Letter: Nevada may be next to suffer electricity crunch

Monday, Jan. 29, 2001 | 9 a.m.

I was reading on the 'Net about California's power problems. Interesting to discover that California's power problems have been going on for quite some time now, and only now we're just hearing about it. So the shortage will get worse before it gets better. Peak power draw is in the summer ... so they (and we) may be headed toward a meltdown. There is plenty of blame to go around, but population growth and no new energy plants are at the root of the problem. Power company/supplier greed and deregulation just brought an existing problem to a head.

They're building some new power plants but not nearly enough to offset growth. Typical lack of effective action by government agencies and politicians, who saw it coming but chose to ignore the warning signs in order to cater to those in power. Unfortunately, California isn't an island unto itself and its pain may soon be our pain. In many ways, Las Vegas is headed down the same path with our city officials and politicians promoting pro-growth policies (zoning changes, limits on developer fees, etc.) all the time insisting that our water and power supply is good enough to support growth well into the future. Idiots.

JERRY FRIDDELL