BTW solar and wind energy production is pretty predictable in certain parts of the country......ie. solar in S. CA and wind in West TX.
Yeah.. the sun shines 12 hours a day (if that) and the wind blows on average approx 350 days a year.
But what do we do when the sun doesn't shine (especially at night), or the wind fails to blow?
System operators curtailed power to interruptible customers to shave 1,100 megawatts of demand within 10 minutes, ERCOT said. Interruptible customers are generally large industrial customers who are paid to reduce power use when emergencies occur.
No other customers lost power during the emergency, ERCOT said. Interruptible customers were restored in about 90 minutes and the emergency was over in three hours.
ERCOT said the grid's frequency dropped suddenly when wind production fell from more than 1,700 megawatts, before the event, to 300 MW when the emergency was declared.
reuters.com
Then there's the, only now realized, cost of expanding the grid to provide even greater redundancy in the case of power outages caused by wind interruptions.
jsonline.com
Every alternative has it's pros and cons, just a fossil has them.. But if the energy source cannot provide "BASELOAD" power (nearly 24x7x365 availability), then the economic cost of building redundancy into the system will outweigh any potential benefits and become a drag on economic productivity.
Do you think that the first cars with internal combustion engines were the BMW 7 series
The Model T was the first widely available vehicle that PEOPLE COULD ACTUALLY AFFORD. Show me an electric car that matches that criteria with the Model T and I'm all for electric. But I don't think people sitting on "extended unemployment benefits" are going to be able to afford the $41K Chevy Volt.
Every dollar spent on unemployment benefits goes back into the economy and acts as a stimulus.
Every dollar spent on Welfare does the very same thing. So why not just put those people on Welfare, as opposed to putting the burden back on bankrupt unemployment Insurance plans. I was just talking with my cousin and they've seen unemployment insurance premiums rise by nearly 100% and they've been told to expect another one.
All because the Federal Government is LOANING MONEY to the states to keep people on unemployment rolls. But that's money the states have to pay back, which leads to higher U-E insurance premiums and higher costs to (especially small) businesses.
insurancenewsnet.com
How does that help the economy? Wouldn't putting them to work to earn a honest day's pay be a better proposition and given something back to society, as well as their self-esteem?
Or has an honest day's work been removed from our lexicon of American Values?
My mother was telling me to tonight that her Senior's center is running a $5K deficit and she was thinking about giving them a gift to reduce a major part of that. So I have to ask why some of those people receiving Welfare.. err... UE benefits, can't be required to provide some community service so the taxpayers get an ROI on the money they are giving out?
You do believe in ROI, don't you?
I'm all for helping the needy.. But for their own self-esteem, as well as protecting the rights of the remaining taxpayer base, we need to get an ROI so we're not creating a society of free-loaders.
If that's what a Republican believes, I guess I'm guilty as charged.
But I seem to recall that Clinton actually passed a WORKFARE law. But it just died on the vine on implementation and execution.
Hawk |
