HGs World Commentary
Commentary by H.G. Listiak
Our Insatiable Appetite for Energy


Tuesday 08/19/2003

Welcome to my world, where the big blackout back east and the full blown over-priced gas crunch in our city, are reminders of how frail our energy supply really is and maybe just maybe how greedy our providers really are. The blackout was blamed on so many different things it's hard to know what's real, but if it was from only three lines in Ohio, it seems to me the grid system plan A is workable, but the backup plan B isn't. Both situations are laden with antiquated technology that should have been updated and upgraded when the technology became available. It wasn't despite the fact the money was there to do it. The gas crunch here in the city is another example. It's all blamed on an old overworked pipeline not near enough to handle today's demands. That explains a short-term shortage, but makes the soaring prices suspicious. I mean does it cost 30 to 50 cents more a gallon to truck it rather than pipe it in? I don't think so, and did the pipeline people think that old over-stressed line would last forever? Oh yes plan A was working but where was plan B?? No doubt the funds were available. A lot of the blame will go toward the E.P.A. and other environmental concerns and rightly so, but that's not the whole deal by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, the E.P.A pinches the industry hard but I think a couple of things are more of a factor. One is the providers' insatiable lust for profits. The other thing is that all of us consumers play right into their hands giving them a lot more business than their bargain basement technology can handle, and as long as the energy cash keeps flowing that isn't even going to slow down. Our appetite for energy is the real culprit. The more you feed the big dog the more he's gonna eat…. As I see it I'm H.G. Listiak.



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