Exporting Power or Not

More fights over sending electric power to California. I commented on this earlier.

More Arizona electricity could be headed to Southern California after the U.S. Department of Energy denied requests Thursday to reconsider its designation of a power transmission corridor between Arizona and California...

Proponents of the designation said additional high voltage power lines are needed in the corridors to supply more electricity to areas of high demand in Southern California and the East Coast...

Bill Mundell, another member of the commission said shipping more Arizona-produced power to California will increase electricity prices for Arizonans, consume Arizona water and other resources for the benefit of California and have an impact on the reliability of electricity to Arizona.

Michael Giberson over at Knowledge Problem points out the conflicting goals of the Governor and the Corporation Commission.

I began to wonder: If they built all that solar power, became a solar Persian Gulf and all that, won't they have to build some power lines into other states to sell that power.

Isn't Governor Napolitano's grand solar dream more or less a goal of becoming what one Arizona Corporation Commissioner derisively referred to as "an energy farm for California" and other states?

It's going to be interesting. So, should Arizona produce and export electricity and reap the benefits of economic growth, or should we restrict exports and provide consumers with lower electric rates.

Also, lest we forget that California is Arizona's "gasoline farm"...

A train derailment in Southern California prompted a three-day shutdown this week of Kinder Morgan's western pipeline that delivers gasoline from Los Angeles-area refineries to metro Phoenix.