Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Power Crunch

We are being asked to conserve power and shut off air conditioning, while (as a columnist put it today, "the Keystone Kops adventure of a trucking a giant transformer") a surplus transformer  makes its way to the rescue. The transformer went from Tacoma, WA. to Long Beach, CA. via barge and is traveling to Arizona by truck, in a caravan estimated to go 3-6 mph. In order to avoid causing traffic problems, the Keystone Kops hired to haul it went on some backroads.  So far, it has fallen off the truck, or gotten stuck on a steep, curvy road twice, stopping traffic in Victorville and Twenty-nine Palms. Why did they not take it on I-10, where every other truck in the West travels, and people are accustomed to driving around slow moving trucks.? Yesterday, the transformer traveled 1mph. from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. before another incident delayed it. Perhaps they are trying to get it here for next summer. Meanwhile, we are warm and encouraged to help elect some new members of the Corporation Commission, charged with utility oversight.