The Roots of California's Energy Problems Go Back Decades

Tex presented a couple of theories she'd come across about California's utility problems that have led to blackouts in much of Northern California.  One not so good, and the other started to get at the real issues- but it goes back much further than that.  I came across this thread of tweets by Mike Shellenberger, who is an interesting fellow- He's a lauded environmentalist (Time Magazine Hero of the Environment 2008), and now runs "Environmental Progress", an organization that promotes Nuclear power as a major force in clean energy.
"And so et al used renewables as public relations cover in order to kill the only technology, nuclear, that can replace fossil fuels, in large measure to protect their own family's oil monopoly, in addition to fear-mongering about nuclear for 40+ years."
There's too much in the thread for me to put it here, but it gets into Jerry Brown's first term, and the relationship of personal and oil interests in killing nuclear power, and promoting unreliable and impotent renewables instead.

He's coming out with a book next year that will go in depth, but the thread should give you a sense of what it's about.
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7 comments:

  1. Gringo9:34 AM

    The HTML link needs to be corrected.

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  2. Wendy Laubach9:39 AM

    If you have a weak grasp of numbers, blowing off nuclear and putting all your faith in wind and solar seems like the kind of thing a nice person would do. In the meantime, hard-eyed men burn coal and gas to make the electricity that runs your iPhone.

    I can't post this week, something's funny about my log-in, which I suspect has to do with the replacement computer I'm trying to use while my regular one is off to the Apple store by mail for service. Anyway, if I could post I'd draw your attention to today's Duffel Blog article about the tragic suicide of al-Baghdadi and what we as a community could have done to prevent it. https://us6.campaign-archive.com/?e=5385c3a6f7&u=a21e3e95a6532ae08eca17f01&id=10187e57c3 But we may never understand this young man's motives.

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  3. E Hines3:45 PM

    It must be something in the way it was presented in the blog facility when the post was written. I copied it into this comment just as it is, and it works fine:

    this thread of tweets by Mike Shellenberger

    Likely, the HTML code for the link was entered directly into the post rather than provided by the blog facility's LINK button.

    Eric Hines

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  4. douglas3:15 AM

    Thanks Mr. Hines- yes I'm a dummy who doesn't proof read late at night...

    Anyway I fixed the formatting.

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  5. douglas3:16 AM

    Re-reading that- I don't mean it to be snarky, I meant it!

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  6. E Hines11:42 PM

    I knew what you meant; no sweat.

    Sadly, though, the link still doesn't work:
    Not Found
    Error 404

    I can't see anything wrong in the code.

    Eric Hines

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  7. douglas7:54 PM

    Jeeze. I don't know what I did but the link had a blogger address beginning and then the correct twitter address. I guess I can add not checking links to my manifold faults as a blogger. Corrected. not that it matters now, but I was determined to make it right.

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