-Caveat Lector-
At 09:41 PM 1/19/01 -0500, you wrote:
>-Caveat Lector-
>
>************************************************************************
>"Why is California short on Electricity ?
You should TRULY learn the fucking difference between
PRIVATE and GOVERNMENT.
California's Enemy: The State
by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
California is a beautiful state with a (mostly) mild,
sunny climate, which is one reason why so many people
live there. But who would want to move there, it is
often asked, if one had to endure chronic water
shortages, earthquakes and now, "rolling
blackouts?" These events are typically blamed on either
Mother Nature or the free market, but in reality they are
either caused or exacerbated by government regulation.
California's politicians have been quick to blame
the current electricity "shortages" on "deregulation"
when in fact the opposite is true: Although wholesale
electricity prices have been deregulated, retail prices
have not, and regulation has all but prohibited the
building of additional electricity supply capacity.
The population has doubled in the past ten years, which
has caused about a one-third increase in electricity
demand, whereas supply has remained stagnant thanks
to the environmentalist extremists in the state
government. These neo-luddites have blocked nuclear
power plant construction; they have vetoed the building
of additional dams for hyrdoelectric power (lest some
aquatic creepy crawlers be disturbed); and are nearly
apoplectic in their opposition to coal- or natural
gas-fired electric power plants.
Ballooning demand, restricted supply, and price
controls are a perfect recipe for shortages. Complete
deregulation of the electric power industry is the only
way to resolve this problem, although California's
governor is currently proposing the worst of all
worlds: a Soviet-style government takeover of
the state's electric power industry.
California's periodic water "crisis" is another
unnatural disaster caused by government regulation.
The big problem is that most of the water in the state
has been regulated for decades by the Federal Bureau
of Reclamation, which heavily subsidizes the irrigation
which delivers water from the northern part of the
state to the bone-dry southern part. (Seventy-five
percent of the water comes from the north, whereas
75 percent of the population is in the southern half
of the state).
Some 85 percent of the water is used for agriculture
and is sold at government-imposed, below-market
prices. Some farmers pay as little as $3.50 per
acre foot for water that costs $100 per acre foot
just to pump through the government-run irrigation
system. At these prices it is "economical" to grow
cotton and rice in the desert, even though the
Mississippi Delta and the rice paddies of Vietnam
are more natural habitats for these crops.
California grows prodigious amounts of both.
Government-subsidized water use for one purpose
alone -- irrigating pastures for grazing sheep -- exceeds
the water used for all other purposes in California,
residential and industrial. In one recent year $530
million in taxpayer dollars were spent on pumping this
water to sheep ranchers when the gross revenues of
the sheep ranching industry in that year were less
than one-fifth of that amount, $100 million.
Meanwhile, cities throughout the state suffer such
severe "water shortages" from time to time that
government toilet monitors have been employed to
enforce three-flushes-a-day regulations. (I am
not making this up).
The Federal Bureau of Reclamation's crazy central
planning scheme is the main cause of California's
periodic water supply crises. As with electricity,
only a free market in water can put an end to the
insanity.
Even California earthquakes would not be as devastating
were it not for government regulation. Federal disaster
insurance allows residents to purchase homeowners'
insurance at subsidized rates, sometimes at one-tenth
the free-market price. Federal disaster insurance is
sold where no private insurer would even consider it,
such as insuring houses built on top of earthquake
faults or on the edges of muddy cliffs overlooking the
ocean. The government is subsidizing the building of
houses that are sure to be destroyed by earthquakes
and winter storms.
Government building code regulation also has a tendency
to encourage builders to meet the minimum requirements
set by government, but no more. Alternatively, if
private insurance markets were used to assure building
safety, standards would be much higher, and earthquake
damage less severe. And, of course, a notorious source
of governmental bribery and corruption would be eliminated.
The millionaire socialists from Hollywood who pour
millions into state political campaign coffers are
largely isolated from all these disasters. They live
in mansions far away from earthquake faults; the lights
are never turned off in their neighborhoods; and they
have enough political clout to buy all the water they
need. It will take a popular free-market revolt, along
the lines of the infamous "Proposition 13" tax relief
crusade of the late 1970s, to eliminate the state's
chaos-causing regulatory regime.
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