From my hillside home, safely tucked into the heart of the Blue Ridge mountains, it could be easy to face the California power crisis as a disinterested observer.

It might be easier still to ignore a problem centered 25 hundred miles away, were it not for two troublesome considerations.

Number one, I have friends in California.

Number two, thanks to the power grid, we are all connected. Ultimately, whatever happens on the West Coast could work its way east at the speed of light. When electrons go on strike in San Diego, we may yet feel their work stoppage here in Virginia.

So, I’ve made it my business to care. And the picture emerging from the state capitol in Sacramento has me as much in the dark as any card-carrying resident of the Golden State.

One could almost wish someone with the chutzpah of former General Alexander Haig would step to the fore and proclaim, "I’m in charge, here." Despite amazing bluster from the Governor’s office, finger pointing and state inaction still rule the day.

To this point, Governor Gray Davis has made a series of ominous threats to seize state control of the power grid and chances are good he may yet authorize seven billion dollars to buy out all transmission lines in the state.

Of course, that would leave Californians with two more problems. They would foot the bill to pay off the obligatory bond issue. And they’d probably have to fork over an extra billion or so to bring those humming metal monsters up to code.

That still fails to address the dilemma of the cash-strapped California power utilities, already some 14 billion in debt. A strange provision of state law forces them to pay higher fees from generating stations but prevents them from raising rates to recover those costs, let alone crank out a profit for their shareholders.

The much maligned 47 percent rate increase predicted last week for the state’s so called "power hogs," has been downplayed by members of the state government establishment. These punitive price increases are supposedly just for industry, retailers and consumers who let the nightlight burn till morning.

Okay, I threw in that last part just to see if you were still awake.

But wait till the other shoe falls. When Californians start losing jobs because higher utility bills cut profit margins and consumers have to pay more for virtually all the necessities of life, well, you know what is likely to hit the fan.

Hindsight is 20-20 and it would be easy to pin the tail on Gray Davis and his do-gooder Democrat donkeys that refused to allow consumers to feel the slightest electric shock when generating stations started to demand higher prices for their product.

The question is, what can be done, now?

It’s unfortunate that state law does not permit the immediate deportation of all Sierra Club members to British Columbia.

Just kidding.

Still, I would not shed a tear if someone were to arrange a one-way "spotted owl" tour to parts unknown for our flannel-shirted friends. Their objections to the construction of new generating stations leave the rest of us "powerless" in the face of a genuine crisis that may yet have national implications.

Particularly incomprehensible is their opposition to the construction of additional nuclear power stations. This small but vocal lobby has successfully bullied the "powers that be" into refusing all applications for new nuclear plants in America since 1975.

Helium-cooled "pebble-bed reactors" need no pumps, have fewer operating systems and produce just one-eighth the amount of high-level radioactive waste. Storage of fuel is also easier, since it’s enclosed in a ceramic ball known as the pebble.

You’d think more tree-huggers would welcome power plants with no air pollution or greenhouse gas emissions…facilities with multiple fail safe systems…stations that could keep energy flowing and costs down for retirees and the urban poor.

Where is their compassion?

Still a Sierra Club spokesman recently described the nuclear energy solution as "solving your smoking problem by taking up crack."

Perhaps he’d prefer to put hamsters on steroids and give them the run of the state treadmill. Nope. Then we’d have the folks from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals breathing down our necks.

Me? I still believe it’s better to light a few nuclear candles than to curse the darkness.

4.9¢ long distance from WebToday: Online sign-up takes 30 seconds