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by Haywood Jablowmi
The Electric Slide
| You know that cheesy dance
you do at wedding receptions? It's a funky bit of footwork electricity
generators and power transmission companies have been doing for years in
California. Oh man, the history of power in the region is ugly.
Folks in the sunshine state have been getting a lubeless reaming on their
kilowatt hour rates for years. |
 |
Thanks to mandated alternative
sources like solar and wind power that are environmentally friendly, but
expensive, it's been estimated (by the utilities) that green power has
cost southern Californians 25-Billion dollars extra. Then there were
the obscene cost overruns on several nuclear generating plants that translated
into several billion more dollars being tacked onto their air conditioning
bills.
So it's easy to understand
how the state legislature allowed Power lobbyists to bribe them into power
deregulation. Major electrical users like factories wanted the option
of buying their power on the open market, thereby paying less than the
local electrical monopoly charged. The rallying call was sounded:
We must throw off the yoke of the massive utilities...decentralize and
let the market decide the rate we pay to surf the net.
Yeah, right. It was
all a huge ploy to funnel massive amounts of wealth from millions of pockets
and deposit them in the fat purses of a very few individuals. Thanks
to this brilliant scheme, the spirit of cooperation that allowed America
to develop and become so dependent on elecricity in the first place, was
allowed to go dead. Now the masterplan is working magnificiently.
Oh, you consumers will have
to pay all your cash to be able to use your TV, and your utilities are
going bankrupt at one million dollars an hour, and your economy will suffer
as companies move away from oppresive power bills, and you won't be able
to depend on the power supply anymore, and...and...
I happen to live in an area
that is still regulated, and I'm very happy. Monopolies just make
sense when it comes to electricity. Companies can't string competing
transmission lines that you can choose like your phone carrier. The
monopolies were allowed as part of a deal that allowed the utilites to
grow and serve the great American appetite for power, and still keep the
costs in check. As a result, electrical cooperatives worked together,
building the grid, supplying the power, but not gouging the consumer for
it. It is a good system, but like all ideas, someone always has a
better idea.
That's where deregulation
comes in. The major California electric suppliers grabbed the chance to
sell off their power plants, and squandered the windfall. The head
honchos at these companies make in the seven figures, they were winners.
You know who loses.
As a matter of fact, my electric
company is one of the winners in this disgraceful greedfest. It's
one of the huge companies that stepped in, bought up generating plants
and are now raping the California economy. They're enjoying the highest
times these stodgy, reliable bluechip companies have ever had. Profits
are up 600 to 1000 percent!! Yeah baby! You know who's going
to pay don't you?
The bills will now go from
an average of $60 a month to over $200, and to be honest, that's just the
beginning. The boards of directors at these huge energy concerns
are very concerned they get every dollar you've got. It rightfully
belongs to them, after all, they paid millions in campaign contributions
back a few years ago, they discovered a way to legally gouge you and walk
away unscathed. Hail to the conquering MBA's!!
Hey, don't take it personally
California, someone has to be first, and thanks to your fair state, the
rest of us may be spared the embarrassment of looking so foolish. |
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