No on Three
As an eighteen-year-old senior in high school, I have a lot more responsibility coming my way. I’ll be going to college, moving out of my parent’s house, and paying my own bills. Because of that, I ask you to vote no on question three in this year’s upcoming election.
In case you don’t know that the question is about, basically if it is passed, then NV Energy would no longer be the only energy provider in Nevada, ending its monopoly. This bill being passed would not be good for Nevada.
A lot of complaints that have been geared towards NV energy in the past was that they didn’t have any clean energy sources like wind or solar power options for customers. Because of those complaints, the company decided to actually do something about it and is currently working on clean and renewable energy projects. According to Julia Pyper, a senior editor at Greentech Media, that project should be done by 2023 with the current plan doubled in quantity of clean energy sources.
If question three were passed, each and every one of those projects would be put to a stop. NV Energy would have to sell off a majority of its power plants due to new companies coming in. They would be so caught up with the change that the projects would be delayed, or possibly not even happen. Why? Because if question three passes, NV Energy might not even stay in Nevada.
Get Kathryn Bravo’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
NV Energy is owned by an even bigger company, which is owned by Warren Buffett. If question three passes, he will not keep NV energy in Nevada because there would basically be nothing here for them. They’ll already have to sell off their plants, and smaller companies are coming in, so it looks like Nevada won’t even need them anymore.
Even if NV Energy were to stay if the question passes, Nevada would still be in a lot of trouble. One of the arguments for people who support question three is that the new companies coming in will also bring in more jobs for Nevada citizens. If you think about it, it actually won’t. Going back to the power plants NV Energy will have to sell, how do you think those plants are run? Employees. Who is going to be the most affected when those plants are sold? Employees.
The employees are most likely going to be let go when the plants are sold, and the employees at the company itself are also probably going to be let go. NV energy will lose so much money that they won’t be able to pay the estimated 2500 employees they once were able to. But wait, new companies are coming in, won’t they bring more jobs? Theoretically yes, but those companies are coming from California, and what are Californian companies most likely to bring with them? Californian workers. So not only will Nevadan workers be unemployed for a long time, but they will have to compete with Californians when any new jobs even become available.
Now, it’s time for the burning argument. Many believe that with more power companies there will be more competition between them, thus making the price of energy go down. And while in some point in time that may be true, in this case it is not. If question three passes, new companies aren’t going to be competing for your service the very next day. Change on a scale of this size can take months, maybe even a few years.
First NV energy will have to sell their plants, make adjustments to their company as a whole, and let go hundreds of workers. Then the new companies will actually have to come and establish themselves as a new, functioning company in Nevada. I don’t know if you’ve ever started a business, but it doesn’t happen overnight. During that gap of time when everything is changing, the demand for energy will go up because there’s not enough people to supply it, and the prices will go up as well.
Even after the dust settles and the companies figure themselves out, things still might not be good. California has had rolling blackouts for years. The companies might not be that great, prices might not go down at all. It’ll take years to figure out if we like deregulation or not, and another four years on top of it to reverse it in whichever election allows us to. Vote no on three, unless you like chaos and incoordination.
