New York Times :: An Industry Trapped by a Theory
Article

> Electricity can't be stored in large quantities, and the
> system needs a lot of spare generating and transmission
> capacity for periods of peak demand like hot days in
> August. The power system also requires a great deal of
> planning and coordination, and it needs incentives for
> somebody to maintain and upgrade transmission lines.
>
> Deregulation has failed on all these grounds. Yet it has
> few critics. Evidently, even calamities like the Enron
> scandal and now the most serious blackout in American
> history are not enough to shake faith in the theory.


New York Times :: The Road to Ruin
Article

> Incidentally, there seems to be a weird reluctance to face up to
> what happened in California. Since the blackout, I've seen national
> news reports attributing California's woes in part to environmental
> restrictions, while ignoring the role of market manipulation. Huh?
> There's no evidence that environmental restrictions played any
> role; meanwhile, even the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
> which strongly backs deregulation, has concluded that market
> manipulation played a major role. What's with the revisionist
> history?

A couple recent New York Times op-ed pieces addressing the blackout and its fallout. Although Gov. Davis continues to be hammered over his handling of the California energy crisis, I still have not heard an explanation of what he did wrong, or how he might have handled it differently -- likely because he handled it as best it could be handled. None of the major replacement candidates has been forthcoming on how he or she would have solved the problem. (Have they been forthcoming with anything other than half-assed cliches?)
posted by Tomohiro Idokoro @ 8:29 AM

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