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Let the finger pointing begin.

Friday, August 15th, 2003

This article from the New York Times attempts to connect the dots on the power outage in the northeast.

Bush, Deregulation, Enron, and Congressional Republicans are to blame for the outdated electrical grid, they say.

Mentioned but underplayed in the article is the effect that introduction of competition without elimination of price caps has had.

Power companies are forced to compete for business and show a return to investors, yet still charge somewhat arbitrarily set prices to their customers. Naturally the net effect is decreased capital expendetures. Additionally, regulations and public sentiment over construction of new infrastructure results in prohibitive costs of improvement.

The article also fails to mention the most likely cause of the blackouts. Sometimes, shit happens.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2003 at 1:41 pm by Mystery Man and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

11 Responses to “Let the finger pointing begin.”

  1. #1 |  Buster |  August 15th, 2003 at 1:54 pm

    I noticed NM Governor Bill Richardson was complaining about the “third-world, antiquated” condition of our power grid. Too bad he didn’t realize that while he was Clinton’s energy secretary.

  2. #2 |  fangsign |  August 15th, 2003 at 2:03 pm

    Probably the same people who believe that the cause of the California energy problems was deregulation.

    That’s easy to debunk. Here is a link to the exact bill that was put into law that caused the problems in California:
    http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/95-96/bill/asm/ab_1851-1900/ab_1890_bill_960924_chaptered.pdf

    All you have to do it read it and you will understand everything that went wrong in California and what is going to continue to happen in the east.

    Also all of this:
    http://www.rppi.org/electricity/faq.html

    The worst part about this whole thing is that politicans are making the choice if you and I receive electric power. The transmission of electrical power is still regulated by the government and so is the building of more hardware to meet the demands. It’s completely out of the hands of the consumers or those who supply the power.

    So you all have a choice, put up with the BS the politicans keep handing you or vote for people who are willing to open up the markets to the laws of supply and demand.

    Based on the crap the media is reporting I have absolutely no faith that the people will choose the latter of those two options. Enjoy your fascism and pray they don’t start regulating the sale of flashlights.

  3. #3 |  steven |  August 15th, 2003 at 2:16 pm

    I’m just outside of Albany (Troy), and am a graduate student in Electric Power Engineering. We had power back on almost immidiately (for which I’m still trying to figure out). Anyway, my friend and I went to a small but famous Deli in the area for some dinner. He was asking me about the whole power thing and why what happened happened. So I went through and explained how the whole NE grid area works and what happens during problems etc. and what I thought was the likely cause of the problem. This was at about 5:30pm, so far I’m on track, we’ll see what the official word is.

    Anyway, about 2/3 through my explanation I look around and EVERYONE in the Deli is staring at me listening intently, after which I had to feild questions. Phew, I’m glad I was right on my predictions or I’d feel like a fool. But anyway, it just goes to show you how little people actually know about how their electricity gets to their home and work. Its no wonder politicians can get away with the lies and damned lies they spew in this regard.

    I also find all the slander being thrown around by them hilarious.

    a comment on another blog said it best:

    Shit happens.

    and in the world of power lines and their protection, it does.

  4. #4 |  steven |  August 15th, 2003 at 2:17 pm

    silly me, you said it too…

    I guess I should read the whole post next time ;-)

  5. #5 |  chris |  August 15th, 2003 at 2:34 pm

    Here here

  6. #6 |  Devin |  August 15th, 2003 at 3:18 pm

    Steven, how about giving us that explanation in terms people like me (who know very little regarding how the NE grid works) can understand, Thanks.

  7. #7 |  Critical Minds |  August 15th, 2003 at 4:42 pm

    Incompetence or Terrorism, Which is Worse

    The blackouts in the NE have brought into question whether incompetence inside the US is just as bad as terrorism. The blackouts would have been considered a major victory

  8. #8 |  Brady |  August 15th, 2003 at 4:43 pm

    I think shit happens understates the problem. if you lock down and effectively kill the majority of commerce in multiple metropolitan areas, shit needs to change so shit won’t happen.

  9. #9 |  Anonymous |  August 18th, 2003 at 12:58 pm

    I don’t think it’s very fair to call my clients frauds. Sure, the blackout was a big problem for everybody. I was trapped in an elevator for two hours and I had to make the whole time. But I don’t blame them, because one time, I turned into a dog and they helped me. Thank you.

  10. #10 |  Paul |  August 19th, 2003 at 5:50 am

    Could a libertarian explain how less regulation would help avoid further blackouts?
    You can not store electricity, you have to generate it in accordance with demand. In order to avoid blackouts, you need spare capacity – with a decent safety margin built in too.

  11. #11 |  fangsign |  August 19th, 2003 at 4:25 pm

    Paul,

    Because you are too lazy to do the research yourself here’s a link:

    http://www.rppi.org/electricity/index.html

    Although I would not classify that site as completely libertarian in it’s content, if you take the time to read it (about an hour or so) you will understand the deregulation argument.

    You are welcome.