Folks this year in January a new law went into effect, under the old law we had 3 “Toter garbage cans” one for garbage (brown) one for recycling (Green) and one for green waste (light green). The garbage can was serviced every week, with the other cans rotating every other week. The Toter cans were pretty sturdy, made in Mexico and held up pretty well under the test of time. Here in the central valley of California, it is also north of 100 degrees for months on end.
The new law sees the replacement of the Toter’s with what I call cheap Chinese crap plastic cans. Seriously I doubt these things will hold up very well and I may be replacing them annually with new ones. I have a feeling someone in Sacramento (lawmaker) has a family member who owns the company that makes these and used the new law as a vehicle to get $$$. My other issue with these new cans is the color scheme completely changed. The trash cart is now black, which I guess makes sense. The recycle cart is now blue, and the organics (replaces yard waste) is green.
The system works basically the same, but I do have a question, this was billed as a green, better for the environment system, but is it? The new organics cart now is for yard waste and table scraps; think bones, salad etc. So basically, anything you previously put in the garbage disposal. This cart will also be serviced weekly, so now every other week 3 trucks will have to be on the road. Keep in mind these garbage trucks are a massive apparatus and do not run-on electricity. I do not see how having a truck on the road every 2 weeks is somehow saving the environment.
An additional observation of mine, according to the nosy neighbor app, folks have gotten vermin, and maggots in their organics can because of intermixing the food scraps and yard waste, who would have thunk it right? The cans also do not look like they will hold up to our 100-degree summers.
Perhaps my biggest beef was in a mailer sent out to the entire populous. It specifically said your trash and organics cart will be inspected periodically to make sure you are in compliance. Yep, we will now have city personnel inspecting your garbage and issuing a citation if you are not in compliance! Just like in Berkeley. This law effects both the residential and commercial businesses. As such the businesses near me got small organic carts that never have anything in them. My point being people like myself are not able to compost or recycle as much as a business is. The food scrap recycling? If that even works, and I have my doubts, wouldn’t it be better to have restaurants all be required to get on board? I would say the Brickhouse Restaurant near me likely would fill up a dumpster sized cart of just organic waste likely every other day. Call me a skeptic of this.
By the way, that’s a CBS article not some far right website on the internet. Seems like a lot of energy is being put into recycling when it doesn’t seem to work.
If you live in California you are used to hearing stupid, moronic, dumb, depressing things. It reached a new low this past week. The same week Governor Newsom and his merry band of idiots announced new gas powered car sales will cease in a decade, he also reminded us due to a heat wave not to plug your current electric car in. Yeah folks, we are banning new gas powered cars, in favor of more enviro-friendly electric ones, but please do not charge it while we grapple with an energy crisis.
Newsom’s Utopian Future
It gets even better last evening around 6pm. I got an SOS text message from the State of California telling me to essentially cease and desist all electrical usage between 4-10pm due to the grid being overloaded. So yeah, I come home to a hot house and cannot use appliances due to conservation. It was 86 degrees in my house when I arrived home but that’s ok. I am sure the Hollywood types did their share to conserve as well. NOT!
You see, here in the People’s Republic of California, we have gone so green even Cheech and Chong are starting to worry! By conservative estimates, CA can only produce enough electricity to power about 2/3s of its needs, so we “buy” the excess power from Arizona or another neighboring utility. Who cares how that utility procures its electricity, all that matters is we don’t pollute here in CA.
We have mandated the closure of Diablo Canyon Nuclear plant…..then we reversed it! I guess Gavin must have farted himself awake and realized retiring more power plants isn’t smart when you cannot produce enough to keep up with demand. We have a law that all new houses must have solar panels on them, yet every summer we have threats of rolling blackouts. We have all kinds of solar farms and windmills, but we are reliant on our neighbors for electricity?
In CA we have a saying, at least those of us with an IQ slightly north of room temperature, it’s not how you think, it’s how you feel. That phrase is an embodiment of what is left here in this place. We have gone so damn insane on environmental issues that we have become our own worst enemy. We are now quite literally telling people not to charge their car (aka what you use to get to your job in CA) in favor of sitting in a hot house, because global warming. We have closed down nuclear plants, gas fired plants, in favor of far less reliable solar and wind farms. Word to the wise, solar doesn’t do a whole lot of good once the sun goes down, also you need a very un-environmentally friendly battery, and solar components as well. Don’t believe us? Do a simple Google search for disposal of lithium-ion batteries and solar panels!
It’s pretty pathetic that in the technology capital of the world, we have to rely on Arizona for our electricity. Even more sad is when Arizona doesn’t have any excess to sell us, they turn the lights off for us.
But this is all part of the plan here in California. The goal is to remove all gas powered everything from here. They are starting with gas generators and lawn equipment. Don’t believe me? The lawn equipment goes in 2024, the generators 2028. Do not hold your breath that the CA GOP will do anything about it, they likely have no clue this is happening. I haven’t looked into it much but how will the landscapers cut Elk Grove Park if they need to use electric mowers? Me thinks there will be exceptions doled out for all cities/municipalities. The point is a carbon free CA. The issue is that no one is using their brains to think about those who will be left out. A Tesla is not cheap. A cursory search of tesla.com for used Tesla’s within 200 miles showed the cheapest 2019 Tesla at roughly 46k. That is double what I paid for my 2019 4 door Tacoma by the way. Some localities have started banning new gas station construction, in this blog’s town I have seen numerous gas stations either starting construction or pulling permits as if to “beat the clock” on a ban being forthcoming. So they will make it even harder to find gas for your gas powered car. The price doesn’t get cheaper when supply is harder to find folks.
Make no bones about it, they are discussing banning natural gas as well. New home construction currently does not feature a fire place, not even wood burning ones. Some cities like Berkeley have either already banned or are considering banning all natural gas inside your house/business. Think no stove/oven/heater. You would be using electricity, yeah as in that thing we cannot keep on right now. Imagine going out to dinner in the wintertime, its colder than hell and your favorite steak house is using an electric cook top. You get no sear, and the heater won’t be able to keep up because it’s electric and takes a while to get going, then it stays hot for a while to shut off. My parent’s most recent house had an electric stove, they converted it to gas. Now instead of being able to throttle up and down the natural gas burners in the kitchen, they must stay on all day regardless of foot traffic since it takes a while to heat up and cool down. Even better, in the summer it may not work at all, we have these rolling blackouts we are famous for.
Can’t afford a Tesla? You can take one of our natural gas burning busses, at least until they ban those as well, they cannot be far behind. Try using mass transit in this town, actually don’t you’ll save the bruises on your brain.
All is well here in California, just remember since the 100-degree days last until Friday please do not plug in your electric car! We need to conserve energy. I’m sure your manager at work will understand!
In preparation for our impending move out of California, I have been scanning many of my old files. I am making them digital so I can toss the papers I have been storing since the 1980’s. Today I scanned a front-page article from the Sacramento Union on the death of Bishop Gallegos. On the back was another article featuring the first American media report of a reactor fire in Chernobyl.
Also, in the stack I have a few assorted magazines that I saved because of featured articles on various facets of abortion and the life issue. After scanning one series of articles, I noticed another in the magazine on the subject of acid rain.
The context was this: Ten years into the acid rain scare, the US Government paid for a study on its affects. $500 million dollars and 28 volumes later, the study was promptly ignored. Surprise!
Why? The study disproved the pop culture narrative and as a result, it was ignored by both Democrats and Republicans.
The study’s conclusion: from 1850 to the present day, there was no change in pH of the lakes that they studied.
Last summer, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) re-aired an interesting NOVA program on the natural recovery of the at Yellowstone National Park following the enormous 1988 fire.
NOVA pointed out that one of the benefits of this fire would be “to improve the aquatic habitat in lakes and streams for 100 years or more,” because it would decrease their acidity by anywhere from 20 percent to as much as 100 percent.
Within that scientifically correct statement is the key to one of the worst environmental boondoggles ever perpetrated, President Bush’s $140 billion acid rain program.
Summed up quickly: Forest fires raise alkalinity (reduce acidity) of soil, lakes, and streams by replacing acidic forest floor organic buildup with ash. That also releases the base cations (aluminum and calcium) from the soil so they can better neutralize naturally acidic rain (5.0 pH). Soil analyses show that clear-cutting of fir forests raises soil pH from 5 to 7 (lowering acidity), and slash-and-burn fires raise it from 4.95 to 7.60.
Conversely, unfettered forestation promotes the acidity of lakes and streams precisely because it builds up highly acid organic forest floors which tie down acid-neutralizing cations.
The study found that forest cycles change the pH of nearby bodies of water by creating temporary changes in pH but eventually the waterways return to a steady state level. In its entirety, this article debunks the whole idea of another mythical environmental catastrophe (acid rain).
Yep, I bet you missed that headline last week, but it was there if you could connect the dots. I mean what else could you conclude when you read that beginning in 2024 California will outlaw electrical generators.
California became the first state in the nation to outlaw the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers and lawnmowers in an attempt to curb emissions, a move met with both positive feedback and frustration.
Signed Saturday, the new law orders regulators to ban the sale of small off-road engines (SORE). While this is a broad category that includes generators, lawn equipment and pressure washers, it comprises a type of small engine on pace to produce more pollution each year than passenger vehicles.
Try this article for a more comprehensive understanding of the law.
California just banned the sale of gasoline powered backup generators, lawn mowers, small gas powered fire fighting pumps, and other small stationary engines, as part of their drive to reduce CO2 emissions.
The text requires regulators to consider “… (E) Expected availability of zero-emission generators and emergency response equipment. …”, so there is no doubt they plan to cover backup generators and emergency fire fighting equipment if they can.
This is beyond serious. Imagine trying to fight the fire approaching your house, only to have a low battery light start flashing on your fire fighting water pump. Or someone who requires powered medical equipment, like oxygen generators or sleep apnea devices, struggling through an extended power outage without proper treatment for their health condition.
Gasoline powered equipment, barring a mechanical failure, works as long as you can keep it supplied with gasoline. But battery equipment needs power to recharge it. Where do you get more power, if the sky is covered with smoke or clouds, or the solar panels are covered in dust, snow or ash, and the power lines are down?
Yet, with startling shortsightedness, the state assembly has sent Governor Gavin Newsom a bill that will effectively eliminate a go-to backup: gas-powered generators. The bill (AB-1346) lumps gas-powered generators in with the offending landscaping equipment and all other “small off-road engines,” referring to them as SOREs. It “encourages” the California Air Resources Board (the state’s own sort of EPA) to “adopt cost-effective and technologically feasible regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and evaporative emissions from new small off-road engines” and to consider “expected availability of zero-emission generators.”
When the power went out last August, says Collin Blackwell of Eldorado Hills, California, “We went out and bought an $800 generator, so that way we could have the fridge powered up in the garage at least and be able to have food and everything in the house.” Mark Galloway of Cameron Park said he lives in a mountain community where losing power is fairly common. “You should have something, so having the backup generator and things like that—I think it’s on you to really take care of that,” he said. “It’s not like it’s something that you can’t plan for.”
Californians who have been seen power supplies become more unreliable in recent years have increasingly turned to gas-powered electric generators to keep the lights on during “public safety power shutoffs.”
According to the industry trade group, there are 1.5 million portable generators in use in California today. The average gas-powered generator can provide 10-12 hours of power to run lights, phone chargers, refrigerators, microwaves and more, with a simple refueling keeping them powered another half-day.
Ok, given the above, can you start to see why Newsom must think he has or will soon fix PG&E?
I mean, what utility has the most voluntary power disruptions?
What utility starts half the major conflagrations that California experiences in their service area?
What utility is driving the sale of portable generators in their service area?
What utility is responsible for the homeowner’s insurance crisis in rural areas?
What utility is even less popular than our state legislature?
So, if Newsom and his brothers under the dome have the stones to ban private sector electrical generation and portable fire pumps, then a reasonable person can only conclude that he will fix PG&E, solve fires in our mismanaged forests, and replace the current system with a more reliable and redundant electrical grid.
If Newsom has failed to fix at least these problems, then Newsom and his fellow big city Democrats have said that they are willing to forfeit the lives of everyone in rural areas. Folks this law prevents you from protecting your life and property. It hits the elderly and poor the hardest. People that need to refrigerate insulin or keep the 02 flowing or the AC on when it’s 115 outside, will have to do without. Generators are about more than preserving the stuff you bought at Costco, but shouldn’t you have the right to keep it cold when PG&E’s lawyers tell them to pull the plug on your neighborhood?
San Francisco Waterfront homes burning 1989
Can you imagine the fire department showing up and letting your place burn to the ground with grandma inside because they can’t use their portable fire pump? Or the emergency workers can’t cut you out of the car with their portable equipment because their equipment relies on gasoline?
Portable equipment in use by rescue workers
Does Gavin really not remember all the gasoline powered fire pumps used to keep San Francisco from burning to the ground after the 1989 earthquake during the World Series? Or the emergency equipment used when the elevated portion of the MacArthur freeway collapsed? Why is Gavin the only one that doesn’t have vivid memories of where he was on that day?
Portable equipment used to free trapped folks and recover the dead
So, either Gavin Newsom and his fellow Democrats have fixed all the problems mentioned in this blog or they are willing to kill a lot of people to save us from the myth of global warming. Also, this policy has the effect of preventing poor and middle-class folks from leaving the big cities that Democrats control. Guess rural living is only for the very wealthy—kind of like dining at the French Laundry.
Folks we are experiencing one of the worst droughts in the history of California and nobody living in a populated area has any clue that its unfolding. Why?
When Jerry Brown was Governor, we had certain days that we could water our yard. Water companies would pay you several thousand dollars to rip out your lawn and replace it with rocks. The media was publicizing conservation at much the same pace and intensity that they have been pushing social distancing, masks, and vaccinations during Covid yet there is hardly a word about water.
Each story of the drought is treated as a separate and unrelated event with no real consequences. However, for those of us native Californians, the conclusion is unmistakable. Below are a few examples that should cause you concern.
The state’s more than 1,500 reservoirs are 50% lower than they should be this time of year, according to Jay Lund, co-director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California-Davis.
A recent AP news release was titled ‘Water crisis ‘couldn’t be worse’ on Oregon-California border’. And the unfolding historic drought is predicted to worsen.
Clearly, the growing needs for domestic water to support human needs and food production as well as wildlife habitats must not be ignored. That said, dam removal proponents are short-sighted and are merely looking to their own needs, which do not consider the big picture.
The shocking truth is that; in the middle of a record period of historic drought and ‘water crisis’, the governors of Oregon (Kate Brown) and California (Gavin Newsome) have collaborated with Berkshire Hathaway’s profitable Pacific Corp and a relatively few minority stakeholders to circumvent a Congressional Act, the Klamath River Basin Compact, and wrongfully remove 4-dams during a drought that’s intensifying.
Three of the four Klamath River dams proposed for removal are in Siskiyou County, CA, where a referendum proved that 78.84% of voters were against the Klamath dam removal project.
In Klamath County Oregon, where one of the Klamath River dams is located, voters considered whether the four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River should be removed. That vote proved 72% of voters are opposed to the Klamath River dam removal project.
Shasta Lake
Lake Shasta this summer is facing possibly its lowest level in at least 44 years, and that could be bad news for the people who rely on it for drinking and irrigation water, as well as endangered salmon that depend on it to survive.
Dam operators have to go all the way back to 1977 to compare how bad this year’s water situation is shaping up to be, said Don Bader, area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the dam.
“It’s dry. It’s second worst, so far. It’s probably going to exceed ’77.But the kicker is in ’77 we didn’t have all the requirements that we have now,” Bader said.
Because of the drought and low lake level, several of those communities have already had their water allocations from the bureau reduced about 45%.
Most water being released from Shasta Lake now is not for farmers but fish.
Shasta Lake discharging most water for fish not farmers
A study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center tends to support that. The study says that more than 80% of the salmon eggs in the river could die this summer as a result of warm water in the Sacramento River.
As of Tuesday, Shasta Lake was at 54% of average for the date and Trinity Lake was at 62% of average, according to the bureau.
The rainfall total at Shasta Dam was just under 24 inches since Oct. 1, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The previous record for low rainfall was 24 inches in 1977, Bader said.
“Things have just fallen off the cliff in the last six weeks. So that’s where we are now. Day to day, they’re making all kinds of decisions down in Sacramento about what can we do to salvage the rest of the season,” Bader said.
DWR State Water Project Chief of Utility Operations John Yarbrough said Friday the lake capacity measured at 709 feet, where at normal capacity it would be sitting at 900 feet.
The last time the water was this low was during the 2014-2015 season, when the lake’s lowest point was 715 feet — making 2021 even drier, according to DWR Public Information Officer Liza Whitmore.
Yarbrough confirmed the department projects the lake could drop even lower than the historic low from 1976-1977 of 645 feet, by late summer or early fall.
“The thing that’s different this year and unique from other droughts we’ve experienced is this year the snow pack … the amount of runoff was only about 20% of what we expected,” he said.
“We started with a snow pack that was smaller than average but from that snow pack the amount of water we got was dramatically less than what we expected.”
Water in a key California reservoir is expected to fall so low this summer that its hydroelectric power plant will be forced to shut down for the first time, officials said Thursday, straining the state’s already-taxed electric grid.
An unrelenting drought and record heat, both worsened by the changing climate, have pushed the water supply at Northern California’s Lake Oroville to deplete rapidly. As a result of the “alarming levels,” officials will likely be forced to close the Edward Hyatt Power Plant for the first time since it opened in 1967, California Energy Commission spokesperson Lindsay Buckley told CNN.
The water in Lake Oroville — the state’s second largest reservoir — is pumped through underground facilities to generate electricity, which can power up to 800,000 homes when operating at full capacity.
Conditions were ripe for exploring the lowest depths of Folsom Lake, which is a reservoir of the American River. California’s historic drought meant water levels were incredibly low in the reservoir, just over a third of its usual storage capacity.
Around 6,600 farmers in the Central Valley — which encompasses Sacramento County to Kern County — may face potential disaster after being warned by the state of possible water cutoffs.
The warning is more than just a cautionary notice for the agricultural community, as farmers say it could lead to catastrophe.
The State Water Resources Board notified the affected farmers Tuesday that they could face water cutoffs as the state deals with the ongoing drought that has already cut off federal and state irrigation supplies.
“We are seeing unprecedented amounts of fallowing. We’ve already lost several corn crops across the state,” Raudabaugh said. She explained that a number of farmers have fallowed land, meaning acres will not be used and will be left untouched.
“If you have orchards or vineyards and you’re told to cut back your water, cut off your water, you’re essentially killing that orchard and that vineyard,” Bruce Blodgett, the executive director of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau said.
For about half of what California has spent at EED since Covid started, we could have fixed the water infrastructure enough to last for the next 30 years. A few years ago, the number was about 75 – 80 billion dollars. Instead, in the last few years California has dismantled three dams and has zero intentions of building any new water storage despite billions authorized by voters for just that purpose.
Given the above, how come Governor Newsom is not enacting draconian water restrictions? I suppose he has a reason, but clearly Newsom can’t recall.
Folks you hear us at ReallyRight.com rail against cable constantly, here is yet another reason, a real-life example from this past week.
I was chatting up a fellow colleague, he also devoid of cable, and we were speaking in open terms about the coming doomsday scenario regarding the water shortage here in California. We joked about picking up pallets of water from a local Costco or Sam’s, whomever had it the cheapest, and debating who was more likely to load it in my truck. Joking of burning out all our lawn and replacing with AstroTurf, with the work being done by non-combustion engine machines. The 90-Day Guy walked in and started making fun. He had zero clue about the drought; I kid you not, zero. He wondered which channel we saw it on, to which we both replied, KCRA3 news app. He still said he hadn’t heard it anywhere, as if we follow some obscure tin foil hat form of media.
Gavin Newsom Declares Drought Emergency In Most Of California’s Counties 05/10/2021
In many north state counties (i.e., where no one lives) are on restrictions, and at some point, will be under severe cutbacks. These will be announced shortly. In the opinion of this blogger, it will happen right around recall time, after it’s been certified Newsom will either not be recalled, or he will go down in flames. Rumor has it farmers and others are already under severe cutbacks. 90-Day Guy had an ear to ear aww shucks grin. He is clueless.
Folks I call this the cable watchers’ conundrum for this very reason. Imagine paying roughly $2K a year for cable yet you are completely in the dark on local issues, however you know all about what McConnell, Pelosi, Biden, Harris, McCarthy, and AOC had to say on all topics of national attention. As a rule, cable networks have zero interest in California, or really most states for that matter. If it bleeds it leads, and sex sells, which is all they care about as these type issues drive ratings. For months now the news has been dominated by BLM, George Floyd murder cops, Joe Biden, the US Capitol “insurrection” and other trash, nary a mention of the real issues in this country. These are the issues he knows about, issues no reader of this blog cares about. Seriously, I could not give a rip less about the issues listed above.
The conundrum is this, they believe wholeheartedly all is well, similar to those on Titanic or Poseidon who thought it was no big deal while the rats and others were scrambling. Problem is when the national guys pick it up, it is far too late and the 90-day types panic as they react by grabbing all the toilet paper, Clorox wipes, Lysol etc. Sound familiar? 90-Day Guy even told me he did as much. He and all the others panicked. Guess he missed this on Fox. Water crisis ‘couldn’t be worse’ on Oregon-California border: Oregon’s Klamath County is experiencing its driest year in 127 years
The same story played out with the torrential downpours we had a few years ago, I had told him in advance they would flood the Wilton and other unincorporated areas around the county, he panicked. The levees overtopped as they were supposed to, flooding outlying areas. His response, he jumped in his car and headed toward Tahoe…keep in mind, that this choice saw him literally having to drive thru the areas where the flooding was occurring in the valley in order to get to higher ground. He thought the safest place was not in a building or a house, but in a compact sports car. As if he thought he could outrun the flood. About a week later, he returned and threw his wife under the bus, it was all her idea, he said she watches too much TV. He asked why I didn’t overreact, and my response was, you are far safer in a building where you can climb/get to higher ground than inside a car. The car is likely to die in 6 inches or so of water and if it goes higher you will be taken for a ride; it won’t be fun, likely ending in death. Keep in mind he was the smart one.
Harken back to when the Oroville dam was in peril. I had been discussing it for a couple weeks, he ignored or rolled his eyes at me, thinking I was an alarmist. Then the day finally came, the spillway at Oroville failed, he went nuclear. He got into his car and jammed it home, keep in mind we are so far from the Oroville dam that the flood or even remnants would not have gotten close to us. He panicked on command, just as cable wanted him to do.
The less time you have to react the better, notice the news doesn’t break in saying we may have a problem, the news shows the levee or spillway failing. At that point everyone with a brain knows it’s too late, but not the 90-day types, they think they have inside info. Look for the shelves to be devoid of water soon and look for panic to set in among all those who re-did their yards during Covid. It won’t be pretty, consider yourself forewarned. By the time Tucker, Hannity, or any of the other news networks pick it up, it’ll be too late. But maybe a vaccine will exist? LOL
BTW we are now on day 432 of “2 weeks to flatten the curve.”
Our rainfall this year seems to be less than needed which got me to thinking about drought again. Folks, why fix our water problems in California when you can make it other people’s problem? The truth is that we haven’t made any serious efforts to improve water storage in California since Jerry Brown’s dad was governor in the 1960’s. Sure the population has quadrupled since then but as Alfred E Newman says, “What, me worry?”
Oh, just to be technically correct, Arnold authorized one dam be dismantled in Northern California while San Francisco is clamoring to dismantle their primary water source, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (photo above).
Meanwhile both Brown and Newsom want to kill the Delta by syphoning water in such a way to send it to Los Angeles. Please note that this will be an environmental disaster and not produce any increase in the water already being transferred to the south state. It is a water quality not quantity issue.
So instead of fighting the self-imposed red tape here in California, folks want to get water from other states.
Proposal one is get the water from the Columbia River. Like you really believe that Oregon and Washington will gladly part with their water and allow it piped across their states and dumped in Shasta Lake so it can be flushed down to the ocean. Here’s a few stories on just that. Oh, just wait until you see what’s next!
Speculation is high that Oregon has, for the first time, begun formal exploration into the feasibility of sending surplus water from the Columbia River south to thirsty California. The success of the recently announced giant wind farm has water export proponents salivating at the chance to tap just a small portion of the average 265,000 cubic feet of water per second that slips by Oregon, unused but for power generation, fish habitat and limited shipping.
Closed-door sessions have been held privately in recent months to discuss the very future of the Columbia River as we know it today. People have been asking for Oregon’s water for a long time. In 1990 Kenneth Hahn, an LA County Supervisor, formally requested water from Oregon via pipe to offset the severe water shortages they were experiencing. Then governor Neil Goldschmidt said no to the request, as did then Washington governor Booth Gardner.
It is estimated that Oregon could supply California with approximately 8 billion gallons of water each day without any deleterious effect on either the environment or shipping. That amount of water could easily end, forever, the shortages that have plagued Southern California for decades. At the same time, jobs and revenue would flow into Oregon in numbers never seen before. It is estimated that at least 7,000 new temporary jobs would be created to construct the pipe and that 125 permanent jobs would be created in maintaining the pipe and pumps needed to supply the water. Revenue for this water, at current California rates, could easily top six million dollars per day or more. “That is over two billion dollars of revenue per year for Oregon for something that costs Oregon nothing,” noted Branxton.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune
The idea that intrigues us the most is a pipeline from the Columbia River, which separates Oregon and Washington. It is the fourth-largest river in the nation and has the greatest flow of any American river draining into the Pacific. In other words, it carries a lot of water.
But folks, why just pipe water across two states from the fourth largest river in the country when you could go for number one. America likes number one so why not get the water for California from the Mississippi River? No Kidding!!!
The largest eastern river, the Mississippi, has about 30 times the average annual flow of the Colorado, and the Columbia has close to 10 times. Water from these and other large rivers pours unused into the sea.
Thus, the West’s chronic water shortages result from a failure to appropriately redistribute our nation’s abundant total water resources.
We envision a major combined federal and private hallmark program for the nation – an Interstate Water System (IWS), which would rival in importance and transformative potential the Interstate Highway System, whose formation was championed by President Dwight Eisenhower. America already moves some water and stores it in man-made lakes, and the IWS would be designed to expand the country’s water-related infrastructure by crossing state boundaries to transport water from where America has an abundance of it to where it is needed. With modifications and expansions over time, no part of the U.S. need find itself short of water.
The IWS is practicable. Assume that an initial goal might be doubling the water flow, averaging about 20,000 cubic feet per second, to Colorado River system reservoirs. Pumping Mississippi River water to about 4,000-5,000 feet altitude would likely be needed to supply reservoirs Lake Mead (altitude 1,100 feet) and/or Lake Powell (altitude 3,600 feet). We estimate that fewer than 10 power plants of typical one-gigawatt size could provide the energy to move water halfway across the nation to double the flow of the Colorado River, while gravity-driven flow turning turbines below its reservoir lakes would eventually regenerate much of the input energy required.
Folks, I know I keep harping on Elon Musk and the utopian dream of all electric homes, cars, and life in general but as Clint Eastwood once famously said in one of his many Dirty Harry movies, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”
Now
Tesla has hardly any market penetration in the United States but is gaining in popularity in California but not without consequences. As I keep saying, charging these cars is a big deal. Look at the ridiculous lines over the Thanksgiving vacation just to keep Elon’s fleet on the road. Drivers waited up to an hour to get to a charger and then a decent charge takes 45 minutes.
Footage out of Kettleman City, the location of one of the largest supercharging sites boasting up to 40 chargers, shows drivers queued up back-to-back in a line about a half mile long.
Testy drivers attempting to juice up after Black Friday sounded off on social media, claiming the wait time was anywhere from thirty minutes to well over an hour.
Predictions of the future are worse. If 10 percent of California households owned a Tesla and try to charge them overnight, the resulting electric demand would crash the electric grid and that’s assuming PG&E and Southern Cal Edison are maintaining their gear.
As we have previously documented on this blog, given current rates of worldwide mineral production and demand, Great Britain cannot achieve its goal of an all-electric fleet of vehicles by 2040—this calculation is assuming that nobody else in the world like maybe California is simultaneously trying to do the same thing.
Long-term
Worse yet, another battery (pun intended) of reports has even more dire warnings about our dependence on technology. At current rates of production, six vital minerals used in high tech devices like self-driving cars and smartphones will be gone within 100 years.
Besides the raw waste, mobile devices contain “conflict elements” like gold, toxic elements such as arsenic and rare elements like indium, the Royal Society of Chemistry said. “Natural sources of six of the elements found in mobile phones are set to run out within the next 100 years,” it added.
Another concern over the recycling of unused devices is that they often contain what are known as “conflict elements” such as tin, gold, tungsten and tantalum, which are mined in areas where battles and child labour are often a routine part of their mining.
“There are about 30 different elements just in a smartphone,” said Elisabeth Ratcliffe from the Royal Society of Chemistry, “and many of them are very rare.”
The metal indium, she explained, is used in a unique compound called indium tin oxide, which is vital for touch screens, because it conducts electricity and is transparent. “It’s also used in solar panels, so we’re going to need a lot of it in the future.
“There’s not a lot of it in the Earth and you need a kilo of ore to extract just a few milligrams of indium.”
Most of us will not have heard of tantalum, but it’s a highly corrosion-resistant metal that is “perfect for small electronic devices like our phones”, explained Ms Ratcliffe. “But it’s also perfect for hearing aids and pace-makers,” she told BBC News.
Scientists estimate that indium and tantalum mines, among others, could run out within a century. Meanwhile, our demand for new technology continues to increase.
“Even the copper in all that wire is not endlessly abundant,” added Ms Ratcliffe.
Elements in smart phones that could run out within the next 100 years
Gallium: Used in medical thermometers, LEDs, solar panels, telescopes and has possible anti-cancer properties;
Arsenic: Used in fireworks, as a wood preserver;
Silver: Used in mirrors, reactive lenses that darken in sunlight, antibacterial clothing and gloves for use with touch-screens;
Indium: Used in transistors, microchips, fire-sprinkler systems, as a coating for ball-bearings in Formula One cars and solar panels;
Yttrium: Used in white LED lights, camera lenses and can be used to treat some cancers;
Tantalum: Used in surgical implants, electrodes for neon lights, turbine blades, rocket nozzles and nose caps for supersonic aircraft, hearing aids and pacemakers.
Before this series of articles, I’d never heard the term “conflict elements.” I guess folks were successful with turning “conflict diamonds” into “blood diamonds” so I guess now we can call things “blood Teslas” or “blood iPhones” or “blood solar panels”, the possibilities are seemingly endless. Oh, and child/slave labor also gets a shout-out in these articles too.
It seems that Liberals are torn between telling you to recycle your old gizmos and guilt tripping folks that love technology. Maybe they’ll try doing both. Folks look for this pending shortage to be a way to raise even more taxes on recycling when you buy new stuff—even if it really ends up in the landfill. And if the predictions start to pan-out as being true, look for Elon Musk to propose mining asteroids, the Moon, or some other astronomical body to keep our stuff in production.
Bottom-line: Government planners and technology manufacturers seem to be on a collision course with reality. Mineral production is far less than long term demand and nothing will change that anytime soon.
Lastly, look for this as a future way to weaponize a movement against technology for the masses.
Three stories that make a difference that were buried in the last few days.
California is fulfilling their role as a take no prisoners, authoritarian regime. In the latest moves to ban the internal combustion engine and anything else that uses fossil fuels, California has created another list of politically incorrect people that are to be avoided. This time the list includes automakers that will not be allowed to sell to the State. First on the list are GM, Chrysler, Nissan, and Toyota.
Mary Nichols-California Air Resources Board
California issued a statement late Monday saying that as of January the state would only buy vehicles from automakers that recognize the California Air Resources Board’s authority to set tough greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles. California also pledged only to do business with automakers that committed to stringent emissions reduction goals.
Separately, the state also said it will no longer buy sedans that are powered only by internal combustion engines, no matter who manufactures the car. It will buy only plug-in electric or hybrid sedans, although California would make an exception for certain public safety vehicles. That rule does not apply to SUV or truck purchases.
This list is in addition to the ones that prohibit State employees and athletic teams from California State Universities from traveling to other States because the States are pro-life or pro-marriage; both of which are outlawed in California. I’m sure a similar list banning travel to places based on gun ownership is also in the works.
As a result of this utopian B.S., Elon Musk looks to be the beneficiary of more taxpayer money that he didn’t really earn. Of course this will be in addition to the money being directed to him as a result of the solar panel mandate that begins in January. Elon, by far, is the most heavily subsidized fellow in the history of the planet. Elon gets more corporate welfare from the government than any defense contractor ever dreamed.
Elon Musk has tax money to burn
Next up is California oil production, a story which is told via two news accounts.
But since taking office in January, Newsom’s own department of energy management has approved 33 percent more new oil and gas drilling permits than were approved under Newsom’s predecessor Jerry Brown over the same period in 2018—a median of 174 permits to drill new oil, gas, and cyclic steam wells approved a month, based on Geologic Energy Management Division (CALGEM) reports analyzed by CityLab.
The rate of fracking permits approved also soared at the start of the year, up 109 percent through June.
The fact that fracking approvals in California had spiked in the new year was first reported in July by the FracTracker Alliance and Consumer Watchdog. Newsom responded quickly to the news, firing the head of the approving agency for employing regulators who owned stock in oil companies, and directing the department to stop approving fracking permits. Since June 28, California hasn’t cleared any new hydraulic fracturing projects. After publication of this story on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported that Newsom announced he was fully stopping the permitting of new hydraulic fracturing pending independent scientific review. He also said he’d issue a moratorium on “new permits for steam-injected oil drilling.”
The lesson is, if you support jobs and energy then you won’t last long holding an appointed government office in California.
I think Chevron should move its headquarters from San Francisco to Texas ASAP and close all their California refineries when they go. If California wants to ban fossil fuels then I think the private sector should cooperate. Let’s give politicians a world without gasoline and diesel now. Why wait until 2040? After all, there’s no time like the present. Give fossil fuel users the same treatment that PG&E is giving their electrical customers. Clearly the environmentalist message is, if you hate the planet so much that you use fossil fuels, then you deserve some payback. You can’t break addiction without pain.
Oh and speaking of pain, our illustrious leaders also want to ban the last reliable fuel used to generate electricity, natural gas. (FYI nuclear is banned in California and hydroelectric is not considered renewable energy.)
Maybe we could shut natural gas off for a week or so in February just to show people what that’s really like. Maybe such a move right before the Primary Elections in March would cause voters to make more sensible choices on the ballot.
It doesn’t take a genius to know that electric vehicles are a scam based on wishful thinking and junk science plus a healthy dose of government intervention to try to manipulate markets to be more favorable to these politically endorsed ideas. If you needed a little more documentation to share with friends to prove the obvious, here are three more articles for your consideration. Oh, if you look them up, there are links in them to even more evidence.
Article One
A Tesla Model 3 is touted as a zero-emissions car by government regulators, but it actually results in more carbon dioxide than a comparable diesel-powered car, according to a recent study.
When the CO2 emissions from battery production is included, electric cars, like Teslas, are “in the best case, slightly higher than those of a diesel engine, and are otherwise much higher,” reads a release from the German think tank IFO.
“It’s better read as a warning that new technologies aren’t a climate-change panacea. Recall the false promises about corn and cellulosic ethanol,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote of the study.
A study released in 2018 also found driving electric cars might come with higher emissions than diesel vehicles, largely because of lithium-ion battery production.
Likewise, a Manhattan Institute study from 2018 also found putting more electric cars on the road would likely increase emissions compared to internal combustion engine vehicles.
A battery pack for a Tesla Model 3 pollutes the climate with 11 to 15 tonnes of CO2. Each battery pack has a lifespan of approximately ten years and total mileage of 94,000, would mean 73 to 98 grams of CO2 per kilometer (116 to 156 grams of CO2 per mile), Buchal said. Add to this the CO2 emissions of the electricity from powerplants that power such vehicles, and the actual Tesla emissions could be between 156 to 180 grams of CO2 per kilometer (249 and 289 grams of CO2 per mile).
German researchers criticized the fact that EU legislation classifies electric cars as zero-emission cars; they call it a deception because electric cars, like the Model 3, with all the factors, included, produce more emissions than diesel vehicles by Mercedes.
They further wrote that the EU target of 59 grams of CO2 per kilometer by 2030 is “technically unrealistic.”
The reality is, in addition to the CO2 emissions generated in mining the raw materials for the production of electric vehicles, all EU countries generate significant CO2 emissions from charging the vehicles’ batteries using dirty power plants.
For true emission reductions, researchers concluded the study by saying methane-powered gasoline engines or hydrogen motors could cut CO2 emissions by a third and possibly eliminate the need for diesel motors. “Methane technology is ideal for the transition from natural gas vehicles with conventional engines to engines that will one day run on methane from CO2-free energy sources. This being the case, the German federal government should treat all technologies equally and promote hydrogen and methane solutions as well.”
So maybe Elon Musk’s plan to save the world with electric cars is the biggest scam of our lifetime…
It’s becoming a joke all around the world — the EVs in Australia powered by dirty diesel. But what’s the difference?
Most EVs in Australia are running on fossil fuel — the generators are just hidden behind longer extension cords. (Ones that carry 240,000V). EVs on our grid are running on 80% of fossil fuels every day.
The sign on the charger above says “Nullarbor” — the vast treeless and grid-free center of Australia — but this is actually a test site in Perth (the trees were the giveaway).
The 3,000 kilometer trip across the Nullarbor from Perth to Adelaide is such an achievement for an EV that it’s practically a news story each time one makes it.
Electric Car owners carry a chip about not being able to drive across the country as any real car owner could.
So Jon Edwards, a retired engineer from Perth, set up this test site in his backyard. He wanted to know if it could be a realistic stop-gap for our far remote roads.
To me, this looks like a chain of efficiency losses going from diesel to mechanical to electrical to battery to mechanical, but Edwards tested it with ten friend’s cars last December and estimates it works out slightly better on fuel use than just driving a diesel.
The charger is a Tritium Veefil 50kW DC (a big fast one) and took 9 hours to charge all 10 cars and used 108L of fuel. Good for fuel. Bad for time. (The 6,600km return trip across the Nullabor took 13 days in case you were wondering, though they were not in a race).
There’s a good reason EVs are only 0.2% of all new Australian car purchases — with vast distances, a fragile grid, expensive electricity and heavy towing loads.
Plus these fast chargers are like adding “20 houses” to our grid, so will cripple the system or require billions of dollars of infrastructure costs.
The dumbest thing is that as long as they run off fossil fuels, they’ll probably increase our CO2 emissions, doing the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to be doing, but yet perversely helping plants grow.
Their big environmental benefit being mainly achieved by failing to do what they are intended to do.
