Letter: Growth abounds, sapping valley’s energy supply

Monday, July 16, 2001 | 9:14 a.m.

Last week's power blackout was not caused by a lack of conservation and future blackouts will not be prevented by mere conservation from residential users. And don't forget that we were assured by Nevada Power that rate increases of 45 percent compared to just one year ago would guarantee our energy needs.

Now we're fed the line that "it got hot." Nevada Power didn't suspect that might happen in July? ... in the desert? The real culprit is runaway growth. We already know our streets and highways designed for future population can't handle the current population's traffic.

Rather than cut power to current, paying customers, Nevada Power should cut new meter installations. Paul Heagan, vice president of Sierra Pacific Resources, told me that one thousand meters a week are hooked up, and, as near as I can tell, there are no plans to conserve on new installations.

Nor are there any plans by the city and county planners to throttle growth, not even a little bit. To make matters worse, the builders are not required to construct homes that are energy efficient. The building codes don't even address proper insulation values for desert construction.

New homes have lawn restrictions to conserve water. Why are there no insulation or alternate energy policies to conserve power? I see no reason for anyone to cut back on their energy usage when whatever might be saved will be re-routed to new meters for people who don't even live here yet!

I'll cut back when new construction is cut back.

CRYSTAL SMITH