West Jordan Power Struggle Update
The situation in the West Jordan Power Struggle has a new comedic update. Construction on the new power plant has been stalled again. Nobody seems to remember that it pretty much guarantees power outages in the near future.
Council member Stuart Richardson, who lives closest to the proposed site out of all the members of the City Council, is the one who gave a quote in favor of dealing with the problem instead of complaining about it. Of all the members of the City Council, he's the most likely to lose money on his property value in the long run. Whether or not I agree with all of his political decisions, I like the fact that he supports fixing the problem, instead of whining about the solution.
posted by Anonymous @ 10:07 AM
3 Comments:
(Ill play devils advocate on this issue, just because it’s so fun)
The residents showed such a large outcry that the city council listened. Sounds good to me, yes maybe the residents do not have all answers but I severely doubt PacifiCorp does also. That plant makes very little economic sense in the only thing that I truly care about, the poles that are above ground (they’ll need to moved in 1-2 years anyways doubling that cost, and they are quite expensive to maintain and vulnerable to the elements). I was just tickled pink to hear it was stopped for the moment. Now I don’t necessarily blame PacifiCorp for wanting the power station there or not (personally I don’t even trust them enough to believe any data they, remember they solicit ate money from the government). For them not burying the line I blame the union, which stifles progress and causes more harm than good in the long run. So everyone has politicized this, the council, Pacificorp, union, voters.
I don't think you can play devil's advocate with my position any more, because watching everyone has reduced my opinion to a simple "These people aren't thinking ahead very well".
My complaint is based on the skewed incentives all around. The people living near the proposed power plant don't want to deal with the power plant now, but they'll have to deal with power outages later. Pacificorp wants to build this thing - not for the public good, but because in the near future they'll have to deal with an infrastructure that can't handle the demands placed on it. The City Council wants to stay in power. The residents living along the streets where the lines would be extended don't want to deal with power lines, but don't want their yards torn up, either.
And as a result of all of this, the long-term consequences will be miserable for everyone, especially PacifiCorp, whom everyone will blame for the power outages in spite of their efforts to put up a power station. (Not that they aren't at fault; I agree with you on how much they can be trusted, and they didn't try very hard to find alternatives last time around.)
so basically we agree, that everyone has skewed incentives. This is how it usually works everyone wants everything their way only, and are too rigid to compramise. It's always easier to do the best for yourself at all costs since negotiating with those who have issue does not happen. What i hope comes out of this is Pacificorp going to those who it will affect the most instead of trying to sneak it through and go over the residents heads. If pacificorp worked with the residents instead of solely with the city council this whole issue may better be solved. And now that it has been stopped for the moment by the residents i do hope Pacificorp will now negotiate better.
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