Commission Impossible

It's just so confuuuusing. They want us to get off the grid, so they are undertaking massive projects to enlarge the grid. Hmmmm.

Power can be produced locally, right in your town. Power plants need to be smaller and more numerous. And locally owned. I don't like the idea of a large generator in one place, owned and run by people like the boys from Enron, and then all of us, dependent on wiring strung all over the place. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

There's two kinds of chickens, the ones that run into the chicken house gratefully at night, and the ones that roost in the trees. Chicken house chickens are alot easier to catch, for whatever purpose, petting or eating. You can make then so tame they won't even wiggle on the chopping block. Tree chickens, well, you might get their eggs if you watch them carefully, but good luck getting your hands on them. Hold them away from your face.

This green yadda, like electric cars, is too often just another form of being on the grid/in the chicken house. I used to think wind power was great, cause my family had a wind-powered well when I was a kid. It worked so good, my grandpa showed us all how to unhook the wheel from the pump so it wouldn't overflow the tank. Now we find out wind power means massive projects undertaken by corporations, with tax funding, that have questionable effects on the environment, and raise the price of the electricity, just like what we've already got.

But if we think these people are just going to give up their money machine to make the planet a better place, well, we're a bunch of dummies. Sure, they love electric cars, cause like you say, it amounts to a bunch of electric dryers driving up and down the road all day.

And then they want to add these "smart" meters, which allow them to adjust prices by the minute. You're supposed to look at your smart meter so you'll know if you can afford to do that load of wash right this minute. But let's face it, most of us do the laundry when we have the time to do it, or, when we are out of underwear, so they will just be making more money. Imagine those guys from Enron deciding how much your power is worth from minute to minute, based on your need/use. I mean, they're playing stock market with our daily commodities, and our government says it's okay.

So, this project is not to serve us, it's for them to get more money. With the blessing of our government. We need a Teddy Roosevelt or a Howard Taft, but we are stuck with Warren G. Harding. Letting corporations get too big and spread out, well, we been there before.

After that last four day power out, my family decided to start roosting in the trees. Those phone conversations between the Enron brokers were still ringing fresh in our ears.

My kids love to make stuff out of old parts. I'm trying to interest them in building me one of these:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/02/bicilavadora-the-bike-pow_n_170983.html

Juanita,

Well, I disagree with your characterization fo corporations. I think it's easy to point at bad examples like Enron. My business completes almost every transaction with corporations, either as vendors or customers. They pay on time, pay fairly well, and can be counted on to honor contracts. I'm very happy to not work with the government to any large extent. Non-profits are also corporations.

Comparing the operations of UPS or FedEx to the post office are good examples of the difference in efficiency between government and private corporations. I can ship a product to New Zealand, have it insured and track it's progress, and even deal with corporate staff to ensure customs laws in the various countries are adhered to. In fact we did that last week via UPS. With the post office I can't guarantee that an important shipment will get where I want it to go.

But I do think local generation of energy, where feasible, is a good idea. And I think people who want to "get off the grid" should be able to. I can imagine a time where that might be illegal. For example, if the government wants to tax people (not just corporations) for CO2 production, how would they do that? They'd have to regulate and measure energy usage of everyone. You can't do that with someone "off the system". Because even if you are producing your own energy, you are also producing CO2.

As far as this project goes, I think it's more like a highway construction/rennovation than a corporate money making scheme. But the fact is you can't move away from consumers using petroleum based energy without a major upgrade of the energy transmission network. If the government is going to do that these projects will become more common (as will the taxes that pay for them).

It is interesting that one of the routes is through the park. I wonder if similar projects are being undertaken in other regions as part of a broader plan? That might be interesting to look into.

Lon

Get a load of this website:

http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm

I wonder if I could use that to charge my car battery.

Lon

The transmission lines are to connect to renewable power sources, especially wind turbines in Lassen and eastern Shasta counties. The new state mandate requires something like 20% of California's power to be renewable.

There is a proposed wind turbine farm on private timber land above Burney. It will impact the view of the Hatchet Ridge from Burney, but it seems like a relatively good location.

In days gone by the hydroelectric system along the Highway 70 on the N Fork of the Feather was considered admirable. Then it was considered ravaging of nature. If you inspect the system of tunnels, turbines, and power dams one can't help but admire the engineering. And the water runs downhill on its own, clean and not polluting, and powering our laptops.

We need the tranmission lines. The Earth needs us to get transmission lines to realize renewable power sources. We need to route the lines in locations that are optimal considering our environment and the engineering needs. I hope that we can be big enough in Chico to help make this work, so we can leave a legacy of a robust, sustainable, renewable, and clean energy system for the future.

Transmission lines are the Fifth Sign from the ancient Hopi prophesies. Freeways are the sixth.

"This is the First Sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana men who took the land that was not theirs. And men who struck their enemies with thunder.

"This is the Second Sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes -- the white men bringing their families in wagons across the prairies."

"This is the Third Sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White Feather saw with his eyes -- the coming of the white men's cattle."

"This is the Fourth Sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron."

"This is the Fifth Sign: The land shall be criss-crossed by a giant spider's web."

"This is the Sixth sign: The land shall be criss-crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun."

"This is the Seventh Sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it."

"This is the Eight Sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom.

"And this is the Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.

Shouldn't you be reciting old Viking proverbs?

Like...

Viking proverbs:

"Praise not the day until evening has come, a woman until she is burnt, a sword until it is tried, a maiden until she is married, ice until it has been crossed, beer until it has been drunk."

"Growl not at guests, nor drive them from the gate but show thyself gentle to the poor."

"Go often to the house of a friend; for weeds soon choke up the unused path."

Lon

here's a viking proverb: life's a bitch and then you die.

when there was an article in the ER showing the three possible routes, the one that ran on the west side of the valley seemed like it would be the least invasive to people and the evironment

I think the Viking proverb actually goes...

"Life's a bitch, and then you kill it and pillage its neighborhood"

Lon

life is good this morning. I actually had to put a warm shirt on to go outside.

It's hard to relate to the vikings, they had such a severe existence. They weren't supposed to praise or complain, because if you praised something, somebody might take it, and if you complained, they might make it worse. They believed that spirits were always watching, gods hid in animal and object form, always watching, testing, poking, waiting for you to be weak and fail. Always testing you for Ragnarök - the battle that would lead to the destruction of the old earth and re-emergence of a new earth.

When you think about the history of the earth, that last part does make sense. But of course, how were they to know we'd eventually be sucked into the sun - that never happened before. This is, of course, unless we get smacked by another comet or two.

Maybe the Hopi came up with number 9 (number 9, number 9) after that big comet smashed into the gulf of Mexico. And then, can you imagine, being alive during the great scabland floods, or the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that parted the Red Sea and joined North to South America? I bet it looked something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvkwBmfZAeo

nothing like a dose of Raquel Welch to get the day going.