How Soon Before We Hear "See We Need to Privatize Electricity"

[DUreader]

Just as the Wildfires were used as an excuse for logging,

this blackout will be used as an argument to privatize power even

faster than it is happening now.

I wouldn't be surprised if it hits cable news tonight

[radwriter0555]

1. They call it DEREGULATION....

California style.

[CogitoErgoDem]

2. We've *already* heard it - ask any Californian about it....

Works like a charm if you work for a certain energy trader in downtown Houston.

[newyawker99]

16. Hi CogitoErgoDem!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[SoCalDem]

3. THAT may have been part of the problem.. read this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=177323

SoCalDem (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-14-03 02:19 PM
Response to Original message

2. This is very interesting...Black & Veatch ....national power grid...

http://www.geni.org/energy/library/media_coverage/KansasCityStar/3accbbb0_607.html

Black & Veatch proposal envisions national power grid
By DAN MARGOLIES - The Kansas City Star
Date: 06/07/2001 22:15

With the Bush energy plan emphasizing production, Black & Veatch has unveiled a $15 billion proposal to establish a national power grid and to build power plants close to their fuel sources.

The Kansas City engineering and construction company calls its strategy TAG, short for TransAmerica Grid, and says it would increase supplies and reduce prices while bolstering the nation's grid capacity and reliability. "The energy crisis is not only about generating more power," said Dean Oskvig, president of Black & Veatch's power delivery division. "It's about getting surplus power to areas that need power."

....snip.....

The Black & Veatch proposal was developed in conjunction with Siemens AG. The two companies project capital costs of $3.8 billion for the proposed transmission system and about $11 billion for the power plants. The firms began developing the proposal in late 1998 and don't have any customers yet. The TAG system would address the problem of moving bulk power across the country. Experts say current electrical generation capability is sufficient to meet demand. But existing transmission grids, which move electricity from region to region, are considered inadequate to move electricity from areas of excess capacity to areas facing power shortages.

...snip....

To get the electricity to distant customers, TAG envisions the construction of high-voltage, direct-current transmission lines connecting the country's East and West coast grids. The new lines would add 6,000 megawatts to the current 1,000 megawatts of east-west transfer capability. The current transmission system basically consists of eastern and western interconnections that meet in Texas. The grids are separately synchronized alternating-current systems.

"The backbone of TAG is a high-voltage (direct current) system to move large blocks of power around the regions," Oskvig said. "The current grid is being used to move chunks of power in ways it wasn't designed to do. ... With TAG, if there was excess power-generating capability in the eastern U.S., and the western U.S. needed power, we could get it there."

Black & Veatch and Siemens pitched TAG in April to the energy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. The proposal dovetails with a recommendation in the Bush administration's energy plan, unveiled last month, to look at the possibility of establishing a national grid and to identify measures to remove transmission bottlenecks. Right now, TAG is an idea in search of a customer. And it is not clear the idea would win universal acceptance.

...snip....

Oskvig said the technology underlying TAG was not exotic.

"What we're talking about is the first leg of an interstate superhighway system for transmission," he said.


To reach Dan Margolies, call [phone] or send e-mail to [e-mail].


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Link: http://www.kcstar.com:80/item/pages/printer.pat,business/3accbbb0.607,.html
All content © 2001 The Kansas City Star

[DUreader]

4. An excuse to raise rates? Just like CA, WA, OR?

makes sense

[Brian Sweat]

5. Uhm. electricity is privatized in most places.

Oddly enough, municiple power works best.

[Capn Sunshine]

14. what your describing is Municipal Common ownership

not a for-profit private company...
of course , this is socialism working in action...so maybe the BFEE won't get behind it..........

[salin]

6. The area hit... is deregulated. They should worry about the question

See we need to reign in deregulation, and prevent it from spreading to other areas.

But now - there is a plan by FERC (and perhaps in the Cheney energy bill picking up speed in Congress) to allow FERC to supercede (in regulatory power) state power commissions; divide the country into five (?) regions - and since each region includes multiple states - states can't regulate - only the feds; and push for broadscale deregulation (again BEYOND and perhaps in defiance of how states regulate). Not much consumer protection in their plan(s).

[papau]

7. the grid is all private in the East - power production is mixed

but this is a grid problem -

so smile - Homeland Security has absolutely no authority over the grid operators-

you are in "private hands"

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

12. FEMA does, it's in the Executive orders...around the mid 11,000's

[Kellanved]

8. What about: "save power !" ?

Just wondering.

[LEFTofLEFT]

9. How long before we hear - SOLAR

That would be the real shocker.

[goddess40]

11. I noticed empty roofs, if they had had solar panels...

would this have happened? When they were flying overhead showing the traffic I noticed the roofs had no solar panels but plenty of room for them. Maybe the Cronkite and the Kennedy's will stop fighting the windmills that someone wants to put in THREE MILES offshore by there homes, I can dream can't I.
Although I don't think this is from too much demand, that wouldn't be so wide spread.

[synthia]

10. opoopa

[Capn Sunshine]

13. See the Greg Palast article

link in Walt Starrs thread

[Pathwalker]

15. The answer is: LAST NIGHT!

On CNBC. It was heard to hear much, because my husband kept screaming at the tv.