associated with our electrical delivery system into a crisis (sitepermitbuild). Rather than act, Gov. Davis has gone into the blaming mode (sitepermitbuild). This is not my problem, he claimed, it is former Gov. Wilson's fault. His PUC did it. Republicans caused the problems. The Legislature did it. FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) did it, it's their fault. It wasn't me, honest, he says (sitepermitbuild). In addition to being counterproductive, the blame game has been extremely time and energy consuming (sitepermitbuild). This crisis requires a positive agenda to aggressively develop 15,000-20,000 megawatts of electricity in the next two years (sitepermitbuild). It doesn't matter why we haven't built the power plants so far (even though the blame ought to be put squarely on the shoulders of the environmentalists), just build the power plants. Red Teams designed to get new power online quickly can site, permit and build new power plants without lots of government red tape. We can turn a sellers' market into a buyers' market with quick, decisive action by this governor (sitepermitbuild). But it's not happening, and that is what is so frustrating (sitepermitbuild). So, I'm not going to write about it any more. I'm not going to complain any more. I may make more subliminal suggestions from time to time (sitepermitbuild), but I am not going to harp on it. There is only one way to solve this problem (sitepermitbuild), but this governor can't seem to get it straight. Until he does, we will experience blackouts and high electricity prices, continuing electricity shortages and a severely diminished quality of life. Site! Permit! Build! It is not hard. It just takes guts. Site! Permit! Build! |