Letter: Government is much better at providing power

Wednesday, May 30, 2001 | 8:38 a.m.

Dan Kane, in a May 17 letter to the editor, blames environmentalists for California's rolling blackouts. Yeah, let's blame environmentalists. It's just a crazy coincidence that power bills skyrocketed and the blackouts began right after deregulation.

I'm sure our power problems have nothing to do with Reliant Energy, Duke Energy, Southern Energy and Dynegy cornering the energy market in California. Last month the Sun ran a story from the San Francisco Chronicle in which critics said the above companies bought up enough plants to essentially hold California's electricity hostage for the highest price. It also has been reported that these companies have been shutting down their plants for maintenance at a much higher rate than in the past. This exacerbates shortages and allows the power companies to jack up the price of electricity.

I also found it interesting that on the same page as Mr. Kane's letter, Thomas Oliphant of the Boston Globe wrote a column with the headline, "L.A. thrives with public power." Oliphant noted that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is the largest public power operation in the country and that during this power crisis it has maintained surpluses. Also, this public provider of power has not increased rates in nine years.

It drives the free-market folks nuts, but there are some things that the government does better than the private sector. One of those things is providing electric power.

JEREMY GARNCARZ