Deregulation Destroyed Power Grid

Why is the cause of the massive U.S./Canada power outage such a big mystery? Hmm. How about we follow the money. Bush and Cheney deregulated energy markets, which allowed Enron to go nuts, destroy the life savings of thousands of investors, and drive the state of California into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, energy companies around the U.S. were busy cutting workers, foregoing maintenance of plants and infrastructure, and basically milking every last dime they could out of the system while putting as little as possible back into it. It's the old profit maximization thing that capitalism is so good at, and profits at electric companies have been getting pretty maximized.

So now the grid goes down and everyone is asking why. The people who know why are the power company executives who have laid off maintenance workers and ordered managers to cut costs in order to maximize profits. Those execs know that the grid went down because they ran into into the ground so they could make more money. But of course, they can't just say, "Well, we basically destroyed the grid in the last couple of years to boost our bottom lines, so this was bound to happen." Instead they say, "Um, we're going to study the matter, but what we do know is more deregulation would be a good thing!"

Don't believe me? Read this story from 2001 [link via Buzzflash]. It recounts what management and labor said about energy deregulation almost two years ago. Management (and Bush/Cheney) said:

Companies like Chicago-based Midwest Generation, a unit of Edison International, are seeking to negotiate new labor contracts that boost productivity and make plants more cost efficient to make electricity at more competitive prices, said Doug McFarlan, a spokesman for Midwest.

Labor said:

The [International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union], which represents about 220,000 utility employees in the United States and Canada, warns that in addition to breakdowns at plants and transmission grids, deregulation leads to smaller, less-experienced workforces as utilities sell their plants to the independent, unregulated power companies.

Now just ask yourself: Who was right? And who should we listen to as the debate over how to "modernize the grid" heats up?

Posted 12:41 PM | Comments (1) | general politics

Countdown Lowdown

Law school starts Monday with three days of orientation, and to get things going the Dean has dutifully posted a "welcome letter" (link may require password) to the GW website to stroke the egos of the school and its incoming students:

This year the Law School received close to 12,000 applications for our class of 500 students. One out of every seven people who applied to a law school in the U.S. applied to GW. From that, we have drawn an exceptional class, one of the very best in our history.

I guess we should feel pretty good about that, and I guess I do. But really, as usual around here, ambivalence reigns. I'm excited to get started and the pre-big-new-thing jitters have begun, but I'm also sad to leave the life of leisure I've enjoyed all summer. Another way to put that is my ass has gotten lazy and the start of school means I have to get off of it and doing something with my life. Ah well, all good things do come to an end, don't they?

Question for others familiar with law schools for whatever reason: Is it common for schools to withhold the orientation schedule until orientation begins? All GW has told us is that we should show up at 9 a.m. Monday and that orientation will last three days. That's great and everything, but it's not very helpful for people who have things like kids, jobs, or any other obligations at all. I'm a big lazy bum so I don't have much happening, but I was going to see the dentist next week and can't really make an appointment because I don't know what my schedule will be. Of course, I have no clue about my class schedule, either, so planning anything after Monday is basically impossible. The reason I wonder if this is common is that it sends a message that your life is over when law school starts, or at least that your time belongs to the law school and is no longer within your control. "All your time are belong to us," GW seems to be saying. Do all law schools take this kind of approach to their incoming classes?

Maybe I'm more sensitive to this because GW's computer policy strikes me as imperious, as well, so I fear I'm seeing a trend. I guess I'll find out soon enough....

Posted 07:33 AM | Comments (7) | law school

Congratulations, Liable!

Hooray for Elle over at liable for her successful transition from Blogger to Movable Type. Not only does the new and improved liable feature all the benefits of MT (robust and reliable comments, rss feeds for those who use aggregators, etc.), it's also been completely redesigned for your reading pleasure, and it now resides at a cool new domain: curiousgirl.org. Don't forget to update your bookmarks so you won't miss any of the fun of following Elle's progress through the wilderness of law school.

Posted 07:06 AM | meta-blogging