WHERE WAS THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY?
In any reasonable world the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) would be monitoring the developments in the areas of energy supply and demand throughout the country and would be in the forefront of calling for corrective actions any time that projections showed that demand was growing faster than supplies. As far as one can tell, the California crisis seems to have caught the DOE by surprise. OUTLOOK FOR BRINGING SUPPLY UP TO MEETING DEMAND The California shortage of electrical energy will not be “solved” until there is, within California, or within the control of the California PUC, electric generating capacity of about 20% greater than the expected peak demand in California. This will undoubtedly require the construction of several gigawatts of electric generating capacity at a cost of several billion dollars. (A gigawatt of electric generating capacity will cost about a billion dollars and will serve about a million people) With zero population growth, the planning, financing, and const
