Dr. Kenneth Lim of the BAAQMD was our guest speaker at the Chapter's March 29, 2001 South Bay meeting in Mountain View. Dr. Lim identified some of the more influential factors that have exacerbated the current energy crisis. These factors include electric utility industry restructuring and deregulation, the rising demand for reliable power, and the aging infrastructure for electric generation and transmission. The restructuring and deregulation was a very quick transition between structured management and open market operation of the industry, causing in part the imbalanced response to peak demand. Fossil fueled generating facilities were required to be sold; new owners leveraged their control over power generation to raise prices. System restructuring created the Independent System Operator, which had not acquired the knowledge needed for smooth distribution of power.

These events in restructuring and deregulation coincided with a higher-than-expected rise in demand for power and with an aging infrastructure for the generation, transmission and distribution that had been virtually ignored for decades. Energy conservation and energy efficiency measures, and relatively clean new power generation are part of the solution to the electricity shortage in the Bay Area. However, the widespread use of diesel engines for additional power generation can lead to significant adverse local health impacts due to the emission of fine particulate matter, declared as a toxic air contaminant by the state of California. This effect can be compounded by the need to press into service the older, dirtier plants more often and for longer periods to meet increasing peak demands.

Dr. Lim serves as the District staff liaison to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), California Energy Commission (CEC), California Air Pollution Control Officers Association (CAPCOA), the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and the Governor's Clean Energy Green Team on power plant permitting and related California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) issues. The Chapter thanks Dr. Lim for sharing some of his expertise with the members at the dinner meeting.