Green Path North – Evidence of Hard Choices Coming Everywhere
- 3
- Add a Comment
Here in Southern California, we use a lot of power. People have gotten used to a certain way of life, and that life includes things like air conditioning in summer, as global warming has made temperatures soar in the summer months. To worsen things further, residents are getting summer-like temperatures in spring and autumn as well. Indian summer was an October occurrence when I was a child, now it flows into December. Beyond that, the numbers of people from around the nation, flocking into ‘The Golden State’, keeps rising, with no end in sight. This has led to concentrated energy needs like nowhere else in the world.
It is no secret that California needs more power than it can currently produce, as we pay for energy to be brought in from other states most of the year. One thing that is designed to make some of the importing unnecessary in the future is something called the Green Path North Project.
The genesis of the project is hard to locate, but its largest supporter at this point is the mayor of Los Angeles. Mayor Villaraigosa is pushing hard for the building of this 85 mile excursion into the desert and forest areas of California, so that power can be brought into Los Angeles.
The forces against the project, which can be found online, are very much against every aspect of the project. Those forces contend that the project will corrupt desert lands, cause hardship to people who will lose their houses due to the use of eminent domain, and have the skyline ruined by large electrical towers transporting ultra high voltage electricity. The voltage is a big part of the problem, as voltage at this level causes the lines to be audible with noise that many find very disconcerting.
Part of this project would be the cleaning and usage of the Salton Sea, a large, highly saline, inland lake in the Coachella Valley, known for its abysmal smell most of the year, which permeates much of the area.
Here is where the trouble begins.
Many opposed to the project cite the marring of the natural land views. Some think this is a silly view, as there is so much of the desert land will be left untouched by this narrow corridor.
The energy produced will come partly from geothermal production from the Salton Sea, and a certain amount of cleanup will have to be done. How anyone could be against this is troubling, but the opposition to the project states this as one reason.
Other energy will come from solar farms that will be located near the corridor of the Green Path Project. Solar is a type of energy that almost no one is against, but this is also something the opposition is claiming as a large part of the problem. If their concerns are housing loss due to eminent domain, then that is a very valid point. If the opposition is simply due to not wanting solar panels in their part of the desert, that is, to most, less important, and less valid.
Still other concerns are for the apportionment of the power. Here is a point that the opposition has very valid concerns, and could be judged ‘correct’, by that ‘disinterested third party’. If the power is being made in the Coachella Valley, that area should enjoy the lion’s share of power generated, and any other spoils, such as tax exemptions and more favorable rates on electricity.
The final concern of the opposition is probably the hardest to divine. On one hand the transmission of power into the Los Angeles basin is necessary, and it must get there somehow – there is no way to pack it up and send it to L.A. by Fedex. On the other side, high power transmission lines have been proven to cause cancer in humans, so it most likely will cause harm to animal life in the area, possibly devastating any indigenous species.
These are the types of difficult choices that will have to be made all over the nation at some time in the future. The right answers are not right for everyone, but must be weighed so that the maximum number of people receive benefit without causing damage to the minority that is irreparable.
-
Technorati Tags: Green Path North - electricity production - EPA - environmental concerns - growth - UHV electricity - Los Angeles - desert conservation - Salton Sea
[tags] Green Path North, electricity production, EPA, environmental concerns, growth, UHV electricity, Los Angeles, desert conservation, Salton Sea [/tags]
3 Comments
randy addy
June 13th, 2008
at 11:03pm
In my opinion This Is No Green Path!
LADWP would like to put the towers in my front yard
And I don’t think so! As was pointed out , Thank You
My families health would be put at risk .Our property value will take a dive and the view I moved here for will be trashed.
My property is zoned RC Resource Conservation I am surrounded by land reserves and parks Ladwp thinks they have to go through these areas . Is this Really the right place for towers?Who thought this up?Did they think it would be a Slam Dunk? We would meet them in the streets with flowers?(rant off)
FACTS
1 The proposed lines are not needed. Existing lines available. and 21st tech allows for major upgrades.
2 love solar! Most of us use wind turbines and solar and over the next 5 years solar will be cheaper than grid. Panel and battery major breakthroughs. thanks to the Saudis.
3 There is no reason why every house in Los Angeles doesn’t have panels. Maybe some turbines off the coast of Malibu? Less distance to travel better value and security
4 Ladwp gets all the power we get squat. Say What? Yea that’s a good deal
I am all for green energy and we walk the talk! I use and know there are some good things available right now that eliminate the need for these particular towers. I do not buy there bull^#@t
Somebody wants to make a boatload of money building this crap. Ladwp wants to own some towers not lease .Who does this help? Why use Outdated tech? Just Follow the Money. Ladwp thinks this will be the same old story. Sneaky,Mean and Greedy. Better add Stupid to that. Ask Hillary she had it in the bag.
Thnx, Randy
Jim Harvey
June 19th, 2008
at 7:45am
Our biggest argument against GPN is that it is completely uneccessary. We cannot confuse indendendent localized solar with remote utility scale solar. There is a big difference. L.A. can generate all the reneable energy they need by utilizing existing developed surfaces like rooftops and parking garages. Giants like LADWP have lobbied hard to keep feed-in tariffs off the CA law books. Instead, all excess energy generated locally must be placed back in the grid without compensation by the retailers, which in turn resell it at peak prices.
Localized production eliminates the need for powerlines. The solution is clear, but giants like LADWP refuse to accept it because they are all about ownership and manipulation. This is about keeping their control over rate payers, not about doing the right thing. Millions of acres of pristine public lands will be destroyed with continued archaic remote generation and transmission. Placing PV on already developed surfaces destroys none. Furthermore, it costs less to generate locally than to do it remotely and transmit hundreds of miles into the urban load centers.
the oracle
June 19th, 2008
at 8:49am
Randy and Jim,
I am not against most of the ideas put forth by the opponents of GPN. One thing I am against is the specious claim that the corridor will ‘ruin pristine vistas’. There will be plenty of desert left after the towers are put in - however, I would be against the towers due to the EHV carried , and the possible carcinogenic effects. Further, I don’t think that a single person should be inconvenienced by eminient domain.
I simply think that when arguments are made, any part that is not absolutely correct can be a cause for the discount of the entire claim.
I hope that the path is not built, that power does get generated more locally, and that SOMEONE decides to clean up that disaster that is the Salton Sea.