So California has an energy shortage. California didn’t build a new power plant for 27 years while their population grew by 16 million people. Conservation is wonderful, but how much conservation is required to provide power for 16 million additional people? California buys power from eight U.S. states plus Mexico and Canada. The Mexican power plants are oil-fired turbines and produce enormous amounts of pollution. One of the Canadian sources is the BC Hydro Burrard Thermal gas-fired plant. Burrard Thermal is operating at full capacity to provide over-priced power for California.
Washington’s population increased by 21 percent between 1990 and 2000. We have an opportunity to construct a new, clean power plant in Sumas. This gas-fired turbine is designed to be much cleaner than Burrard Thermal. Our governor should approve construction of the Sumas Energy 2 plant. Incidentally, American price controls won’t control prices of Mexican and Canadian power, will they?
There are only two solutions for an energy shortage – restrict population growth along with conservation, or build new power plants. We’re not going to prevent anyone from coming here for a better life. Let’s start building now before our population doubles.
Everett
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