California in crisis

Editor's note: Energy. Americans, particularly Californians, are obsessed with it. It's in the daily, even hourly news. It is the object of political debate and the impetus for draining pocketbooks, and its scarcity has brought Californians to their knees. In a new series of exclusive reports, WorldNetDaily.com explores various aspects of the energy crisis, from the creation of electricity to the political consequences of the current debacle for government leaders.

Californians will now be given two-days' notice before rolling blackouts hit their communities, according to a new order from Gov. Gray Davis.

Such blackouts are expected by the dozens this summer as temperatures climb and air conditioners are put into use. The new warning system will operate in three stages – 48-hour notice of an impending blackout, 24-hour notice to affected general areas and 60-minute notice to specific locations where the power will be cut.

Business executives, police and consumers have complained that the current warning system – in which blackouts can come with less than 10 minutes' warning – does not give them sufficient time to save information on computers, shut down assembly lines, safeguard traffic intersections and otherwise prevent financial loss and mayhem when the power goes out.

Utility customers will be notified through company websites as well as radio and television announcements. Starting with June utility bills, Southern California Edison customers will be given "block" numbers that allow them to learn through the Edison website if they are scheduled for rotating blackouts on days of short supply. Californians at-large can receive up-to-the-minute power-supply information from the Independent System Operator, which manages the power grid for about 75 percent of the state.

In the past, the last-minute warnings were issued by state grid operators who held off giving longer notice so as not to repeatedly alarm people. Most of the time, the ISO found enough power at the last minute to avert blackouts. Utility officials have favored short-notice of blackouts for fear that advance warning would leave neighborhoods vulnerable to looters and burglars.

But crime has not been a problem during California's six days of blackouts so far this year. And with expert predictions of at least 30 days of forced outages this summer, state and utility leaders say Californians are better off prepared.

Leaders of the ISO – the agency responsible for deciding when blackouts must be triggered – said last Thursday they intend to launch the governor's order by June 15. And if Californians redouble their conservation efforts when they hear of blackout warnings, they said, the governor's order will ultimately help the state avoid blackouts.

California's energy shortage is more than a mere inconvenience to folks in the Golden State. The two largest utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, have secured record rate hikes with the permission of the state's Public Utilities Commission, which heavily regulates the industry and puts price caps on utility charges. The full price increases have yet to be realized by consumers, who will see the new rates reflected in upcoming bills. But even the relatively modest rate increases already in effect, combined with rolling blackouts, have brought the issue of energy – both gas and electric – to center stage.

When Davis told Californians in December to turn off their Christmas lights to avoid rolling blackouts, many folks scoffed at the notion and threw another strand of twinkle lights on the front-yard shrub.

An energy shortage, though prophesied for years by activists on both sides of energy politics, may have seemed like a distant, doomsday scenario. But just weeks after Christmas trees began lining residential curbsides, the lights began to go out all over California as the state's energy-grid regulator scrambled to avoid a system-wide collapse.

And the problem is not limited to the Golden State. During the cold winter months, residents of oil-heated homes in other parts of the country feared warmth would become cost-prohibitive. Gasoline prices have driven consumers across America to state capitols where they lobby for government intervention to stop the price hikes.

Last week, Davis pleaded with President Bush to exempt California from federal oxygenation requirements in reformulated gasoline – a process that adds to the cost of gasoline.

"California is the only area in the country where the Federal reformulated gasoline requirements apply in conjunction with comprehensive and demonstrably more effective State standards for cleaner burning gasoline. The California regulations provide complete assurances that a waiver of the Federal Minimum Oxygen Requirement will not result in a loss of any air quality," Davis wrote Tuesday. "Our regulations accomplish the needed emissions reductions without requiring a minimum level of oxygen."

In Sacramento, the state's capital, a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is just pennies short of $2. Strict and expensive government reformulation regulations, fuel taxes and supply shortages have combined to create the outrageous price.

Energy – whether it comes in the form of electricity to power our computers and run our air conditioners, or in the form of oil products to heat our homes and run our cars – is scarce in America. And while Californians appear to be the hardest hit, California's problems become the nation's problems when the state starts looking to Washington for a solution.

But what is behind the shortage, and how can the problem be solved, both in the short term and the long term? As previously reported by WorldNetDaily, some activists believe the high cost of electricity is a direct result of natural gas prices, which are determined by the rules of economics; when demand is high and supply is low, costs rise.

The same rules apply to electricity, said California State Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks. In an exclusive interview with TalkNetDaily radio host Geoff Metcalf, the senator puts the energy crisis in simple terms.

"It is a very simple problem: We have far more demand for electricity than we have a supply of electricity," he told Metcalf during a live broadcast on May 6. "The reason for that is we have actively discouraged the construction of power plants for 27 years. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that we have finally run out of power."

State-sponsored advertisements announce the current production of 13 power plants in California, four of which are scheduled to be in operation this summer. But those plants will run on natural gas, making them expensive to run given the cost of fossil fuels. Bush's new energy proposal discusses the benefits of nuclear-power generators, which cost a fraction of other energy-production methods and accounted for 70 percent of U.S. emission-free energy generation in 1999.

Despite its efficiency, nuclear power accounts for just 20 percent of the nation's electrical capacity. Natural gas is second to that at 16 percent. But the nation's largest source of energy by far is coal, which is burned to produce 52 percent of America's electricity.

California's energy predicament is a complex one with numerous causes working together to spell disaster. The effects of this crisis are vast and questions surrounding it numerous.

What are the costs/benefits of different kinds of energy production? How is the energy crisis affecting the political climate? How do California energy prices compare to the rest of the nation?

WorldNetDaily will explore these questions and more in subsequent reports.