Posted on 08/02/2012 6:46:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
For those who don't remember what a large-scale blackout is like, take a look at what happened earlier this week in India, where 670 million people lost power.
The images were haunting. Miles of stalled cars, snarled because traffic lights were dark. Electric trains that didn't run. Miners trapped underground.
India's blackout was caused by a host of electrical issues ranging from bad energy policy to an overburdened electrical grid. A shortage of rain for hydroelectric dams this year and a shortage of coal for factories does not help the over strapped grid and are the most likely causes for the blackout.
America is fortunate that blackouts of this scale are not occurring here, usually. But we have had some, notably the blackout in the Northeast and Midwest, as well as Ontario, on August 14, 2003. An overburdened electrical grid could not keep up with electrical demand.
While not an everyday or every year occurrence, so far, Americans in some regions have cause to worry. The supply of electricity is growing more slowly than is peak demand. Rising incomes are driving increased use of air conditioning, and new houses are designed for efficient air conditioning rather than with windows that open and screened porches to provide breezes.
As for supply, the proliferation of regulations to protect the environment-sometimes with an excess of zeal-is causing utilities to shut down old plants and is erecting barriers to building new ones.
Energy Department data show that peak power consumption has climbed from 678,400 megawatts in 2000 to 767,900 megawatts in 2010. Generating capacity stood at 1,039,000 MW in 2010, compared to 811,700 MW in 2000 (data for 2011 will be released later this year). While overall supply is outpacing demand, there are some areas where the opposite is true. For example, in Texas the power capacity margin (the amount of reserves available in case of an emergency) is projected to be 13 percent in 2012 compared to 26 percent in 2002.
This summer Texas has barely enough electricity to meet demand. Unexpected drops in output and spikes in demand could lead to rolling blackouts.
This tension is expected to persist for years, largely due to both the state's population growth and the reluctance of power companies to invest in new plants because low wholesale electricity prices have been squeezing profit margins.
California produces only 70 percent of its power, with the remainder imported from other states. California and Colorado have passed laws requiring that by the year 2020, one-third of their electricity be produced from renewables-solar, wind, or biomass-by 2020. The states do not yet have the technology to do this.
The Indian experience should be a wake-up call for the United States. It's time, or past-time, to make investment in power generation a priority.
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Many are saying it’s a result of a low rain volume monsoon season and the excessive heat...all the farmers had to run their irrigation pumps when they never had to before.
It must be really smelly now.
Policies such as ripping out perfectly good hydropower dams (such as the the Klamath, Condit, Rogue, Elwah) or regulations that shut gown the coal plants that power the Pacific Northwest and a good portion of CA are equally shot sighted.
Huh?
Have you ever walked through a busy Indian city street? The odor will knock you off your feet. I imagine a few days without power, and juast damn.
Have I ever? I lived in India half my life. No, it doesn’t knock me off. And it is good thing there aren’t that many body smell averse faggots walking around in India. Their use for power is for more practical needs.
I was in some crummy parts of Mumbai, and it wasn’t so much the bodies as the general overall smell on the streets. I will say some of the people on the trains inland are pretty ripe. I guess I wasn’t there long enough to get over the olfactory overload.
Smells brings memories. Its not such a bad thing. Ever been to a temple in India?
Everything government touches increases in cost and decreases in quality and availability. Too bad we can’t have a true free market in energy.
The ding-a-lings in our state are trying to get us to pay more for energy from wind power while shutting down coal fired plants. The world has gone insane.
I really like the smell of incense, but the food offerings, sometimes get too ripe. Like you said, smells bring back memories and we associate events with them. I used to go to Glasgow a lot, and that place had a very distinctively unpleasant smell almost all over the place. Living most of my life near the water on the east coast of the US, I guess I’m spoiled by relatively clean air.
Tantra resort and ashrams in US pay top dollar to create milder versions of that experience.
We can recreate sanitized version of everything her in the US but just not the real experience of walking inside a temple that lasted for a few thousand years. India combines beauty and horror in ways no other country can.
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