US turns to India for blackout advice

Economic Times of India ^ | August 30, 2003

[Don Corleone]

Consulting India about electric power is like consulting the Pope about birth control.

[thinking]

IMHO, no more grids....we need local generating plants, be it nuclear or fuel cells.

The concept of transporting electrical power over thousands of miles of wire is outmoded/unacceptable.

[SteamShovel]

Clean air regulations discourage many utilities to delay or forego new plant construction

Now don't get me wrong on this, I don't believe in wanton polution. But some of these clean air regulations, the ones where we want the flue gas scrubbed to be rediculously clean, actually might be contributing to more environmental destruction than they prevent. It takes POWER to scrub fluegas. This reduces cycle efficiency, causing you to either build a bigger boiler to provide the extra power necessary for the scrubbing, OR you keep the older plants running. The lowered cycle efficiency will result in MORE burned coal or oil, causing more CO2, CO, NOx, SOx etc. to be produced while making the electricity just to run the scrubbers.

I know, I know, reason does not come into play here. They are against burning ANY fuel, even their fuel of choice -Natural Gas- will become a target after they shut down the coal and oil burners. It's radical environmentalism, not an honest desire to keep the air clean for the children. If that were the real goal, nuclear power would be their choice.