Do you think anyone will notice if we just change the date?

Your Coalition Provisional Authority, November 4, 2003:

elec.JPG

Your Coalition Provisional Authority, January 2004:

The Ministry of Electricity requests money for parts and materials being procured through CPA Contracting on behalf of the Ministry of Electricity. Electricity infrastructural maintenance is widely considered a necessity to ensure that Iraq reaches its goal of 6,000 MW by 1, June 2004… [Emphasis added]

Your Coalition Provisional Authority, May 2004:

Goals: Improve generating capacity to 6000MW by July 1, 2004.

7-day average capacity for the first week of May: 3,740MW. The good news is that they can change the date again if needed.

 

Comments: 9

 
 
 

Cheney: Rumsfeld Best Ever!

Dick Cheney has entered the twilight zone in defending Don Rumsfeld: “Don Rumsfeld is the best secretary of defense the United States has ever had,” Cheney said in a statement from his office late on Saturday. The statement appeared to…

 
 

No Electricity For You!

Via Atrios, Blair at Sadly No notes some hijinks in the CPA’s electricity targets. I wrote a bit about this in last week’s column:In order to make those cell phones work, you need electricity. Page three reveals that not only…

 
 

just for point of reference, New York City uses 11,000 MW on a hot day. It’s hard to be impressed with 3,740 MW capacity for a country of 25 million.

 
 

Exactly, also consider that:

1. Summer heat in Iraq far exceeds anything ever seen in NYC, and

2. The old buildings and air conditioners in Iraq are far less efficient than the modern energy-efficient central cooling systems common in a place like NYC.

 
 

I have a friend in Iraq now. She called last night. The temp was 107 yesterday. I also noted the reports about upgrades at Abu Ghraib say AC will be installed by summer. They neglect to mention anything about last summer.

Basic human nature – from my experience – is that extreme heat makes my emotions more volatile. Electricity – and AC – sure could help a tense situation. Saddam rebuilt faster after the first Gulf War. Apparently Halliburton & Co just lack the skills necessary to do the job right.

 
social democrat
 

Electricity is critical for more than AC, like food refrigeration, lights, healthcare diagnostics. My phone operates without power, but how about a switching station?

At one stage, cutting out the French and Germans from reconstruction contracts impacted the ability to access spare parts for the Iraqi power grid, which was largely built by French & German companies, in favor of entirely new generating capacity to be supplied by U.S. companies, such as GE. Anybody have an update?

 
 

I can’t sing it from the music, but didn’t GE bug out of Iraq a little while ago?

 
 

Wow, don’t you guys think it’s foolish to compare a third-world city with New York? What did you expect, that the US would magically transform Iraq into a first-world high-income country like the US in just a year? After decades of decline and mismanagement by the Baathists? What ridiculous expectations.

Furthermore, electricity production is still above pre-war levels, this despite massive looting and regular attacks by terrorists on the electricity infrastructure (and oil infra, which supplies many generating stations).

So the situation is better, getting better, and would be better yet if it wasn’t for al-Qaeda, and yet you fools still blame everything on the US. Yeah, sure, send in the French, I’m sure they would have done a better job. ๐Ÿ˜€

 
 

As a missionary in Mexico (in an area meterologically and culturally similiar to most of Iraq), I can say with some certainty that Iraq’s power demands are nothing like NYC’s. Here, families don’t have electric stoves and driers, TV’s in every room, and refrigerated air to keep things at a constant 72 degrees. Here, families have a light bulb or two, a stereo and MAYBE a television built sometime during the Regan administration. They use propane to cook, and a clothesline to dry clothes. If they have a cooler, it’s an evaporative cooler that runs nothing but a blower and a small pump. So Kent, they most likely ARE more efficient than “modern energy-efficient central cooling systems common in a place like NYC.” (from an electrical standpoint- they do require water, which tends to be scarce in a desert). And there are the majority of families that just LIVE WITH THE HEAT like people did for a few thousand years before A/C came along. [GASP.]

Does Iraq NEED 6,000 MW? No. Hell no. Will they enjoy the luxuries brought in by the coalition . . . I’m sure. ๐Ÿ˜‰

As for GE’s role, my father works for GEIS&E (GE Industrial Services and Engineering), and the other regional engineer in his office just came back from Iraq after 6 months of working 16 hour days 7 days a week. I’d say they’re in it.

Trivia:
Q:Why are the streets of Paris lined with trees?

A:The German Army liked marching in the shade.

Maybe we should have let the French in . . . they’re definately energy efficient!!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

 
 

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