[svlug] No way

[Walter Reed]

On Thu, Feb 08, 2001 at 11:15:43PM -0800, Todd Lyons wrote:
> Somebody please tell me that Time magazine screwed the pooch when they
> printed this:
> 
> "The poster child for the frustrations that power companies face is the
> proposed 600 Megawatt Coyote Valley generator that Calpine Corp. wants to
> build in San Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley.  The facility would light
> 600,000 homes in a region that experienced blackouts last week, but the San
> Jose City Council vetoed the project in November, even though groups ranging
> from the Sierra Club to the NAACP supported it.  But the plant faced
> opposition from Cisco Systems, the leading producer of high-speed
> fiber-optic networks, which happens to be San Jose's largest employer. 
> Cisco argued that the power plant would be an eyesore next to an industrial
> park that the company plans to build for 20,000 employees."

This is yet another case of the "not in my back yard" syndrome. The city
council vetoed it because cisco (the company that pays no income tax) has them
in their back pocket. Of Course they city council will oppose something when a
very large company says "we'll add 20,000 jobs to the local economy if you veto
this powerplant, otherwise we will expand elsewhere." There were also the
environmental protesters, but they have little long term impact, yet they
do tent to slow things down and make EVERYTHING more expensive. This just means
that we all have to pay more taxes and get less benefit.

All politicians are corrupt, it's just a matter of degree. Corporations will
exploit this to the greatest extent possible. Corporations are profit driven,
and VERY selfish in all aspects. This is not new news.