SoCal cities look for alternative energy, reject coal-fired power (gamble on alternative energy)

AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 11/22/06 | AP

[chimera]

Utility managers said researching and building infrastructure to replace the use of coal-fired power will be a costly, risky business.

It's not just costly and risky, it will be a disaster. There is data available on the books right now that shows that the capacity factor for California's vaunted wind farms dropped to something like 5% during their last heat wave. And they think that having something that puts out 5% of its nameplate capacity when it is needed the most is the way to meet an ever-growing demand? What kind of Moonbeams do they having running the place?

[Tarantulas]

LADWP is part owner of the nuclear power plant where I work. They get plenty of power from us. Funny how that isn't mentioned in the article.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Stupid Moonbeams run the place sortof.....time to look for a move....

[technically right]

The story doesn't make it clear but it sounds like the managers at these various municipally-owned utilities really weren't the ones making this decision. I find the statement of the G.M. from Pasadena to be quite enlightening as well as alarming. Intermountain makes up 65% of their power supply resources, 65%!! And that's going away, to be replaced by resources that are nearly impossible to dispatch with any degree of reliability.

If in fact this was decided by the politicians you can bet your fanny that when the lights go out in the middle of the next heat wave they won't be the ones to stand in front of the camera and tell their customers that it was their ill-advised decision that left them sweating in the dark. If I were one of those utility managers I'd be looking for a different place to work right now.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

In Second Coal Rush, New Mind-Set in the Mines

*******************AN EXCERPT *************************

By Dale RussakoffWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 16, 2006; Page A01

COULTERVILLE, Ill. -- Billy Vandom was 220 feet underground, but to him, it was the top of the world. He is a coal miner, a species of well-paid American worker that was on the verge of extinction in these parts for more than a decade.

Now global economic forces have realigned, and coal mining is back. And a new generation of miners is living the good life not seen here since coal was king.

"I was able to buy me a new truck and I got my wife a new car," said Vandom, 22, from the helm of an enormous ram car, hauling tons of freshly mined coal through the low-lit darkness of the Gateway Mine here. "We have a new baby boy, and we moved into a new apartment and we fixed up a nice room for him." Vandom has gone from struggling to pay bills with two low-wage jobs -- cooking at the Elks club and changing oil at the local Pennzoil -- to making $20 an hour plus benefits.

[Freee-dame]

coal mining is back.

If it weren't for the Clinton-Riady connection, we could be getting huge amounts of clean coal from the National Monument declared by ex-42, seemingly as payback to Riady. The only other source of such coal is controlled by him in Indonesia. President Bush should just declare the area containing the clean coal as no longer protected by the Monument. People could understand this.

Here in blue state Maryland, people are shocked when they hear that more than half of our power comes from coal.

[webstersII]

I like your list but I felt compelled to change #3.

1. Cut off nose.
2. Look for nose job.
3. Expect others to pay for new nose.
4. Doctor heads for Cayman Islands.
5. If the nose job doesn't work, go to 1.

[Regulator]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., wrote a letter to an umbrella group for the cities last week saying she was "shocked and dismayed"

Sounds like Mr. Blum has his eye on investing in some Alternative Energy scam companies and needs the wife to guarantee the biz.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just posted this ....includes comments about waiting for new alternative energy sources:

Amateur Hour Is Over In the Persian Gulf Region

[chimera]

LADWP is part owner of the nuclear power plant where I work. They get plenty of power from us.

No doubt about that. You had Diablo Canyon and SONGS going full tilt at, what, 99+% capacity factor during that heatwave? And wind power is struggling to break the 5% mark for capacity factor. Yet wind gets all the adoration from these wackos and never a word (except bad) about the nukes. These people are getting reliable, zero-emissions, economical energy from nukes yet you never hear a good word said about them.

[Regulator]

You had Diablo Canyon and SONGS going full tilt at, what, 99+% capacity factor during that heatwave?

In his case he's referring to the Palo Verde Nuclear plant which is west of Phoenix in Arizona.

The leftist hypocrites who babble about being "anti-nook" convienently don't mention that L.A. gets a significant amount of power from one of the eeevil nook plants. Which is also convienently located out of sight and out of mind in far away Arizona (all of about 360 miles away in the case of the plant itself, but that might as well be the moon for a lot of people in L.A., they don't even know where Redlands is).

This is the typical California Leftist strategy: NIMBY.

[colonialhk]

Morons the next Enron is spinning up a way to nail them.

[bybybill]

In mean time, those devils that like to find a need and fill it just so they can get rich, are developing ways to generate electricity from Montana/Wyoming coal that doesn`t pollute. There is only enough coal to last FOREVER.

[arthurus]

SoCal cities look for mythical alternative energy, reject actually available alternative energy.

[chimera]

Well, I imagine Palo Verde was probably in the same range of capacity factor, unless they had some of their units offline for scheduled outages. Nuke plant availability literally blows wind power availability away, yet nobody ever mentions it.

[SierraWasp]

What was the deal that Roger Hedgecock was talking about while filling in for Limbaugh today? You know, the one where he said the EnvironMentalist had achieved victory over coal, oil, gas or even the frightening nuclear and that a large solar electric generating facility had been selected out in the desert. But now they had changed their mind and were fighting it because the transmission lines would ruin the desert by traversing across so many miles of high tension lines.

In other words you can NEVER trust EnvironMentalists! They're not doing what they're doing to protect the environment whatsoever!!! They have another agenda entirely!!!