First electric tractor ride

[Torvy]

I wonder how many people know that. 131 million acres were given to the railroads by the federal government to encourage development. Lobbying works! 'Entitlements' aren't anything new.

Wikipedia:


My great-grandparents homesteaded land - with a title from the government - then SP railroad claimed it was within their checkerboard. They and neighbors raised $20k, a huge sum 150 years ago, to send an attorney to DC to appeal. Never heard from him. They had to go homestead a different parcel.

Required teaching in 8th and 11th in Texas. Even worse, the railroad deliberately made the tracks zigzag to add miles, and money, to the project. Poorly written contracts by bureaucrats who were either corrupt or incompetent.

You are wrong on Entitlements. That word does not mean what you think it means.

 

[Paystar]

We already made great strides in reducing pollution to where those orange clouds in your pics don't exists any more......except for the big factories that still pump out pollution. But nobody seems to worry about those, they just want to attack the homeowner and his weed eater.

Anyway, I'm taking great pleasure in watching the power grid in California fail. Bahahahaha.....have fun with your electric cars tree huggers.

 

[ljjhouser]

Look, I favor nuclear energy and drive a Suburban. I burn wood as primary heat for my home, with natural gas backup. I dislike wind farms. I like solar. Coal is a major polluter. So are oil based fuels. I dislike ethanol, as it's production is a terrible waste of BTUs. I love my 2-stroke engines.

So it's not like I'm actively trying to end our way of life, which I enjoy a lot. However, reality is that it is unsustainable. When I was born in 1961 there were just over 3 billion people on the planet. By the end of 2022, it's projected to hit 8 billion people.

8 billion people burning fossil fuels... it's gotta go somewhere. And it's unsustainable.

Interesting. There are several words and thoughts here that should probably be discussed. Nuclear power is extremely efficient and low cost. People now are calling it the "new clean energy." But I tend to believe that the problem is not as simple as what type of energy is best. Rather, it is the overuse of any energy. Yes, we live in a closed system. There are limiting factors. The world has experienced "exponential" population growth during the past 100 years. No matter what the limiting factor - air, water, food, space, etc. uncontrolled population growth will always exceed current technology and resources. By the way, the 1/2 life of uranium contaminated water is thousands of years. Water is a limiting factor - how are we doing with that.

I know it is not popular, but someday we may have to understand that there are many limiting factors on Earth and exceeding them has consequences such as population kills. And overusing electric (as we are already doing) by adding ev transportation is not the answer. Population growth may be.

Not popular, I know.

 

[Eagle1]

Not wrong -- we are near the lemming stage, but never fear the world's governments are on the case.

 

[California]

Anyway, I'm taking great pleasure in watching the power grid in California fail. Bahahahaha.....have fun with your electric cars tree huggers.

Whatever you're reading isn't telling you the truth. The grid did fine, didn't fail like you said.

We experienced heat that has exceeded past records by substantial margins - 114 here with previous record 108 for example - and the overall system met the demand. It's not like that Texas winter case where everything went down for days and they said the windmills did it. (Actually their system control hardware wasn't winterized and didn't switch available generating resources online when needed).

A few small local-owned systems, small towns etc here, had to go to rolling blackouts due to their local insufficient distribution systems but the statewide overall grid met the challenge of this extraordinary weather. I saw many warnings that rolling blackouts might be invoked, few actually were.

Part of the overall planning is special low electric rates for users who agree to shut down when asked. Maybe that's what you read. Many electric car owners are on this plan and charge after midnight, they aren't part of the 4-9pm peak load.

We're doing ok. Now if people would quit moving here! Population 9 million when I was born, now 39 million. Nobody come here, it's too crowded!

 

[5030]

From what I read, your population is moving out and didn't Newsom just ask Californians to conserve not only water but curtail charging their toasters?

So, who is telling the truth and who is lying?

 

[California]

... By the way, the 1/2 life of uranium contaminated water is thousands of years. Water is a limiting factor - how are we doing with that.

PGE started to build a nuclear plant on Bodega Head (an hour north of San Francisco). The visitor center at the site had a brochure that said approximately "one advantage of the plant will be the unique opportunity to study the effect of radiation on marine life". I read this and WTF???

It never got built. Excavating for the foundation discovered a major bedrock offset.

The San Andreas Fault ran right under the site. That's not where you want a nuclear reactor.

 

[California]

From what I read, your population is moving out and didn't Newsom just ask Californians to conserve not only water but curtail charging their toasters?

So, who is telling the truth and who is lying?

Well whoever told you about charging up their toasters might be be lying.

The request for everyone to reduce water use is very real. The climate is warming and the massive snowpacks in NorCal that have provided water all year are much smaller, and are further diminished by warm rains that cause earlier melt.

This thread began [edit - oops. This is the thread discussing that] with some local water district warning customers that they likely wouldn't receive their usual distribution of NorCal water so the customers would likely need to reduce usage plus will pay more for what they do get. That problem is statewide, the water just isn't there, to distribute.

Yes people are leaving the state, its good to see. The near-desert geography where most of the population lives can't sustain that many people. Idaho seems to be a popular destination.

 

[Eagle1]

I escaped CA in the 80's but I say let CA be first. If they can make a "green" electric grid and transportation system work without importing most of their power we will get some new solutions. Not always a bad thing. We have learned much from CA and it's not all bad.

 

[California]

You are wrong on Entitlements. That word does not mean what you think it means.

I don't think you realize I throw in 'entitlements' occasionally as snark.

The railroads shouldn't have been 'entitled' to that much land (50% of the 40 mile corridor on each side of their route?). That was a feature their lobbyists likely bought for them in Congress.