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Energy
Crisis or Hoax?
Gary Snyder
A crisis is usually brought on by some acute episode that triggers a series of events. There are usually symptoms that precede a crisis, although in both the environment and medicine, there can be acute events that seem to come out of nowhere. What some are calling the current energy crisis certainly did seem to come out of nowhere and many people are asking whether or not this crisis is or a result of industry and governmental choices designed to raise prices and remove environmental controls. Whatever it is, it has already succeeded in bringing on both those aims. In the first part of this series, "Energy Crisis or Greed Crisis," posted on the Environment News Service on February 10, 2001, I reported how the Bush administration authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on January 29, 2001 to relax clean air rules so that the state can produce more power. The EPA said it will not enforce any violations against California power plants and diesel generators that violate federal clean air standards in the course of producing the electricity needed to meet the demand. Speculation that there really was not crisis has grown to levels that now cannot be denied and on January 30, 2001, Washington State Attorney General Christine Gregoire announced that her office would begin an investigation to determine if price manipulation and other unfair business practices were driving West Coast energy prices. Recent reports compiled by the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission show that quarterly profits increased 20 times since the same time last year. California began reducing their own air quality regulations in December 2000 when they allowed the restart of several power plants in southern California that had reached air pollution limits and had been shut down. These actions will have a dramatic and immediate effect on our air quality. Many power plants around the nation have been cited for violating clean air standards over the years. They have old, antiquated equipment that the utility companies have refused to upgrade because such fixes could diminish profits. The seeds for this manufactured crisis were sown in 1992 when Congress lifted regulations on the wholesale power market. Twenty-three states followed with their own deregulation legislation. California's "crisis" is no mystery to those who have followed the events since the state deregulated energy production in 1996 when then California Governor Pete Wilson signed Assembly bill AB1890 into law. Many environmental and labor groups alike condemned this legislation.
The legislation was cleverly marketed by utility lobbies attempting to convince consumers that they could now have their choice in electricity. In fact, the California legislation allocated a staggering $89 million for electric industry advertising. Consumers were told that if they wanted to have their households supplied by green power producers, they could make that choice. But industry analysts warned that this was never the real motivation of this law. This legislation was never about the success of small, green power companies. It has always been about opening the door to massive mergers by utility giants who would corner the market in energy. Shortly after the passage of the California bill, the Nation magazine reported that the "American Electric Power and the Central and Southwest Corporation announced plans for a $12 billion merger that would create an eleven-state behemoth serving 4.6 million customers. California's Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison, Ohio's Centerior, Illinois's Com Ed and dozens of other mega-utilities have morphed into even larger companies in the past year, raising the specter of an industry run by a small cartel of unregulated monoliths." Recent history of California energy use makes one wonder if this crisis is real or manufactured. In the summer of 2000, California had a 47,000-megawatt power load, which wasn't even a peak load for them. Yet the lights stayed on and there were no blackouts in sight. "Now there's a 30,000-megawatt load because of cooler weather and they're operating in a perpetual state of emergency," observed utility official Gary Zarker and reported in the Seattle Times on February 11, 2001. Gary Zarker, superintendent for Seattle City Light, is one of dozens of lawmakers, utility officials, and many others are starting to speculate that power generation owners may have purposefully withheld power during peak times, artificially driving up prices and making those who owned stock in fossil fuel powered plants very rich. The "disappearance" of 17,000-megawatts is now the subject of investigations by federal and state agencies, academic studies, and the Washington and Oregon state attorneys general. States are also quietly allowing utility companies across the nation to include surcharges on utility bills that are designed to help the mega companies pay off bad investments in failed nuclear power plants. These cleverly disguised fees will pay off the $135 billion of these bad investments with consumers hard earned dollars. In California and Massachusetts, this corporate welfare may constitute as much as 40 percent of consumers' electric bills. The folly of the nuclear industry is explored in part one. Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project when California passed its deregulation bill, has said that "It's not a pretty picture." He said "what California has defined as deregulation means that the big utilities will get the public to pay for their nuclear plants, and then establish a network of non-union, unregulated monopolies."
The manipulation of power prices by the fossil fuel generation megacompanies has also resulted in the appearance that alternative energy power generation plants are not viable. On February 2, 2001, the Environment News Service reported that Green Mountain Energy Company, a supplier of power from geothermal, biomass, small hydroelectric plants, wind, and solar power sources, was forced to release 50,000 customers who paid "fluctuating rates for renewable power because the rates promised when they signed up cannot be guaranteed in today's unstable wholesale electricity market." They were released back to fossil-fuel generation utilities. The fossil-fuel power generation industry wants us to believe that alternatives are not economically viable. That way, we will pay top prices and allow every last drop of fossil fuel to be extracted from the Earth, at whatever the cost to our health and our future. The fossil fuel wells of the Earth will eventually run dry and estimates differ on when that will happen. Some say that it could be as soon as in 50 to 75 years. When the quantity of oil burned since oil extraction began equals the amount yet to be extracted, the peak will be reached. The International Energy Agency in Paris reports that oil production could peak before the year 2015. By 2020, the demand for oil could exceed the supply by 17 million barrels per day. I have explored this topic in the Healing Our World article "The Well WILL Run Dry." There is and has always been an abundance of energy on this Earth. The wind, the Sun, and the natural heat from inside our planet alone could supply us with free energy for lifetimes to come. But until the energy companies find a profitable way to charge us for sunlight and wind, those technologies will be kept in their infancy while billions are spent extracting and selling the Earth's last remaining fossil fuels. You can bet that when the last drop of fossil fuel is pulled from the Earth, the mega-utility companies will suddenly have everything in place to begin charging us for alternative sources of power. In the coming months, we all must be cautious of the alarmist rhetoric that we will hear from Washington, D.C. Skyrocketing energy costs caused by a failed deregulation strategy and attempts by fossil fuel generating plants to withhold power to increase costs, may give the appearance that we have outstripped our supply. If new power plants are built before we determine if this crisis was manufactured, the industrial expansion will benefit a few key businesses while threatening the environment for us all. And as always, conservation can reduce energy demand. But the reality may be that we have lost sight of our real needs and priorities. Should we continue to allow a business ethic that puts profit before every other consideration? As the popular song by Peter, Paul and Mary goes,
"How many deaths will it take 'till we know, I don't know the answer, but I do know that what will be blowin' in the wind as a result of fossil-fuel power generation expansion will not be good for our health or our future.
1. The Seattle Times front page story for February 11, 2001 discusses the issue of suspected manipulation by the fossil-fuel utility industry. Check it out. 2. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Demand that they control energy prices and reduce the energy use of business and industry before they try to build new power plants. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html 3. Email President Bush at president@whitehouse.gov and tell him conservation must be a priority before new power plants are built. Urge him to not ignore well researched and important environmental standards for the sake of industry expansion. 4. Make your voice heard on a variety of issues through the Working for Change website. Once you register, you can quickly send customized email letters on important issues. 5. Contact the attorneys general of California and Oregon and tell them you support their investigations into fossil-fuel utility manipulation of prices. Tell them to also look into how alternative energy generation utilities are being forced out of business. Contact Washington State Attorney General Christine O. Gregoire and Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers. 6. Read an article in Nation magazine about the history behind this situation at http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010212&s=wasserman and http://www.thenation.com/issue/980316/0316wass.htm 7. See some excellent tips for increasing energy efficiency in your home and business at http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/rockesave.htm 8. Find out how your electricity is produced in your state from the Environmental Defense Fund. Learn more about toxic threats to children from the Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility's report that addresses toxic chemical influences on developmental disabilities called In Harm's Way.
[Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be found wondering what else has been manipulated by industry in our culture. Send your thoughts and ideas to him at jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at www.healingourworld.com]
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Copyright
(c) 2001, Jackie A. Giuliano Ph.D.
jackie@deepteaching.com
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