Some Theories on Our Power Fix

* Re “Schoolkids in the Dark, Horses in Light,” (Jan. 20):

So the state is seeking ways to relieve schools of soaring energy costs by keeping them cold and dim. Other students are sent home early because costs have depleted their annual energy budgets. This when many schools are attempting to increase the amount of instruction time because of serious overcrowding.

The crisis threatens to spill over into the gasoline and jet fuel distribution system, threatening to bring a grinding halt to transportation statewide. This on top of hospital emergency rooms closing down statewide because of losses due to the inundation of uninsured patients.

Everyone knows the symptom but nobody wants to addresses the cause, and that is massive immigration, both legal and illegal, that has flooded California over the last three decades.

That immigration has finally and seriously affected our standard of living. What California is witnessing is its evolution into the nation’s first Third World state.

JOSEPH LEA

Mission Viejo

* With a bit more effort from Gov. Davis, we should be able to clear up the scam that the power companies are trying to pull on us. I predict the following scenario: The companies will plead that more money is needed in order to carry on, even though we give them the first increase they asked for. They admit that this increase is only a short-term fix. In order to impress us with their need, they will have blackouts to prove just how bad things can get. Bankruptcy is the threat!

Good, so why not let them go bankrupt and let the state buy all of their assets for 20 cents on the dollar, hire some of the qualified crews to continue the operation after a short reorganization and let the state become the owner just as the City of Los Angeles owns its power source. Just get rid of the old CEOs and put some other good people in to replace them.

LES SNYDER

Mission Viejo

* Re the article on AES Corp. of Jan. 24:

AES Corp. bought the Huntington Beach Edison plant and now is trying to get legislation passed to allow it to bring on line two 50-year-old mothballed generators. There is a study by Stanley Grant of UC Irvine that says the ocean water heated by the plant from the existing generators may be bringing back the bacteria from the sewage the Orange County Sanitation District dumps in the ocean.

This legislation, if passed, would double the amount of water heated by the generators in the ocean and might just double the bacteria brought back to the beaches.

This AES-crafted legislation would allow the refurbishing project to begin immediately, without permits. Edison sold the plant to AES; the parent company of Edison should bail them out because they have reaped millions of dollars from the deregulation and have generators of their own.

EILEEN MURPHY

Huntington Beach