From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0 (2022-12-14) on finch.gentoo.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.2 required=5.0 tests=DATE_IN_PAST_12_24, INVALID_DATE,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,NO_RELAYS autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=4.0.0 Received: from drobbins by cvs.gentoo.org with local (Exim 3.22 #1) id 14flR2-0004Xp-00 for gentoo-dev@gentoo.org; Wed, 21 Mar 2001 09:26:08 -0700 To: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] power outage Message-ID: <20010321092608.C17351@cvs.gentoo.org> References: <20010320132140.B15351@cvs.gentoo.org> <20010320185331.A14059@cvs.gentoo.org> <3AB80CBA.BA9E426E@gottinger.de> <01032113573100.31817@cerberus> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <01032113573100.31817@cerberus>; from pn@novadeck.net on Wed, Mar 21, 2001 at 01:57:31PM +0100 From: Sender: gentoo-dev-admin@gentoo.org Errors-To: gentoo-dev-admin@gentoo.org X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Gentoo Linux development list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: Wed Mar 21 09:27:02 2001 X-Original-Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 09:26:08 -0700 X-Archives-Salt: 02233e07-b584-4abd-921e-0b7339a67400 X-Archives-Hash: aa0f61e8034a92c2999a07a9b3843b45 On Wed, Mar 21, 2001 at 01:57:31PM +0100, Philippe Namias wrote: > Here in France we don't have any electricity/gas problem as it's a state > company. They have the monopole so there is no choice here but i only paid > 42$ by month for electricity. In principle and practice, there is nothing wrong with electricity being provided by private companies. The problem in California was due to poor government regulations. Here's my understanding of what went wrong: The state of California passed a law that the electric companies can charge no more than X dollars per kW (no exceptions). Of course, this seems like a good idea because it appears to protect consumers. But then, the cost of *producing* the electricity rose to above this amount. This happened because it is nearly impossible to build a new power plant in California due to environmental regulations. So even though California uses more power every year, they were unable to expand their production capacity to meet demand. It gets worse. Due to the price limit on electricity, the utilities couldn't pass the additional expense to the Californian consumer. By law, they had to charge X dollars per kW, which meant that they were *losing* money. So, they tried to borrow money to to maintain their power supplies and even attempt to build new ones, but no one would lend them money (since the loan people knew that the utilities were in a no-win situation). So, by law, California was forced to buy tons of gas and electricity from neighboring states, dramatically raising the cost of electricity and gas in the southwest. Again, there's no problem with private utilities. Competition will keep the price low, usually much lower than government-run utilities. The problem is when the government sets up impossible-to-follow rules for the utilities without understanding the consequences. Then, the utilties are forced to do stupid things (by law) and things like this happen. It's as if I asked you to create new ebuilds, but I insisted that you couldn't use your hands because you might get a repetive stress injury. To the uninformed, this sounds like a good rule (protecting you from harm), but in practice it means you need to type with your toes! Best Regards, -- Daniel Robbins President/CEO http://www.gentoo.org Gentoo Technologies, Inc.