We Must Switch to Renewable, Clean Power

Los Angeles Times ^ | 08-23-2003 | Bernadette Del Chiaro and V. John White

[boris]

The East Coast blackout last week offers California a valuable lesson in how to improve our own electric system, beginning with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

As the analysis of this latest blackout unfolds, California should be weary of false solutions put forward by the utility industry.

The solution to our energy problems, East Coast, West Coast and between, is greater energy efficiency and conservation, more renewable energy and a shift to clean, localized power generation.

[Sangamon Kid]

Followed the link. Found the company website. This company must be privately held. Can't find it listed on any of the major stock exchanges.

[dr_who_2]

One thing that ought to be done is to drive a stake through the heart of the Department of Energy.

[Hostage]

Boris,

Isn't this same Utopian no-growth sustainable-earth policy gamble that backed California into an energy supply-demand imbalance in late 2000?

[CyberCowboy777]

Hitler’s Fascism is a closer example.

[Optimist]

Isn't this same Utopian no-growth sustainable-earth policy gamble that backed California into an energy supply-demand imbalance in late 2000?

No you are thinking of the Corporate robbing of California by Bush's friends at Enron (/sarcasm)

[dr_who_2]

I disagree. Hitler was just wild about technology. Of course if you were Jewish, I guess he was favorable towards manual labor. Plenty of modern day foes that come to mind now, too. Both the Unabomber and Osama were intent on taking the human race back a few centuries.

[CyberCowboy777]

While Hitler knew the power of technology, he also knew to limit it to his enemies and to common man.

He also saw the Environment as something to protect for the elite. (Babs dose not mind cutting trees for her home, just yours. The wacko environmentalist living off the grid in the woods is okay with his own ownership of property, but you had better live in the ghetto.)

Most of today’s liberal do not want to limit their own access to technology or the environment or unlimited earning potential or guns or freedom of speech; they only want to limit ours.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

It is strange the entire world is using nuke plants, but here in this brain dead waste land we are verboten to advance ourselves and get free from fossil fuels for electrical power.

Makes one want to drag out the tin foil hat and yell, "CONSPIRACY".

[Petronski]

WE MUST BUILD NUCLEAR REACTORS, MANY NUCLEAR REACTORS, AND WE MUST START NOW.

[Petronski]

Your response letter is brilliant by the way. And it's not just good rhetoric: It's true.

[boris]

Thanks. I try.

[boris]

"Isn't this same Utopian no-growth sustainable-earth policy gamble that backed California into an energy supply-demand imbalance in late 2000?"

Yes. I had the great good fortune to dine with Dixie Lee Ray, who was head of the Energy Department and Governor of Oregon.

This was during Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown's tenure as Governor of CA. During the conversation, she remarked: "You people in California really must do something about your Mr. Brown. Since he was elected, there have been no new power plants built or applied for in your state."

This was (mostly) true after he left office. CA discovered it could import cheap "excess" hydro power from the northwest. Guess what? No more excess power up there; not cheap anymore, and still damn few new plants (lots of little ones, no big ones).

--Boris

[PLMerite]

You know, if someone would come up with a pedal-powered computer monitor, we'd all be in real good shape...

[gitmo]

You're forgetting the lunar power generators.

[Iris7]

Hi Boris,

This subject is one I am sore about also. Those Bast$$$$ lie and lie and lie. They know they lie. The people appear to be so unbelievably stupid they believe vile lies instead of doing even a tiny bit of thinking.

[Mad Dawgg]

"The Luddite vision of "appropriate energy" is suitable for a new feudalism..."

Step right up folks and get your wooden shoes here...

[dr_who_2]

What, you mean the ones that were attacked by the cybermen? Even an oil rig is cheaper (barring attacks by a remote-controlled Loch Ness monster, of course). If you want a solution that's almost renewable, try harnessing the kinetic energy of planets. There you go.

[gitmo]

If you want a solution that's almost renewable, try harnessing the kinetic energy of planets.

Or Tidal Powered Generators. Indirectly the same thing, I suppose.

[brooklin]

Well, so much for the small atomic pile I was building in the basement. Do you think I could get much for it on Ebay?

[okie01]

"I'm not convinced that the benefit [of nukes] offsets the total amount of money spent. I guess that's what research is for, but the government has probably beat that dead horse for too long as well."

A huge portion of the cost of a nuclear plant is "legal" and "regulatory". Meeting the legal challenges from the Luddites and constant re-engineering to meet new regulations promoted by the Luddites eventually resulted in making the cost of nuclear power uneconomical.

Over 3/4 of the electricity generated in France (France!!!) is from nukes -- all of the same design, from a single approved pattern.

If we had the same regulatory conditions in the United States, over half our power would be generated by nukes -- at lower prices than prevail today!

And the Greens would hate it even more than the "pollution" they rail about today. That alone would make the move worthwhile...