On The California Blackouts

In the wake of last week's blackout in Southern California, the San Francisco Chronicle says it's time for the state to develop a more comprehensive energy plan:

Northern California -- and most of the West -- has plenty of power on hand. Southern California, which has fewer access points to regional power plants, is closer to the tipping point between supply and demand, as the shutdown showed.

So things aren't really that bad? Hardly. The energy crisis definitely grabbed the state's attention, but it did launch a number of campaigns that had never before come together into a single plan. More power plants were built and prices stabilized, but the fight over energy issues continued.

A span of interests -- consumer groups, power firms and politicians -- continue to disagree on a needed energy blueprint . . .

These factors add up to an uncertain future. California can scrape by for now, but it needs a coherent and reliable energy plan. The easy path would be to wait for a crisis and jam through makeshift rules -- exactly what happened last time, and which left the state with costly power bills and a stumblebum image.

It would be far better to use the breathing space before the next emergency and map out a flexible energy future. That could keep the lights burning longer.

As we've said before, the situation California finds itself in didn't happen overnight, and it won't be solved overnight either. Here at NEI, we think nuclear energy can be part of the solution, which is one of the topics that our President and CEO, Skip Bowman, will be addressing when he speaks at Town Hall Los Angeles on September 13. Click here for the details and here to register.

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