Power blackouts leave California looking like it's in the Third World

In the world's seventh-largest economy, it means no computers. no microwaves, no traffic lights

By DAPHNE BRAMHAM
The Vancouver SUN
February 1, 2001

A large department store was in partial darkness. So was a big drugstore. At the international film festival, patrons were asked to note the exits and remain calm if there was a power blackout.

I'm not talking about India where I experienced my last major urban power outage.

No, this is the new California - home of swimming pools, movie stars, Silicon Valley and rolling blackouts. The state where politics and botched deregulation have pushed a First World economy into a Third World crisis.

Rolling blackouts are power failures that without warning cut communities off from electricity for two hours then roll on to another unsuspecting community until electricity buyers at a central switching station can beg and buy enough megawatts to put the lights back on.

The communities get no notice. It's supposed to be a hedge against looting.

In the world's seventh largest economy a blackout means no computers, no elevators, no microwaves, no streetlights, no traffic signals. Even your cell phone might be affected - unless it's fully charged.

My week-long vacation began on the first day of the stage-three power alert that continues in the state. A stage-three alert means the lights can go out at any time. It means it's a good idea to have flashlights, candles and matches close at hand.

On the second day, an accident knocked out a power line in a neighbourhood just a few blocks from where I was staying in Palm Springs. The neighbourhood went three days without electricity food rotting in useless refrigerators, because the company said it couldn't afford overtime for weekend work.

Almost every day, there's a new picture of the sleep-deprived governor, Gray Davis, signing yet another short term measure into law after a late-night session at the state legislature.

But flip channels or page back through the newspapers and you'll find a state in deep denial about the real problem: Too many people using too much electricity.

In the back pages, you'll find things like the the Los Angeles Times' two-page feature on the new Disney theme park "the techiest place on Earth" - that opens next week.

California Screamin' is the new roller coaster that uses an electromagnetic force generated by 5,000-amp motors to zoom cars weighing nearly 1,000 kilograms fully loaded from a dead stop to 90 km/h in four seconds. A wave machine at the start of the ride uses computer-controlled paddles to tumble the water that is pumped from a reservoir on the opposite side of the theme park grounds through a four-metre wide tunnel that's 90 metres long.

It sounds great, but what if the power goes out?

As I sat alone by the pool in the condo development where I was staying (20 degrees is too cold for the locals), the heater kicked in every few minutes. The condo association asked residents to consider turning the heat down a few degrees in the half-dozen pools to save money. It was defeated. Somebody, sometime, might want to take a plunge.

Over at the golf course (owned by a Canadian), you can't stroll down the fairways. Too slow. You must drive in an electric cart, which made me feel a bit bad about wasting precious energy.

I felt better when I got home to discover I'd actually paid for some of that power coursing through the electrical veins of greedy Californians. The two largest California utilities owe B.C. Hydro about $400 million. It's because of them our promised power rebate has been cancelled. (Remember Hydro's slogan, The Power is Yours?)

Politicians from neighbouring states are already wondering whether California wants to turn Oregon and Washington into power farms for its beautiful people. If that were to happen, it would likely mean damming more rivers and endangering fish and human habitat. It might even mean reopening the debate over nuclear power.

We should also be wondering about our province becoming a power farm.

Some laid-off Cominco employees have likely given it some thought Cominco has already decided that producing power in Trail for export is more profitable that zinc mining.

Then there's our publicly owned utility. The provincial government s addicted to the power windfall $1.1 billion in electricity export revenue last year, give or take a few hundred million that .. remains unpaid. By extension taxpayers are also addicted to the money. Without it we face either service cuts or higher taxes.

But choosing to stay addicted could carry some significant costs.

Burrard Thermal was supposed to be for backup power only. But it's now running full time, contributing about 700 tonnes of nitrous oxide a day to the atmosphere (about two per cent of the Lower Mainland's total greenhouse gas emissions.

Hydro is also planning two more natural gas powered plants one in Campbell River and another in Port Alberni. More greenhouse gases.

Site C - a fourth hydroelectric generating unit on the Peace River - is likely to make a comeback. It's been proposed many times over the past 20 years. Most recently, it was rejected as uneconomic (1997) and environmentally unsound (1993). But the big sucking sound from the south might change those judgments and Hydro might go ahead with the unit that was estimated in 1997 to cost $82 million.

It raises the question of whether the sum of B.C. greedy for money plus California greedy for power will equal some dreadful public power policy.

And then we need to think about our response to President George W Bush, who's talking about expanding oil and natural gas drilling on the north coast and in in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that borders the Yukon.

Leave aside the debate over pristine parks. If oil and natural gas reserves prove out; surprise! All that oil and gas will be running through our province. More tankers would be cruising down our coast and there's a proposal for a new gas pipeline from Alaska's north coast across the Yukon and into British Columbia.

There may be nothing wrong with British Columbia becoming a major electricity exporter. But we need to talk about where our province's future lies, whether it's as a resource provider or as a player in the high-tech industries. Because this isn't just about power. About the time California solves its electricity supply problems, it's likely to face another crisis.

You see, California is also running out of water for all those desert golf courses and irrigated fields of tomatoes, and guess who's got fresh water?

Daphne Bramham can be reached at
dbramham@pacpress.southam.ca

SqWALK! Home