New push to deregulate energy: Schwarzenegger electricity plan fuels fears of another debacle

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/11/03 | Zachary Coile

[Pokey78]

Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing a push to deregulate the state's electricity markets -- a move embraced by business leaders and some energy analysts but criticized by many Democrats and consumer advocates as a return to the failed policies that sparked California's energy crisis.

[Dog Gone]

Good for Arnold. He has exactly the right idea.

Next, he needs to abolish the California Power Authority.

[Carry_Okie]

It will be a debacle as long as production cpactity is short of demand. The key to opening that capacity is regulatory relief, particularly in the environmental field.

If you accept what he published in his environmental plan, Arnold has no intention of supplying that relief. The people who wrote his environmental plan don't either; their intent is to cash in on it.

So which is it Arnold, regulatory relief and an honest environmental plan that you waved in front of Republicans in speeches, or more crooked racketeering which is what you put in writing? Remember, Brulte was one of the architects of the last deregulation debacle and he sits on Arnold's team.

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[Cicero]

I won't say this is a bad idea, but once again it's only partial deregulation. And they won't be out of the woods until they dump several hundred rules and regulations that make it impossible to build new power plants. As it stands now, the envirowackoes can stall a new plant forever, and nobody would be crazy enough to build a new plant in that political environment.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The company I worked for tried to build a small facility in Stockton. After chewing thru the air resources board, the county and city boards and even a neighborhood vote, we moved to Reno and were up and running in 4 months.

[Clara Lou]

You answered my question for me-- the enviro-whackos. Deregulation seems to have worked well for Texas, so I was wondering why it didn't/couldn't in California. [Our envirowhackos all seem to be clustered in Austin.]

[Reeses]

The earlier deregulation scheme also included a rate freeze that barred utilities from passing along the increased costs to customers.

That doesn't sound like deregulation to me. Pete Wilson may have pointed the ship in a certain direction, but it was Davis's failure to steer the ship around an ice berg that caused it to sink. The socialists like to re-write history. What really happened is the power plants withheld power because they weren't getting paid and could not afford to buy fuel, setting off the crisis. They couldn't get paid because the distributors had to sell below cost and quickly ran out of cash. This was a socialist fiasco, much like central planning in the former Soviet Union.

[lewislynn]

Next, he needs to abolish the California Power Authority.

And Jim Brulte and Pete Wilson and everyone else connected with what caused the problem(s) before.

[NormsRevenge]

I wonder if Steve Peace will be staying on in some capacity. He, along with Brulte, helped craft Cali's first dereg nightmare too and he is hollyweird connected.

[NormsRevenge]

Things change, Things stay the same.. Progress.. uhh.. Progressivm .. inaction in action

[NormsRevenge]

Progressivm .. ProgressivISm ;-|

It's early, still on my first cup of java

[ridesthemiles]

Good for Arnold. He has exactly the right idea.
Next, he needs to abolish the California Power Authority

The very best for long term everything would be a jump start to let Cal-Pine and others to build more generating plants.

The population isn't going to dramatically decrease. The usage demand is going to grow. We MUST have more sources.
The greens have choked off all these efforts. The small "On Demand" plants that Davis says HE built..(he didn't someone with investment built it) These ON DEMAND units take as long as 7 days to spool up. Not much of an "on demand" based on my Websters.

[ridesthemiles]

Good for Arnold. He has exactly the right idea.
Next, he needs to abolish the California Power Authority

The very best for long term everything would be a jump start to let Cal-Pine and others to build more generating plants.

The population isn't going to dramatically decrease. The usage demand is going to grow. We MUST have more sources.
The greens have choked off all these efforts. The small "On Demand" plants that Davis says HE built..(he didn't someone with investment built it) These ON DEMAND units take as long as 7 days to spool up. Not much of an "on demand" based on my Websters.

[lewislynn]

Brulte was one of the architects of the last deregulation debacle and he sits on Arnold's team.

One of the architects?

“SAN DIEGO -Governor Pete Wilson today signed historic legislation,AB 1890 by Assemblyman Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga),which will break up California ’s utility monopoly,open the state ’s $21 billion electricity market to competition and guarantee a 20 percent rate cut for residential and small business customers by the year 2002.”

Governor Wilson press release,9/23/1996

Brulte should have been recalled with Davis... Did you get your guaranteed 20% rate cut?

[ridesthemiles]

The company I worked for tried to build a small facility in Stockton. After chewing thru the air resources board, the county and city boards and even a neighborhood vote, we moved to Reno and were up and running in 4 months

This perfectly explains my prior post. Gasoline refining is in the next set of crosshairs, IMO.

[RhoTheta]

Bump for later

[freedumb2003]

[Our envirowhackos all seem to be clustered in Austin.]

Whacko Leftists tend to cluster around the Government nipple from which their validation flows (but I have no explanation for San Francisco)

[RobbyS]

[Our envirowhackos all seem to be clustered in Austin.]

Austin being the only large Texas city to vote for Gore in 2000.

[freedumb2003]

Austin being the only large Texas city to vote for Gore in 2000

I didn't know that Texas HAD an Ithaca.