I'm no
Jerome a Paris. Electricity is a mystery to me. You plug in; things happen. Or don't, thanks to deregulation. Where's the juice? Not many places it seems according to a new report by the
North American Electric Reliability Council.
:
The impact will be felt unevenly but will be widespread, the report said. In the next two to three years, surplus capacity needed to keep the lights on in Texas, New England, the mid-Atlantic, the Midwest and the Rocky Mountain regions will drop to levels that make brownouts and blackouts more likely.
And with power demand seen rising 19 percent by 2015, and generation capacity expected to rise just 6 percent, "the adequacy of North America's electricity system will decline unless changes are made soon," the council's president, Rick Sergel said in the report.
Make the jump.
Effect of Deregulation
Buoyed by the '80s-era deregulation success stories of the natural gas, telecom, airline and trucking industries, the electric power industry, with the help of Congress, embarked on a similar path. The hope was that by breaking up the ownership of power generation and transmission, competition would spur new, investor-funded capacity, drive the development and deployment of new technology and -- over the long run -- drive down prices for consumers.
But it hasn't worked out that way. After decades of change that included the near-collapse of California's power industry and the power trading scandal at Enron, the industry is stuck halfway between a market-driven future and a state-regulated past.
Oh, Enron. Wasn't there some connection to the republican administration here???
So what's a typical local effect?
The move toward market pricing -- which was supposed to lower rates over the long term --would mean rate increases over the short term, according to the companies. Starting in January, Illinois consumers face an average increase of between 22 and 55 percent compared with what they've been paying for the past decade. But ComEd has said it expects lose $1.4 billion if those increases are blocked. The company also faces cuts in its debt ratings if the freeze is extended.
Now be advised. I have a dog in this hunt. It's a power line that cuts a swath through some of the most pristine country in New York State. A power line that destroys an area that has been termed "A Wild and Scenic River" corridor as designated by the National Parks Service.
You also might want to check out the stakeholders in the NAERC report to see whose interests are being represented.
So thanks to the repugs, we have smaller government and bigger business: all unregulated and driven by profits.
A new power line could be coming to a neighborhood, like mine, near you. Soon. Tell your neighbors if they don't know how to vote.
The party for new energy (of all types) is democratic. Unless , of course, you don't believe in global warming and want to double your energy bills.