🚀 go-pugleaf

Neal Atkins (natkins@austin.rr.com) wrote:
: On 12 Jun 2001 23:42:56 GMT, Merlin Dorfman <dorfman@rahul.net> wrote:

: >: Yeah, sure.  And having a few extra megawatts wouldn't solve the
: >: problem either.  Enjoy the summer.  Pay for your electricity or sweat
: >: in the dark.
: >
: >     One mo' time...they were not going to build the capacity to
: >generate more megawatts, because they didn't believe the
: >investment climate was right.  Either nuclear or conventional
: >megawatts.

: Yeah.  After building NO powerplants in the last 15 years, now
: suddenly FIFTEEN POWER PLANTS will be built in the next 2 years.  Gee,
: I wonder why that is?

     Because the investment climate is better...more assurance
of good returns, less risk of low demand and low prices.

: >     First, there will now be warnings before shutdowns;

: Yeah.  "Gay" Davis is going to give you "warnings".  Uh, if he KNOWS
: there is going to be a blackout, WHY doesn't he FIX IT???   I don't
: think I'd be riding any elevators in Kalifornia for the next couple of
: years.

     If I know there is going to be a shortage of power in ten
minutes, I can tell you about it.  I can't create electricity 
out if thin air.  Can you?  Would you rather not have the ten
minutes notics?  Sheesh.

: > second,
: >if energy is more expensive and/or unreliable in California than
: >in other places, energy intensive industry can and will move
: >elsewhere.  Simple economics.  A lot of things like that have
: >already happened, leading to the concentration of science,
: >engineering, etc.

: Well, there is going to be a test.  Only people with money or some
: smarts are going to be permitted to immigrate from Kalifornia.  You
: have to keep the fruits and nuts.

     People with money and/or smarts are going to stay here,
certainly in preference to moving to Texas.

: >     Except that use of the electricity by high-tech industry
: >and its employees probably has more economic benefits to the
: >state than smelting does.

: OK, just remember that when you have to bring your own bottle when you
: want wine.

     We make the wine here.  If you want some, you are going to
have to ask us.  (Or use that inferior product from New Mexico.)

: >: Yeah, you guys are doing a bang-up job.  Pretty soon there is going to
: >: be a dust bowl in reverse.  Millions of broke, desparate people with
: >: their meager goods lashed to their Camaros fleeing the bankrupt state.
: >
: >     We'll be happy to ship out the low-wage jobs.  The workers
: >will be able to afford housing, and the employers will be able
: >to afford the energy.  Sounds like a good deal all around.

: Yeah.  I'm sure the guy that runs a big computer company is going to
: like it when HE has to cut the grass cuz all the "low-wage jobs" have
: left.  "Fries with that burger?  That'll be $27.50"

     We already there.  Low-wage jobs pay a lot more dollars here
than in Texas, but the problem is that the dollars don't go
nearly as far.  We mitigate the problem by moving highy-energy and
low-skill jobs out as much as possible.   Aluminum smelting, for
instance.  You can't move them all out.  McDonalds and cutting the
grass, for instance.

: >: Just don't come to Texas.  We don't need anymore socialists than we
: >: already have.
: >
: >     I think all those socialists who own and work at the aluminum
: >smelters will be very happy in Texas.  And Texas is obviously happy
: >to have the pollution.
:   
: Yeah.  As soon as you drive all of the industry out of Kalifornia and
: jobs and income, you can sit around and smoke dope and sing Kumbaya
: and hope someone else will take care of you.

     Whoa, dude, I didn't say all the jobs--just the high-energy
and low-skill jobs.  We'll still design the integrated circuits
and the software, and you can pay us for that stuff and we'll pay
you for the aluminum and the oil and gas.  Sounds like free trade
and free enterprise triumph again.