You tell them and you tell them!
The coal industry has been saying this for years.
The public is sometimes like a kid they have to learn the hard way I reckon.


New study warns nation facing electricity crisis
without quick action by Congress, states
A report released last week by the North
American Electric Reliability Council


(NERC) warned that the reliability of
the nation’s electricity grid will decrease
dramatically without immediate federal
and state action targeted at ensuring
adequate supplies are available to meet
an expected massive surge in electricity
demand.
In its first assessment of the electricity grid
since being established as the country’s
independent electric reliability overseer,
NERC cautioned that U.S. electricity
demand is set to spike 19 percent over the
next 10 years, while projecting only a 6
percent increase in supply and a 7 percent
increase in transmission lines, raising the
specter of widespread power shortages
and blackouts.
NERC’s 2006 Long Term Reliability
Assessment Report analyzes the adequacy
of the North American electricity supply
and transmission system through 2015
and includes 22 recommendations aimed
at rectifying generation, transmission,
fuel supply, and delivery and demand
response problems identified in the
report. Previously, NERC existed as a
voluntary industry organization but took
on the role of an independent Electric
Reliability Organization as mandated by
the Energy Policy Act of 2005. NERC’s
report projected that capacity margins
are expected to drop below minimum
target levels in the mid-Atlantic region,
the Midwest, New England, the Rocky
Mountain area and Texas, within the
next two to three years. The report
warned that other parts of the Northeast,
Southwest and Western U.S. will also fall
below minimum capacity levels before
2015.
“Our economy and quality of life are
more reliant on electricity ever y day,
yet the operation and planning for a
reliable and adequate electricity system
is becoming increasingly difficult,”
NERC President and CEO Rick Sergel
said in an Oct. 16 statement. These
convergent trends require industry and
government to work together to adopt a

longer-term, more coordinated planning
strategy. This report is intended to
provide a factual basis for implementing
such a strategy,” he said.
The report concluded that coal and gasfired
generating capacity additions will
account for all of the electricity resource
additions between now and 2015 and
emphasized the need to strengthen coal
and gas delivery infrastructures. NERC
also said firming up gas supply and
deliver y contracts would help reduce
the potential for electricity shortages
due to fuel disruptions. Elsewhere, the
report called for the addition of power
generation facilities; new and upgraded
transmission facilities; more “demandside”
measures such as business and
consumer energy-efficiency programs;
and efforts to address the electric
industry’s aging workforce.
“A reliable and adequate electricity
system depends on a combination of
adequate generation and transmission,
diversified fuel sources, energy efficiency,
demand response, and other industrycustomer
programs,” said Sergel. “This
will require a concerted and cooperative
effort by industr y, government, and
customers.”
A copy of NERC ’s report can be
accessed at:

ftp://www.nerc.com/pub/sys/
all_updl/docs/pubs/LTRA2006.pdf.


ftp://www.nerc.com