Pandora's Power Company

I can foretell the future. Not always, of course. I missed the entire Be Gee's thing. Who knew three guys who sang soprano disco would be so popular? But I can tell you right now what the major subject of discussion in California is going to be in six months: electricity and the lack there of.

This one is a biggie. It hits every wallet in California right between Alexander Hamilton's eyes. And political loyalty stops when the buck stops. The Democrats had better deal with this or they will be giving the Republicans a very nice Christmas present.

We got a taste of things to come this past summer. The folks down in San Diego, good Republican country where capitalism is seen as the solution to all problems, led the charge into privatization of utilities. And their electric bills immediately went up four hundred percent.

And even after paying that highway robbery they had to walk the same razor's edge as the rest of us during the autumn heat waves. We had permanent brown outs, rolling brown outs and the ever popular television news blackout because you can't cover debates over power policy from a news copter.

How bad is this mess? Well, the power utilities are urging people to cut back on their outdoor holiday light displays. It seems that too much good cheer could short circuit the entire state. Now, there's a happy thought; we don't have enough electricity for Christmas. Ho, ho ho.

This disaster was not caused by deregulation of the power industry but it sure didn't help. Like the rain makers from a century ago the private utility promoters came to Sacramento three years past promising manna from heaven and at discount prices to boot.

The Republicans controlled the statehouse then but there was so much money floating around I honestly don't think it would have mattered if the twelve apostles had been in the legislature. Some questioned the rosy predictions of big profits to be made in cheap electricity but the answers were vague enough to satisfy most folks.

And now those Neuve-electro-magnates are using some of the very money they gouged out of San Diego to buy enough politicians to stop the regulators from cutting off their oversized profit margins.

Governor Davis may yet decide he is a Democrat and call a special session of the legislature to limit what private power companies can charge. But he doesn't have a good record of taking on anybody so far. He also may not want to open the Pandora's box that this issue is holding shut.

Consider the state of salmon in the state of Oregon. Environmentalists (white hats) are trying to dismantle four huge hydroelectric dams (black hats) on the Columbia river in order to save the endangered salmon. It's the kind of issue in which the moral choice seems clear to most folks.

But we desperately need the electricity those dams generate. Without it Christmas in L.A. is going to be dark for a long time to come. Evidently the salmon cannot survive if our children are to have air conditioning in their classrooms. It's extinction for the fish or it's jobs for us.

You can blame private industry for being short-sighted and greedy, you can charge the Greens with emotionalism and being short-sighted, but nobody has yet repealed the law which says the more people you have the bigger mess they make. The problem is population growth and I have no idea how you solve that.

The Democrats have been hoping that somebody would perfect cold fusion or perpetual motion, but I don't think that is going to happen. The real quick fix is two years or more distant; more expensive giant ugly fossil fuel guzzling global warming power plants. And maybe a few in our own backyard.

Can you picture a Democrat supporting such a thing? I can.