Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Grumpy Old Men

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by

Peter Galuszka
in , , , , , , , , , ,

By Peter Galuszka

Here I was, sitting in a strip mall Panera, waiting for the next electric socket to open up.

It was the aftermath of Hurricane Irene and I had been without electricity since 4:35 p.m. Saturday. I have a home office, so having no power can be deadly. Plenty of other people had the same problem, so we all hightailed it to Panera to borrow their power and local wifi so we could be in business (sort of).

It was there that I pondered the government role in disasters. Let’s see. Dominion (free market-private) was knocked out by a storm not as bad as Isabelle in 2003. So I had  no power. I went to Lowe’s (free market-private) to get some 6 volt batteries so my camp light would work at night. But Lowe’s was sold out. I had planned to go to the Chesterfield Public Library (public) to use their wifi but they were closed and if I recall budget cuts would keep them closed for a little while. So, I was at Panera (free market-private) waiting in line like the old USSR just so I could see if American Airlines (free-market-private) was flying that day so I could make it to Texas for a long-awaited business appointment.

My turn finally came. Just for fun, I tripped over to Bacon’s Rebellion to see what the boys were up to. I wish I hadn’t.

There’s Ole Norm Leahy giving us a completely pointless history lesson on what Grover Cleveland had to say about the federal government helping out in disasters. Essentially, not their problem, you should be on your own, relying on the magic of the free market.

Next there’s James A. Bacon quoting some right wing outfit saying that the first Bush declared disasters areas 43 times, then Clinton more, then W’ more,  then Obama (the most). I spent a few long moments watching the steam float from my coffee wondering what the hell Bacon’s point was. Then his fuzzy math became obvious: “43+89+130+340 = Obama’s a socialist!”

Considering all the hassle I had had that day because of the non-functioning of PRIVATE, FOR-PROFIT entities, I didn’t get just annoyed. I got pissed. Actually, the federal government DID work in Irene.

At least American Airlines worked and I got to Texas. The next day, work concluded, I had a couple of hours to kill. So I turned my shiny yellow Camaro I had rented and headed west through the scrappy, live oak-saturated and ultra-dry Hill Country to visit the LBJ ranch. Texas has been in the middle of and intense drought. Local columnists love to point out how conservatives still insist that it has absolutely nothing to do with humans and global warming.

LBJ’s first fight was trying to get the Hill Country electrified. This was back in the day that some sort of public or semi-public effort or cooperative was necessary in remote and poor areas that for-profit firms would not touch. Has to do the market, you see. And then I went through all of the exhibits about LBJ — Civil Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Voting Rights Act. If Obama’s a socialist, then Johnson was Vladimir Lenin.

Anyway, I made it home the next day. And guess what? Still no electricity (Dominion–free market-private).

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Comments

13 responses to “Grumpy Old Men”

  1. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    Dominion = free market?

    What were you smoking at that Panera?

    Dominion is a “practical monopoly” sanctioned by the government. In Virginia, its rates are set by the state and the state guarantees a profit on any new investment in generating plant.

    Dominion should be made into a government entity. Then, their executives would get the state employee salaries that become a monopoly.

  2. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    Groveton,
    Last time I checked, Dominion was a publicly-traded firm with a stock sticker and a board of directors — in other words, a private firm. True, some of its rates and nukes are regulated, but so what?

    PG

  3. James A. Bacon Avatar
    James A. Bacon

    The oldest trick in the book — hold private companies up to an impossible standard of performance. What? Your electricity isn’t back on in 48 hours? Blame the power company! Market failure!! What Peter ignores is that risks are omnipresent in the economy. Power companies can’t banish risk (either can the government), but they actually do a pretty good job of managing risk.

    The alternative to current arrangements would be to maintain a larger staff of linemen to respond during emergency outages. That would cost more money, and a regulated utility would be entitled to higher rates. Of course, higher rates would give Peter an excuse to bash the power companies for… higher rates.

    Meanwhile, let’s look at government’s track record for a second… Encourage beach-front development in hurricane zones with subsidized insurance. Now there’s a great idea! When government assumes an ever-increasing responsibility for compensating people for disasters, they are more likely to locate houses and vacation homes on earthquake fault zones, in fire-prone areas, in the path of hurricanes, in flood zones, without proper insurance. Just what we need. People are stupid enough already. We really don’t need to subsidize stupidity.

  4. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    My Dear Mr. Bacon,
    I agree that insurance subsidies are whacky, but it wasn’t as if some federal bureaucrat over on H Street thought them up by herself. No. It was the construction and real estate and tourism industry that came up with the idea. That’s right Jungle Jim — private business.

    Does that make them rent-seekers?

    PG

  5. TMT Avatar
    TMT

    Dominion does a rather poor job of tree trimming, IMO. I watch a crew of contractors restore a line that delivers power to my home. Looking above the line for several blocks, I could see branches hanging above the line. I said to the contractors “These trees have not been trimmed properly.” “Got that right” was the response. There’s little that can be done to prevent trees from falling onto power lines, unless they are clearly dead, dying or partially uprooted. But there is no excuse for most branches breaking and hitting power lines. Tree trimming is part of the job of being a utility. Dominion doesn’t do a good job with this obligation. Most likely Peter was a victim of Dominion not taking care of its tree trimming duty. I don’t blame him for being PO’d.

  6. TMT Avatar
    TMT

    Dominion does a rather poor job of tree trimming, IMO. I watch a crew of contractors restore a line that delivers power to my home. Looking above the line for several blocks, I could see branches hanging above the line. I said to the contractors “These trees have not been trimmed properly.” “Got that right” was the response. There’s little that can be done to prevent trees from falling onto power lines, unless they are clearly dead, dying or partially uprooted. But there is no excuse for most branches breaking and hitting power lines. Tree trimming is part of the job of being a utility. Dominion doesn’t do a good job with this obligation. Most likely Peter was a victim of Dominion not taking care of its tree trimming duty. I don’t blame him for being PO’d.

  7. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    let me take a slightly different track here… Most folks who live in single family homes have the option of running a backup generator.

    In fact, they could have solar panels and geothermal heat pumps plus a natural gas or propane generator.

    Just a propane generator would cost likely cost you $50 a day to power your home. (not including the up-front costs to install)..

    Dominion does it for 1/3 or less than that but you do get these nasty outages primary as TMT points out because of trees – which people WANT. Few people who live on tree-lined streets would agree to have the trees whacked down in return for more reliable power….

    so my point? you CAN power your own home… and not complain about Dominion if you really want to (unless you live in a multi-family structure).

    Oh.. and in Virginia (and Maryland) there are these critters called consumer-owned electric cooperatives… and guess what – they are usually MORE EXPENSIVE than Dominion – in part because they are buying power rather than generating it and on peak demand periods.. they are paying for natural gas generated electricity – and passing that cost on to you.

    so you could have 24/7 power… for a mere 5K + 50 bucks a day….

    🙂

  8. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    Larry,
    I have thought many times of getting some kind of generator, especially since i live out in the country a ways and there are plenty of trees.

    My point, which I guess didn’t come off with enough strength, is that why do the Baconauts have to immediately weigh in with some kind of libertarian, limited government dogma at the first flicker of anything. They damn the government and laud the private firms yet the latter are the ones having the problems. Here I am, annoyed and tired at Panera trying to juice up my laptop for some INternet work and I have to read about what Grover Cleveland thinks about federal disaster bailouts. Who the hell cares?

    PG

  9. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    Peter – I’m ashamed to admit it but I pay more for cable most months than electric…. I wish Va was as good as sitting on the cable companies rates as they were the electric company!

    Oh – and I got a 30-day no one is home and the thermostat is set at 84 degs bill …. $118…. and the cable bill for no one home looking at it was the same awful price ….

    On the generator… propane is about $3 a gallon.. and in a 24 hr outage – most homes would use on the order of a gallon every two hours or so…

    if one decided to not pay those private sector electricity providers and instead do your own…. you’d pay 3 times as much for electricity…..

    Now supposedly we are awash in natural gas so we’ll see how much price comes down….

  10. RBV Avatar
    RBV

    I am served by a COOP and it sucks. Rates are higher and service is worse. The billing office closes at 4:30 in the afternoon and it’s virtually impossible to get a live person on the phone.

    They also charge a $5.00 convenience fee for paying your bill online. I know it costs them money to accept credit cards and I know for damn sure it’s not even close to five bucks…more like fifteen cents per transaction…..at least that’s what it costs my business to accept online payments.

    But when you don’t have any competition, I guess that’s the best you can expect.

  11. Norm Leahy Avatar
    Norm Leahy

    That I have so irritated Peter with my pointless post and needless reference to Grover Cleveland delights me no end.

    And as someone who is also still without power from Dominion, but does have some power from the generator in the yard, I can say that the market has provided me with an alternative. If anything, Dominion’s insistence on keeping its power lines above ground and exposed to the wind, snow and occasionally suicidal squirrel has made me seriously consider leaving the company’s service entirely and blanketing my roof with solar panels.

  12. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    Ok, Norm,
    So who’s next? Harding? Andrew Jackson? Coolidge. Maybe Hoover (good idea, actually)..
    peter Galuszka

  13. Norm Leahy Avatar
    Norm Leahy

    I’m thinking John Tyler…

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