Benchmarks

Vice President Dick Cheney has suggested that the United States needs to build one new power plant per week for the next 20 years. So, our power supply situation must be pretty dire, right? Well, not so fast. A new study from RDI Consulting concludes that the supply side has reacted to perceived shortages-and may have overreacted.

The study, called "Booms & Busts 2001" an update to 2000's "Identifying Booms & Busts", reveals that the United States was well on its way to meeting the vice president's goal before the Bush administration announced its energy policy. According to NEWGen, over 450,000 MW of new capacity has been proposed since 1999 and more than 90 percent of those capacity additions stand ready to move forward nationwide. Over 60 percent of proposed projects are scheduled to enter the market by the summer of 2003, and 87 percent by 2005.