some perspective about the "power problem" (double entendre!)

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 20:25:39 -0700
> From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
> Subject: some perspective about the "power problem" (double entendre!)
> X-Sender: jwarren () mail well com
> To: dave () farber net
> Cc: Bob McClure <rmm () unidot com>
>
>
> One comment on the news today estimated that it would cost perhaps 
> $10-billion to fix our apparently*-inadequate national power grid. Let's 
> put that in perspective:
>
> According to the DoD Comptroller, that's LESS THAN HALF of what we had 
> already spent by mid-April on the current Bush's "Iraq adventure", and 
> perhaps about 1/7th of the total we've spent** on that war, to date:
>
> "Department of Defense Comptroller Dov Zakheim on April 16, 2003 briefed 
> the press on the Pentagon's estimate that to date the war had cost between 
> $10-$12 billion in military operations, including the cost of airlift and 
> sealift of troops and equipment, plus another $9 billion in the first 3 
> 1/2 weeks of conflict."
>
>
> That guesstimated cost of fixing the nation's power grid is only about 
> double -- or much less -- of what we taxpayers (and energy users) will pay 
> JUST for getting out troops and equipment back to base, from Iraq:
>
> "... the cost of returning troops and equipment to base would be another 
> $5-$7 billion ..."
>
>
> This smells much more like a[nother] case of self-interested, 
> irresponsible corporate neglect.  The energy cartel is just waiting for we 
> taxpayers to pay the costs of upgrading the capital facilities they need 
> for their profits.
>
> Hey!, no sense in corporations paying to build facilities they need, when 
> they can stampede Congress into using our taxes to pay for it! (Just 
> another example of corporate welfare.)
>
> --jim
>
>
> * -- I wrote "apparently-inadequate" after seeing the media-labeled "power 
> shortage" [NOT!] that was invented by Enron and the other members of the 
> energy monopoly within a month after the 2000 elections.
>
>
> ** -- For much more detail of the costs and trade-offs of the Bush 
> administration's "power problem", see http://www.costofwar.com/numbers.html .

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