The Cost of Natural Gas [was Re: The Cost of California Liberalism]

[Tim May]

You don't get it, do you?

At 11:50 PM -0800 12/24/00, Raymond D. Mereniuk wrote:
>
>was created by un-expected demand in California.  Another issue
>in this problem, as in this month and next, is low water levels in the
>northwest causing lower than expected power generating capacity.

Lost on your typically smug Canadian analysis has been any objective 
analysis of markets for power. Do you know, for example, that 
California as a state is a _net exporter_ of power to the Northwest 
and especially to Western Canada at certain times of the year? In the 
fall and winter, in fact, when hydroelectric generation rates in BC 
and Washington are reduced.

In your kind of lingo, "British Columbia failed to build enough new plants."

Markets are not simple. Prices rise, prices fall. To claim that 
California is now the primary cause of your higher heating costs, 
boo-hoo, is childishly naive.
>
>If a power generating utility had built new power plants and
>commited to a fuel supply (and the accompanying infrastructure) the
>likelihood of unexpected prices increases would be much lower.

See above. Childishly naive.


--Tim May

-- 
Timothy C. May         tcmay at got.net        Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
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Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns