Rolling Blackouts In Denver - Natural Gas Shortage

[Strelnikov_]

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060218005010&newsLang=en

Feb. 18, 2006--Xcel Energy is experiencing reduced natural gas supply into Colorado. This situation is affecting natural gas supplies along the Front Range. It is also affecting the generation of electricity. Xcel Energy is asking customers along the Front Range to reduce their usage of natural gas and electricity until the situation can be rectified.

The company is currently working to increase the amount of natural gas flowing into the state. Until the issue can be resolved, the company will curtail electric service to groups of customers in the Denver metro area on a 30-minute rotating basis. It is anticipated that this will last for the duration of the day.

http://www.denverpost.com/

[Kagemusha]

1. I'm surprised it took this long.

The natural gas supply situation has been deteriorating for quite some time...

[Roon]

2. My place got blacked out this morning

All my clocks were flashing x(

[serryjw]

3. Where do you live?

I live in Cap Hill with an OLD grid and constantly get blackouts, not from shortages but from squirrels!

[donheld]

5. Cap Hill here too. So far so good

It's too cold for this shit.

[serryjw]

7. Wash & 10th

The grid east of wash always has problems, but so far so good

[Roon]

11. I live over by the old elitches

38th and Tennyson

[otohara]

16. Me Too - This AM For Just a Couple Minutes

twice though - SE Denver

[politicat]

4. considering how cold it is and how suddenly cold it is...

Up until last week, we'd had a very mild winter. But it went from 40s and 50s during the day and 30s at night to -teens at night and single digits during the day.

And of course Xcel is going to use this as an excuse to hike rates again... more money in the pockets of their execs....

[Lori Price CLG]

6. LOL! No shortage of profits for Cheney's (secret) Energy Task Force

corpora-terrorists, though, is there?

Lori Price

[mom cat]

18. I'll bet those bastards are warm and have all the juice that they need.

[lovuian]

8. I agree but its a wake up call for all of us dependant on these

guys. People are really going to have to look for alternate fuels...

[Hawkeye-X]

9. Xcel was supposed to lower prices for Feb on natural gas..

Wonder if this is going to be their excuse to re-hike the prices?

[TomInTib]

10. So is this the benefit from all the shale exploration tax breaks?

[0rganism]

12. Hey, I have a great idea. Let's turn the USA into a 3rd world country!

First, we'll let corporations run amok, and dismantle all the labor regulations.

Then, we'll offer tax breaks only to the exceedingly wealthy, while damn near everyone else contributes a significant flat percentage of their salaries to a government bond fund.

Next, we'll up the spending to unseen levels, and get our debt level so high that we'll never be able to pay it back. But how could we avoid spending on public works projects that would actually benefit the country? Oh, very simple: we just spend it all on weapons that we'll never be able to use. It's amazing how fast a few nuclear subs and stealth bombers can deplete the treasury. Anything left over will go to pork projects and no-bid contracts for our wealthiest constituents. In return, they'll keep us locked into political dominance through campaign contributions -- the best investment a large corporation can make!

If anyone objects, just declare a few neverending wars on abstract nouns, and lock up the dissenters. Don't give them public trials, that could compromise "national security." We can't have that, if anyone is going to compromise national security, it's damn well gonna be US! We can help out there by gratuitously invading a few hostile nations, and making absurd comments about "crusades" and "evildoers" and "spreading democracy to the middle east." And hey, the more we piss off the Arabs, the more we can let our friends in the oil business price gouge for whatever reasons they like. Higher prices mean higher profits when you've got an oligopoly on your side.

Meanwhile, we'll just let our civilian transportation and power-grid infrastructure decay. We won't need it where we're headed, anyway. Come to think of it, affordable medicine and public education are just barriers to additional profits for our biggest campaign contributors. We can make a pretense of fiscal responsibility by defunding them whereever we can. Emergency services? Hey, those are great for PR, just make sure they show up too late to help out with a disaster. We can use them to get population used to being processed into mass detention facilities.

Gotta make sure that our unemployment statistics only reflect the most recent layoffs. That way, we can make up contra-factual bullshit about our economic growth and prosperity, and spew it over our pet news networks.

We'll have our country on its knees in no time!

[niallmac]

19. Your observations are so accurate I want to barf.

All of what you describe is right in front of our faces and yet no one has the time or energy to protest. We are work weary freedom proles.

[hunter]

20. Welcome to the future.

I guess that's one way to stop illegal immigration. How soon before U.S. citizens start sneaking into Mexico to pick strawberries?

[MissMarple]

13. Today! It's freezing outside.

Well, actually I over spoke. It's 8 degrees in Denver. Here in Colorado Springs, it's 13 but "feels like" 4. It's cold.

[rodeodance]

14. maybe is will wake up a few?

[cathandler]

15. This didn't use to happen when Xcel Energy was Public Service Co.

Xcel Energy has power outages all the time in the Denver area. The company spokespeople blame it on "mag chloride" which is used on the streets to melt the snow. I asked my brother, who's a power lineman for Westar (with it's own damned problems), what the hell was wrong with Xcel. He said that Xcel is so busy trying to make money for its CEO and shareholders, that it has laid off all of its power linemen (union members) and maintenance workers. Transformers don't go out because of "mag chloride;" they go out because they need a routine fuse replacement.

With this in mind, I don't believe a thing Xcel says.

Luckily, I live up in Conifer, where we have IREA.

[annabanana]

22. Welcome to DU cathandler!

You'll find lots of fellow "cathandlers" in the Lounge! My kid Sis is out there in Denver.. I'll have to ask her if she's been affected!

[laylah]

17. Any news about Ft. Collins?

[evworldeditor]

21. Welcome to the future

http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=article&storyid=957