Letter to the Editor
-- Semiconductor International, 6/1/2001
Despite California's recent regimen of freezing in the dark and the prospect of sweltering in the dark this summer, the San Jose Mercury News continues to proclaim the virtues of the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty. Two such editorials have appeared on the other side of the country, in the Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Times Leader.The Kyoto Protocol requires industrialized nations like the United States (but not developing nations) to curb their greenhouse gas emissions. This would be achieved, for example, by slapping hefty "carbon taxes" on coal, oil and natural gas, making energy even more expensive nationwide and aggravating California's existing problems. An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal said this treaty would raise gasoline prices 50 cents and cut the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate by half.
In San Jose, meanwhile, "voters rejected a new power facility because it offended their aesthetic sensibilities'" ("California Energy Problems Still Continue as More Companies Do Less With Less,'" Engineering Times, March 2001, www.nspe.org/pracdiv/63-01blackouts.asp). Higher energy costs, rolling blackouts and lost production time are encouraging California's employers to leave the state. This is a microcosm of what will happen to the whole country if it actually ratifies the Kyoto Protocol. Manufacturing operations will move offshore to countries that do not have to curb their carbon dioxide emissions.
Henry Ford said that energy costs were a principal consideration in siting a factory and the high-paying jobs that go with it. Cheap electricity, not access to cheap bauxite, is the principal factor in siting an aluminum plant. A couple of West Coast aluminum plants have, in fact, shut down because it is more profitable for them to resell electricity than make aluminum.
According to the Engineering Times article, meanwhile, California Steel "had to shut down seven times last December alone, causing havoc on production schedules and worker productivity."
Perhaps the Mercury News' staff can write editorials by candlelight, but semiconductor manufacturing is another matter. Candles, lanterns and torches generate particles that will simply not do in Class 1 cleanrooms. They emit wavelengths of light that are incompatible with many photoresists, and they are an ignition hazard near many solvents. The Engineering Times article says that rolling blackouts cost Silicon Valley $100M in one day alone (June 14, 2000).
California's troubles are the country's in the short run because the state's economy is as large as Italy's. In the long run, however, economic forces will sort things out by moving manufacturing jobs to states with inexpensive and reliable energy. California is 100% responsible for bringing these economic troubles on itself and, as shown by the Mercury News' pro-Kyoto editorials, it is apparently unable to learn from its mistakes.
William A. Levinson, P.E.
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
