I understand that folks like to jab at California. Hey, that's o.k. I
think folks who choose to live in the desert are nuts too, so what the hey
<g>
HOWEVER, your county sold you out for $$. I'm assuming you're in either
Maricopa or La Paz counties? Ah, where they are busy collecting 2 millions
in taxes eaach year from the power lines. AND, it took the approval of the
bureaucrats in those counties, plus the BLM, plus CPU, plus the company
selling the power is making about $164 million. The plant wasn't able to
sell enough electricity in AZ and was considering bankruptsy. So, AZ opted
for the 500 construction jobs, a company not going into bankruptsy and the
annual property taxes for the two counties.
BTW, the juice is going to the Palm Sprints area and California use very
little electricty per capita (.652)! Only the folks in Tennessee (.16),
Georgia (.13) and Connecticut (.087) use less. Arizona, on the other hand,
uses 1.049, almost double what folks in CA use. Plus, per $10 million GDP,
California only uses 1.525, whereas Arizona uses 3.119 per $10 million GDP.
So, while California is the second highest energy user, in total (235,438),
its per capita is low (total population #1 at 36,756,666), it is low for GDP
(#1 with 1,846,757). While Arizona's total useage (62,281) is high for a
population of 6,500,180 and a GDP of only 247,028.
The numbers, Arizona's population is 17% of California's but its GDP is only
13% of California's and yet the total energy consumption is 26% of
California's. Thus making the per capital use almost double that of
Californians. As my Gramma used to say, folks need to clean up their own
backyards before worrying about their neighbor's.
Also, you pay, on average, in AZ 10.36kwh. It would be much higher if they
weren't making that sweetheart deal. You could be paying the average in CA,
15.29kwh.
Ah, as to seeing LA, you do know that you can see Phoenix and Yuma from
Mexico and Baja at night and if you are traveling back from CA you can
definately see Phoenix from a LONG way off! Plus, once you get there it is
lit up like Vegas!
Lynda
--"I'm fascinated by the hard line you're drawing over religion -- It gets
used too much, as an excuse, a fall guy, a weapon, a con. A lot of people,
maybe most, don't mean it except when it suits them." Dallas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Leslie" <cayadopi AT yahoo.com>
On NIMBY. I would love to see a law passed that says that energy can not be
transmitted more than 20 miles from the production source (or some such low
size number). For example - there is a nat gas electric plant here in the
desert where there is very limited water. The nat gas electric plant has
cooling towers and uses tremendous amounts of water - and is dropping the
regional water table level 1 foot per year now. The water just evaporates
into the air and doesn't come back as it usually only rains here a few times
a year. Who gets all this electricity? Not us! Not a single KW is sold here.
Every KW is shipped to California because they are NIMBYs! Transmitting the
electricity that far required a TON of mining operation to extract copper,
spewing tons of diesel fumes into the air, tons of more contruction
emissions to clear paths and erect transmission lines across two states to
send electricity to the NIMBY's.
I just came back from California. Driving from Phoenix to LA at midnight, I
thought we were getting close to LA because the sky looked like a sunrise in
the western sky. Nope. We were more than 100 miles away, yet could see all
the city lights. From there I drove to San Diego, again at nighttime,,,
practically a solid sea of lights the entire coast line from LA to San
Diego. Lights from electricity shipped to them from 2 states away - so they
can pretend they are "green" while negatively impacting the environment of
some other community far far away. Lights turned on while sleeping. Liights
turned on at 2am in skyscrapers where workers have gone home. Lights
lighting up streets where no one is driving, and where cars have headlights
to light the way anyway. What hipocracy.
People need to put their actions where their mouths are and start turning
off the lights, including the city street lights. They need to either stop
purchasing or start unplugging all those little electronic gadgets that have
LED readouts on them or on standby with remotes (5 watts an hour x 24 hrs a
day x 30 days a month.... x how many in each household?)
Governments can tax people all they want and send the money to 3rd world
countries so they can develop and turn their lights on and purchase energy
from the energy producers.... but that will not change a damn thing. It has
to start with individuals turning OFF their wasteful energy use habits.
The energy source with the least amouont of impact is solar on each
individual property. There are no transmission lines needed (except from
panels to building). That alone reduces the amount of mining for dwindling
resources. There is no need to cut down trees for power lines. There is no
need to waste a ton of fuel for construction. (Fuel is needed for shipping
panels, etc initially). There is no need to replace old power poles, or
erect them again and again after hurricanes or earthquakes or wildfires.
For all people who believe the earth is warmer because of man (even though
the evidence is coming out that the research allegedly proving man caused
the globe to warm as opposed to normal natural cycles of sun, etc was
fabricated on a massive conspiratorial level) . then start right now with
putting money where mouth is. Stop consuming energy at the personal level,
and produce the energy needs on your own property instead of purchasing it
from production sources in other states. (What isn't in dispute is in some
parts of the globe that temps have risen, the dispute is whether it is man
or a natural cyclical phase. When I learned that a town was discovered
underneath a receeding glacier in Norway that clearly tells me that the
globe has been this warm before - and it was before the invention of cars
and coal plants.)
Another significant trend coming up just over the horizon that will impact
us also at the energy level - Mexico's Cantarell Field. Miexico will soon
(next couple of years) have to face a choice - continue exporting oil and
deny their own people access to oil - or to stop exporting so their own
people can have oil. Mexico is a major supplier of oil to the US. Last
year's high gas prices (diesel hit $5 in Texas in 2008) may very well turn
out to be the fat lady just clearing her throat before really starting to
sing, as depletion rates are on the rise.
The world is nothing but a bunch of NIMBYs! Reminds me of the kids when
they were little and the finger pointing. Everything was someone else's
fault and the culprit always turned out to be "who me, I didn't do
anything."