🚀 go-pugleaf

Jeffrey Siegal wrote:
> 
> The truth is it doesn't matter how long it takes to disassemble and
> reassemble a boiler. The producers are unregulated companies, none of
> which individually enjoys significant market power (at least, not that
> has been shown).  They are free to do what they want to maximize their
> profits, as long as they don't collude.  If that means selling natural
> gas rather than burning it, then they shut down and sell the gas.

And so would PG&E, if it still owned the generators.  But PG&E wouldn't
shut down a third of its generating capacity as winter approached.
PG&E knew, and the Cal ISO knew, that shutting down that much would
leave them precisely where they are now -- forced to buy expensive
spot power wherever they can get it, at whatever price the supplier
chooses to charge.

But the multiple power plant companies don't have that constraint.
Each one individually can go for the gas windfall, and let the other
guys take care of keeping the lights lit.  And all the other guys can
do the same.  So here we are.
> 
> And by the way, that gas they sell goes to people who need it,
> frequently as much or more than they need electricity.

Very true.  If PG&E were now in charge, consumers would be now
complaining of three-times-larger gas bills.  The difference is
that businesses can still operate with the thermostats turned 
down.  But they can't operate if blacked out.  That fact is knocking
a huge hole in the local economy.  Sure, some businesses need gas
to operate -- but by no means all.  I can't think of a business that
can run without electricity in the 21st century.

						Silas Warner