CA Energy Crisis
After dodging power outages for many months, California experienced its first power outage on January 17th, being the first time since World War II when state officials ordered blackouts to protect the coast from the Japanese. The blackouts stretched from Central California to 500 miles north at the Organ border, leaving 657,000 homes and businesses without electricity for several hours at a time. The blackouts continued left the affected areas in a state of chaos along with billions of dollars lost in sales, productivity, and wages. Many blame the power shortages on the 1996 deregulation which had promised to lower the consumer’s power bills by providing a competitive market, ironically wholesale prices later skyrocketed to over $300 per megawatt in December of 2000. After the opening of five power plants earlier this summer, the power crisis has pretty much diminished, but later last year and earlier this year businesses in Silicon Valley were questioning weather or not they should stay in California and risk losing millions more. Companies who have an “interruptible” energy source contract with the energy companies, which means in exchange for cut-rate electricity they would have their power cut off during an electrici
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Power Exchange, Central California, George Bush, Exchange Consumers, Silicon Valley, Dianne Feinstein, System Operator, Ironically Californias, Mother Nature, Dallas Texas, power plants, power exchange, market power, stay california, california risk losing, silicon valley, questioning weather, acting sooner, weather stay, questioning weather stay, california risk, pesto sauce price, wholesale prices, stay california risk, weather stay california,
Approximate Word count = 1261
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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