Power Crunch Pitting Steel Vs. Aluminum

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread

Power Crunch Pitting Steel Vs. Aluminum

May 11, 2001 By Tracy Vedder

Birmingham Steel Feeling Power Crunch SEATTLE - Steel forged by Birmingham Steel built most of Seattle.

It's been around under one name or another since 1905. But the future of the almost 300 people who work there is in jeopardy, as the cost of electricity has skyrocketed.

General Manager Ray Lepp says over the past six months, electric bills from Seattle City Light have almost doubled -- running close to $2 million a month.

The Bonneville Power Administration is threatening to raise rates again this fall by as much as 250 percent.

The cost to Birmingham Steel would be catastrophic.

"We would have to shut down," Lepp said. "I mean that's the alternative that we have."

Everyone who works here is worried.

"Everybody's talking about it, not only here but at home as well," said Birmingham employee Steve Griswold. "I mean, it's affecting all of us."

"There's Nothing Fair About It'

However, BPA has a plan. It wants Northwest aluminum plants to shut down for two years to save power and keep costs down for other ratepayers -- like Birmingham Steel.

But the aluminum industry is fighting back with a major public relations campaign in hopes of forcing BPA to reconsider.

"We need to rather than pit each other against one another, start to look at how we get everybody through this," said John Wilson of the Northwest Power Alliance.

But Birmingham Steel, with only 300 jobs, worries it will lose the game to big aluminum.

"It's not fair that we would be affected or forced to shut down to support those jobs in other parts of the state," Lepp said. "There's nothing fair about it."

Nothing fair about a power crunch forcing communities to choose whose jobs are more important.

Both Birmingham Steel and the aluminum industry believe the issue will be decided within the next few weeks when BPA comes out with its projected rate increases.

Both industries fear they will be losers

http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=11054

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 12, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ