(Japan nuclear) Kansai power crunch just political rivalry?

[FBaggins]

7. How on earth is that a strawman?

The title of your thread asks whether the supposed "crunch" is just a political rivalry... and then your explanation of the piece clearly says that some are of the opinion that they are using coercion and the threats of power shortages which are "manufactured" rather than unavoidable.

I'm asking whether you agree with that opinion. Is there an actual non-trivial gap in the region's ability to generate power this summer or is it contrived?

The problem centers on misleading numbers that were used about available supply last summer and winter. In both cases it was shown that the government bureaucrats in METI had, in conjunction with the utilities in the NW (TEPCO mainly), significantly undercounted resources available.

They had significant power issues last summer and they have considerably less generation capacity now than they had then. Nothing about "misleading numbers" changes that simple fact.

Critics are saying that the 15% shortage number is exaggerated and that the actual shortfall is closer to 5%

Based on what? Different actual supply/demand figures or different assumptions about weather?

an amount that could be made up far more easily with conservation and new renewables than the 15% claimed.

See above. You surely agree that there were significant demand-side adjustments made last summer, right? And how many reactors have been shut down since then compared to new generation installed?

And new renewables? Hey... I know that you believe that renewables are quicker to install than other options... but we're getting close to June already. It's too late to add much to the summer supply.