Dear Editor:I could not be more opposed to Chris Escher’s letter in your May/June issue. Having worked and lived in California from 1990 until 2005, it is the worst place to operate a business and to live. Things have gotten so bad, that California is now rated as the 51st place that anyone would want to start a business. The personal and corporate tax rate is high and will get higher. California’s government prevents any innovation, and their regulations add cost to everything. What guarantee does he have that SMUD will have any more power available to sell to his site?

Why build just a substation when you can build your own combined heat and power plant as recommended by the EPA and not be connected to the grid? The 15 to 25 percent efficiency increase (and carbon credits) over purchased power by using waste heat from the turbine generators for absorption chillers and inorganic rankine cycle generators will make the site more efficient and electricity will cost less than 7.9 cents per kWh. There are several locations just down the road east of Reno Nevada (ranked as the fifth best place to operate a business) where the economic incentives, and no personal income taxes, are much better than Sacramento. The gas pipeline and fiber connection are located there also.

If the old McClelland AFB in California was such a good site, the new NSA Data Center would be located there rather than at Camp Williams in Salt Lake City, Utah, (located near very large high voltage transmission lines, and low-cost power.)

I am just a consulting engineer with no space to lease or sell.

Karl M. Petroff, PE LEED AP
Mechanical Department Head
Loftus Associates West, LLC