WyBlog

Why are we forced to swelter in the dark?

Yesterday afternoon at around 3 PM the lights went out. A fire in a nearby electrical switching station knocked out the power to Caldwell, Verona, and most of the surrounding towns. PSE&G was able to restore service to almost all of the affected customers by 8:30 PM.

Utility companies are operating at or near capacity due to the excessive heat. There is a high demand for electricity to operate air conditioners, fans, ice machines, etc as well as for all the normal usages like computers, TVs, and home appliances. The demand for electricity should have come as no surprise to PSE&G; they've been in the electric power business for over 100 years so they've probably got a pretty good idea of how much power their customers will need on a given day.

So why do they "run out" of power? Why does a minor circuit breaker fire cause them to cut off service to 75,000 people for more than a few minutes? They should have sufficient excess capacity, and the means to switch it into service, to handle this type of event.

Except they don't have any excess capacity. They haven't built a new power plant in decades. Demand keeps rising and the supply of electricity does not keep pace. Surely the management at PSE&G would want to add more capacity. Selling electricity is what they do, being able to sell more of it will bring them more revenue and presumably higher profits.

No, it's not PSE&G's fault that we sweltered in the dark for 5 1/2 hours yesterday. The blame lies squarely with the environmental movement -- the ecowarriors and the tree huggers won't allow the construction of any new power plants. They fight tooth and nail against even the most minor upgrades to the existing infrastructure. New transmission lines or substations are portrayed as evil impositions on Mother Nature.

Their only "solution" to the problem of rising demand for electricity is "conservation". Turn off the lights. Don't run that air conditioner. Swelter in the dark to become one with Gaia. It would be laughable if so many politicians, government officials, and well-intentioned but misguided people didn't take them so seriously. Their propaganda makes it seem like construction of even one new power plant will result in the immediate extinction of every bird and wild animal within a 100 mile radius. Nothing of the sort will actually happen, but anyone who dares to counter their extremist doomsaying is instantly tagged as a big, bad meanie who hates mom and apple pie.

The environmentalists see people as a problem; we're a parasite sucking the life out of the Earth Goddess. Their beliefs center around negative assertions -- "no", "don't", and "not" prefix their statements. No Nukes. Don't Drill for Oil. Not in My Backyard. Their desire is for a reduction in the human population so that the world can be restored to a state of pristine wilderness. Turtles should be permitted to live anywhere they would like, but people need to be shunted into urban population centers, with their means of travel restricted (as in no more road construction) so they can't disturb the forests and swamps.

Somebody needs to stand up to this idiocy. People need to come first! We have a growing, almost insatiable demand for energy. Let's find a way to meet that demand. Our next president should embark this nation on a crash program of new power plant construction. He should set a goal of doubling our electrical output by the year 2020. Surely American engineering and scientific know-how and our can-do pioneer spirit should be able to find a way to do this while not adversely impacting the environment on a massive scale. We burn oil and natural gas to generate electricity and heat our homes when we could and should be using nuclear power. Then the oil would be available to make gasoline, and prices would not be anywhere near $4 per gallon.

Some environmental disruption is necessary. That's the nature of progress. I'm not saying that we should turn vast swaths of countryside into clones of Linden or Bayonne. But, we need more Lindens and Bayonnes (and Oyster Creeks and Galvestons) if we're going to remain on the road to prosperity.

Otherwise we're going to swelter in the dark.

Posted at 10:38 by Chris Wysocki   [/rants]   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |   |   Tweet