Meanwhile, an unseasonably sunny, cold fall has made for glorious sunrises but weakened the region's power-rich rivers. Northwesterners dodged brownouts last week when a cold snap proved shorter and less severe than predicted. Beyond that, blame California. The Golden State's move to deregulate is regarded by critics as dangerous folly. While federal officials rush to the aid of California, other states on the West Coast grid are whiplashed by the whims of profiteering and hoarding that, in some cases, have run up raw power prices 10,000 percent.
Nature compounds the chaos.
California's dry, hot summer overtaxed the generating system there, leaving it unable to provide the usual surplus it sells to the Northwest come winter. Now, with the Northwest strapped to keep its own residents warm, national Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has ordered utilities to send any extra to California to alleviate blackouts. The grid could withstand a problem or two. But a series of exacerbating events has forced shortages, and brought some utilities to the edge of panic, prompting them to pass along massive rate increases to remain solvent. So far, the problems are tame compared with the dark days of the 1970s, when conservation was in its infancy and the nation's oil supplies were threatened by Middle East turmoil.