I would like to respond to some of the points that Jim made in his e-mail from earlier today. First I need to make it clear that although I work for IBM, I am speaking only for myself and not for IBM.

Why people aren't more vocal: I suspect this is because most people don't know about it. I have asked as many people as I can how they feel about this (about 15 so far). Everyone I talked to had heard about Cisco but none had heard about Calpine. Once they had, all were strongly opposed. I have submitted a query to IBM management to see if IBM is following this and has an opinion. It will be interesting to see what they say. It may be that for legal and/or ethical reasons, they don't wish to interfere in what they consider local politics.

Real estate values: I know three families who are or have recently been shopping for a house. All agreed that houses that were right on major freeways were selling for less. I think one can safely assume that a house that is within a few miles of a 600 megawatt power plant that outputs 1214 tons of air pollution per year will sell for less. I would be surprised if a Calpine executive were willing to live in such a home.

I agree that there is tremendous pressure for growth in this area. But I don't think that it is inevitable.

Walter Alvey