At the American Council on Science and Health Alex Berezow presents a four point plan for U. S. energy policy. His points are:
- Build Generation IV nuclear power plants.
- In the meantime, embrace fracking and natural gas.
- Upgrade energy infrastructure.
- Invest in solar and fusion research.
which to my eye appears to be eminently reasonable. I’ve supported most of its points for decades. If it’s so darned reasonable why haven’t we already adopted it as a national priority?
I think there are many reasons underpinning out deeply conflicted policy on energy. Some of them include
- the rise of a form of environmental activism referred to as BANANA—Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything
- irrational fears of nuclear power, stoked by the above and its close cousin, NIMBY (“Not In My Backyard”)
- crony capitalism
- the power of Big Coal and Big Oil
- the unsupported belief that we can have a prosperous economy without large-scale, concentrated energy production
- irrational opposition to government projects
just off the top of my head.
IMO, upgrading our energy infrastructure, the grid, is long overdue. It reminds me of CA’s current crisis – the imminent possible failure of a dam. For a dozen years the need for repairs have been ignored. But, that’s how CA goverment functions – take care of the demands of public sector unions, while growing more social programs, preempting needs elsewhere, such as prudently developing water storage and properly maintaining dams.
Jan, planning a high speed railway to be used only by the wealthy was CLEARLY a better use of tax payer money than dam maintenance. What are you thinking?
Lolz, the good news is that it will be a self-correcting problem is the flood take the legislature!
I’d not worry about fusion research. That money might be better spent on materials research. Robust & cheap(er) superconductors would do far more good.
That’s something I wrote about long, long ago. Better, more durable, cheaper superconductors are needed for substantial improvement of the grid. Power drop is a big problem and superconductors take care of that. There are power drops when you convert from AC to DC or back again and over distance.
Nah. The Oroville Dam dams the Feather River. The confluence of the Feather and the Sacramento is too great a distance from the dam for Sacramento to be at risk.
On the plus side, the drought is definitely over, at least north of Santa Barbara. We can now flush to our heart’s content.
Ah, yes. The historic Northern California vs. Southern California water problem. As the drought maps here illustrate, from Oxnard to Santa Monica is still in extreme drought while most of LA is in moderate drought. Basically, it’s a lousy place to have a big city.
What, you think building millions of homes with millions of swimming pools and millions of acres of green lawn in the middle of a desert is somewhat foolish? A bit like Alaska deciding every home should have a palm tree? Or people on the banks of the Mississippi putting in basements? Or the eternal trailer parks in tornado alley?
It’s a bit of a clue when your local ‘river’ is used mostly as a place to stage car chases for movies.
There’s a line from a TV series that I’ve come to like. “You knew I was a snake when you picked me up.” We knew it was a desert, and yet we are shocked every time we run out of water and the whole place catches fire.
When my wife and I were touring the Gamble House in Pasadena (well worth it if you have the opportunity), the docent said that there were nearly 200 years of temperature records in Los Angeles. The Spaniards planted orange trees, olive trees, and almond trees and the temperatures there went down. Then the Anglos cut the groves down and built houses where they had been and the temperatures went up.
California’s ecological problem is that it’s too dependent on housing for its economy. At around 20% it’s either the largest or second largest sector.
UPDATE:
A little quick googling suggests that’s drastically different from any other large state. Real estate and housing are more important in California than in any other state including Florida. Only South Florida is similar.
The people I know who live on the banks of the Mississippi don’t even have ground floors. And it’s a well-known scientific fact that trailer parks cause tornados.
Forget it, Dave, it’s Chinatown.
“Only South Florida is similar.”
Another way to put it is that S Florida has an imbalance of too much warm, sunny weather and georgous views of the Gulf and pine forests………….so they build too many houses.