Disagreements Between Kids While Fishing … Another Problem to Be Solved by Us

Look at the power lines outside your house sometime.

Do you know who owns them? Do you know where the power is coming from? Do you know how the power is being generated?

You would be surprised.

Below is a satellite shot of Stillwater, Oklahoma:

Each one of the yellow marks is some type of electrical installation.

I went through the shot and marked 16 DIFFERENT INSTALLATIONS OWNED BY 5 DIFFERENT ENTITIES! And yes, I know this isn’t all of them..I know I’ve left out one company at the least.

So we have a minimum of 6 entities that can generate, transmit or distribute power, all interacting in some manner or another in an area of about 25 square miles.

I’m sure this is not an isolated condition for the nation as a whole.

Like any dysfunctional family, each entity has overt agreements, implied agreements, their likes and dislikes of other entities and normal habits. Corporate personalities if you will.

Here is a quick overview of the Stillwater Area:

Stillwater Power—Mostly electrical distribution—generates using natural gas boilers
and diesel generators.

OSU Physical Plant—On Campus generation and distribution- generates using boilers
that can be fired on natural gas or oil

GRDA—Generation and transmission—generates using coal and hydro

OG&E—Generation and transmission—generates using coal, natural gas and wind

KAMO—Generation, transmission and distribution—generates using coal, oil and
natural gas

CREC—Transmission and distribution—transmits power made with coal, gas and
hydro

This doesn't even begin to touch upon the agreements between the entities. (that would be another two pages!)

As you can see, there is no single answer as to how the power is generated, transmitted or distributed, which can be a major hindrance to the implementation of “The Pickens Plan”.

All of these companies fight to keep their old customers and to get new ones, and it ends up like a bunch of kids fighting after getting their lines tangled while fishing. When that happens, the courts, State Corporation Commission and the State Legislature have to step in to untie the knots and try to set things straight again.

Unfortunately the lawyers, judges, commission members and other politicians don’t have the knowledge or experience to solve the problems, so we end up with seemingly stupid rules and regulations that have to be abided by, forcing the utilities to jump through hoops and try not to step on the toes of others

But for us, it has some good points!

With so much competition and so many entities with a large variety of resources, we stand to have an innovative and dynamic implementation of the plan….WITH ONE BIG IF!

We won’t be able to have any of it implemented unless we can get them all to sit down at a table soon, discuss the issues and come up with an agreement to go for big brass ring.

This is where we as consumers come in!

We need to contact all of the electrical industry entities in our area, inform them of The Pickens Plan and encourage them to come up with a basic framework for implementing it.

If we don’t, the kids will get their fishing lines in a bundle and it’ll have to end up going to the courts and the corporation commission to get untangled, and we don’t have the time for that kind of bull.

The more problems we can eliminate outside of the legal and political arenas, the quicker we can get some real work done!