Re: [Amc-list] Hydrogen power (any complaints?)

[adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Sandwich Maker)]

" From: Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>
" 
" I always wondered why electricity was so (comparatively) cheap in
" South Carolina. Well, the main producer is the state! Several
" dams and at least two nuclear power plants are all owned and run
" by the state. Local Co-ops handle local distribution and service,
" but all buy from the state and prices they charge are state
" regulated. CA deregulated some years ago with disastrous results!

i've heard that auto insurance in bc is similarly inexpensive and
excellent.  by comparison with the free market - who owns the largest
skyscrapers in any american city?  insurance companies who built them
with -our- money, instead of paying back when we make claims.  hey,
it's just business...

" My dad and older brother were in big construction and worked at
" one of the nuclear plants when it was being built in the late 70s
" while I was still in high school. A big problem was changes in
" design requirements from the federal government always coming
" down that were retroactive. The company would build something,
" get it inspected, start on the next section of the project, then
" get word down that the art already inspected and approved had a
" design change that must be done because someone changed their
" minds about how it should be. Previous work had to be modified
" and sometimes removed completely and re-accomplished. IIRC they
" were 2-3 years and many millions over projections when it was
" finally declared done and ready for operation. That's why even
" publicly held utilities aren't real enthusiastic about nuclear
" power plants. The French get most of their electric power from
" nuclear sources, so they are one-up on us there!

and another of the fallouts [if you'll pardon the expression] is that
construction costs are so high because of this, nobody will risk
building a new and better design, simply because it's different and
who knows what the regulatory environment would be.

" Necessities simply need to be regulated by the government when
" industry proves it can't properly regulate itself. There's enough
" competition in markets like food that there seems to be no need
" for regulation. The oil market is apparently small enough for the
" "good ol' boys" to stick together and stick it to us. Regulation
" is the only way to keep prices from fluctuating as wildly as they
" have been. Even semi-regulation would be better than none! By
" that I mean something like a law preventing more than a certain
" percentage price hike in the wake of a natural disaster. Oil
" companies showed their true colors in the wake of hurricane
" Katrina. It takes one heartless SOB to hike prices way up when
" most of the country is in shock from a natural disaster like
" that. There was no fuel down there for a while, so it wasn't like
" more was being used, and people that literally lost nearly
" everything they had needed gas to power generators and such just
" to survive. Then to post record profits for the quarter?? They
" are quick to raise prices but very slow to lower them back.
" Wouldn't have been so bad had they dropped nearly as fast once
" the extent of the damage to production facilities and gulf rigs
" were evaluated (minimal -- some were total losses, but overall
" damage was light).

food - not as much competition as you might think, when adm controls
9/10 of the corn crop.  remember how milk and cheese long figured
prominently in the govt's healthy diet promotion?  that was the result
of the dairy lobby.  it must've sounded smart to make the dept of
agriculture self-funding by fees from agricultural industries, but the
effect was it became sensitive to pressures from those same
industries.

the oil market isn't small, it's huge - but centralized beyond all
reason into a tiny cabal of capitalist imperialist corporations.

on these arguments, not only insurance but also health care -should-
be publicly run or at least not-for-profit.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       and think what none thought
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