Jewish World Review Dec. 14, 2000 / 17 Kislev, 5761
Michelle Malkin
Blame enviros for electric mess
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
WINDMILLS AND CANDLES and warm woolen mittens. Staticky sparks from the fur of small kittens. Campfires and solar panels and thermal
paddings. These are a few of the favorite things that radical environmentalists would rather rely on for warmth, light, and electricity than the
modern power plant.
To the delight of eco-Luddites, energy shortages in California and the Pacific Northwest are forcing residents to live like 17th-century peasants.
The Seattle Times urged readers this week to turn down their thermostats to 50 degrees at night. "Wear a sweater and throw another blanket on
the bed," the paper flippantly editorialized. Others pine for subsidized sunshine sources. "If there were sufficient state or federal incentives for
using solar power," one San Francisco Chronicle reader bemoaned, "there wouldn't be an energy crisis."
Good luck convincing the denizens of Silicon Valley – and everywhere else, for that matter -- to unplug their computers and wrap their roofs in
tin foil. As author and Manhattan Institute fellow Peter Huber writes: "Wind, solar and other ‘alternative’ energies sound great in theory, but
they rarely make much economic or environmental sense in practice. They require a lot of expensive, unreliable hardware. And they generally
use more land to deliver less energy."
Huber and fellow energy consultant Mark P. Mills estimate that the use of home and office computers, phone lines, printers, fax machines, and
other peripheral devices accounted for 13% of America's energy use last year. Internet-related energy usage will likely rise to 35% or more by
the end of the next decade, they project. In the midst of this high-tech-driven power crisis, Calif. Gov. Gray Davis took the laughable step of
turning off the Christmas tree lights at the Sacramento capitol and urging homeowners to do the same.
Every hapless home improvement wannabe knows it takes more energy to put up those darned lights in one afternoon than they consume over
the entire course of the holidays.
On a serious note, Davis and the state’s left-wing consumer groups attack electricity deregulation for the West Coast’s energy woes. But the
real Grinches are naysaying activists and bureaucrats who continue to stand in the way of a truly free market in electricity. Although much ado
has been made since the Golden State passed electricity "deregulation" measures in 1996, high prices and red tape remain. It’s government
failure, not market failure, that short-circuited success.
While demand for electricity has skyrocketed, government officials continued to clamp down on supply. Overzealous air-quality laws,
environmental permit applications, and siting paperwork have slowed the construction process to a near-halt. No new major generating plants
have been built in over a decade. Only in the past year did the state Legislature pass fast-track measures to lower the regulatory barriers to
building new plants.
The 1996 law also forced power companies to obtain regulator approval before doing major repairs or refits. In addition, new competitors from
out-of-state were frozen out of the market. The state required utilities to buy power through two pools run by quasi-governmental agencies and
kept tight rate caps in place, distorting price signals.
Adrian Moore, director of economic policy at Reason Public Policy Institute, puts it plainly: "The fact is, California embarked not on
deregulation of the electricity market at all, but ‘restructuring.’ While the generation of electricity was partly deregulated, additional regulation
and controls were placed on the rest of the system. The result is not a market, but a hash of semi-markets run by a government body…so
complex that no one fully understands what is happening."
In fact, Moore notes, "California's electricity ‘deregulation’ law violated most basic principles of deregulation -- it discouraged entry into the
market, it restricts expansion of capacity, and it sustains the old systems and rules that defy competition."
Panicked politicians and environmental activists are calling for a return to the good old days of the electric monopoly. But centralized control is
the reason for this year’s outages, not the solution --- and it would do nothing to alleviate the supply problem caused by continued opposition
to new plant construction. The green NIMBYs’ power trip is enough to give you the
shivers.
JWR contributor Michelle Malkin can be reached by clicking here.
12/11/00: UNICEF's deadly mission
12/06/00: The Amish vs. the feds
12/04/00: Downey and the Drug War
11/29/00: Let the sun shine on the Supremes
11/22/00: Peace prize for a murderer?
11/20/00: Baby Boom parents are asleep on the job
11/15/00: Fog horns of the Fourth Estate
11/10/00: Who cares about election fraud now?
11/08/00: Ms. Houston, you have a problem
11/03/00: The Million Mom Murmur
11/01/00: GOP revolutionaries head for the hills
10/27/00: My impeachment referendum
10/25/00: Gore’s Good Daddy Gambit
10/23/00: Tribulations of a dubious 'tribe'
10/20/00: Pharmaceutical butchers of Beijing
10/16/00: How the West was seized
10/12/00: Fight the anti-pesticide pests
10/10/00: Moochers at the multiplex
10/05/00: Pay for your own day care
10/02/00: Not every senior demands a handout
09/27/00: Racial hype at the Olympics
09/25/00: Watch the other Washington
09/20/00: Textbook case of media arrogance
09/18/00: New York: Land of medical pork
09/13/00: Voices from the womb
09/11/00: No cure for generational pain
09/08/00: Notes on a West Coast wilding
09/06/00: Race matters at Washington Post
09/01/00: For those who labor 24/7
08/28/00: There's something about Rudy
08/25/00: A conservative case against Napster
08/22/00: Death Row Marv mocks justice
08/18/00: The party of Maxine Waters
08/14/00: "Make-A-Wish" shoots down dreams
08/10/00: Who will stop Bill Lann Lee?
08/07/00: Emily Dickinson's lesson for rude drivers
08/03/00: Leave the slogans behind
07/31/00: Hey, GM: Build cars, not quotas
07/28/00: Stop milking The Juice
07/24/00: Silencing Jeff Jacoby
07/21/00: Score another one for TV execs who want to keep us brain-dead
07/17/00: Can somebody say McStupid?
07/12/00: Beware of Ugly Building Syndrome
07/10/00: The miracle of a lead pencil
07/07/00: Partying on the people’s dime
06/29/00: When "Indians" exploit their own
06/23/00: Kids in a public school daze
06/21/00: Fed up with Fannie and Freddie
06/19/00: D.C.'s gag order for Christians
06/16/00: Dads, daughters, and PETA's spoilsports
06/13/00: Tune out Eminem's pitiful "poetry"
06/07/00: "Pained" Dem leader Torricelli deserves to feel some; Why hasn't he?
06/05/00: Tom Green's hidden health-care lesson
06/01/00: Farming out the pork
05/30/00: The perils of medical quackery
05/26/00: Awarding medals by race is a disgrace
05/22/00: Have Simon & Schuster execs lost their minds!?
05/17/00: Sports plebes vs. plutocrats
05/15/00: Whitewashing Red China's record
05/12/00: Our mothers' hands
05/08/00: Focus on the real Waco
05/05/00: An Internet victim's sad story
05/03/00: Phony pooh-bahs of journalism
05/01/00: Zoo tragedy triggers dumb reaction
04/24/00: Ecoterrorists on the loose
04/19/00: Beware of Elian's psychobabblers
04/17/00: The truth about Erin Brockovich
04/13/00: In defense of an armed citizenry
04/10/00: Playing hardball with taxpayers
04/06/00: Read W.'s lips: More new spending
04/04/00: The liberal media-in-training
03/31/00: Sticking it to the children
03/28/00: Declaring war on HOV lanes
03/22/00: Clinton and the Echo Boomers
03/17/00: Is Bush a Liddy Dole Republican?
03/13/00: Katie and the politics of disease
03/10/00: Maria H, Granny D, and the media Z's
03/07/00: Bubba Van Winkle wakes up
03/03/00: Double standard for day traders?
02/28/00: Sluts and nuts --- and our daughters
02/24/00: Zoning out religious freedom
02/15/00: The Baby Brain Boondoggle
02/10/00: Buddhist temple untouchables
02/08/00: CDC: Caught Devouring Cash
02/04/00: Hillary's poisoned poster child
02/01/00: Corporate welfare on ice
01/28/00: The silly sound of silence
01/26/00: The Old Media meltdown
01/20/00: The pied pipers of KidCare
01/18/00: Our imperious judiciary
01/14/00: Tune out Columbine chorus
01/12/00: Dying to be an American
01/10/00: Time for smokers' revolt?
12/30/99: Reading, writing, PlayStation?
12/27/99: Fight money-grubbing mallrats
12/23/99: Christmas for Cornilous Pixley
12/20/99: Who will help the Hmong?
12/16/99: Shame on corn-fed politicians
12/13/99: EPA vs. the American Dream
12/09/99: Look behind the Pokemon curtain
12/06/99: Amateur hour in Seattle
11/30/99: Stop the Ritalin racketeers
11/23/99: Welfare for a sports fatcat
11/19/99: Jeb Bush's political ploy of the week
11/16/99: Ben & Jerry serve up junk science
11/12/99: A monumental waste of our veterans' resources
11/10/99: Tax-and-spend schizophrenia
11/05/99: Spooky Guy Haunts the Capital
11/02/99: Mourning the loss of the last Liberty Tree
10/27/99: AOL goes AWOL on parents
10/22/99: The persecution of Harry Potter
10/20/99: Don't doctor the law
10/14/99: The trouble with kids today
10/12/99: Pro-animal, pro-abortion, anti-speech?
10/07/99: Beltway press corps needs more skunks
09/30/99: ESPN overlooks athlete of faith, grace, and guts
09/27/99: Personal freedom going up in smoke
09/15/99: Farewell, "Miss" America
09/10/99: Will George W. work for a color-blind America?
09/03/99: Feminization of gun debate drowns out sober analysis
08/27/99: America is abundant land of equal-opportunity insult
08/10/99: Protect the next generation from diversity do-goodism
08/04/99: Sweepstakes vs. state lottery: double standards on gambling
07/21/99: "True-life tales from the Thin Red Line"
(or "Honor those who sacrificed their lives for peace")
07/21/99: Reading, 'Riting, and Raunchiness?
07/14/99: Journalists' group-think is not unity
06/30/99: July Fourth programming for the Springer generation
06/25/99: Speechless in Seattle
06/15/99: Making a biblical argument against federal death taxes
© 2000, Creators Syndicate
|