It is monsoon season across the American Southwest. Las Vegas received a month’s worth of rain in two hours. The misconception about drought conditions is that there is a lack of rainfall. However, in 2013 — the driest year in the last ten years — Los Angeles received 3.6″ of rain. One inch of rainfall produces 3.8 billion gallons of runoff. Within hours, 12 billion gallons of rainwater simply flowed into the Pacific Ocean. That’s enough to supply 30-50% of the city’s water needs.
The problem is magnified across the state. In a wet year, California loses 18 trillion gallons of rainwater in just one month.
The solution — as with electricity — is to impose mandatory cutbacks.
The state needs reservoirs and power generation plants but the party in power has long been opposed to building this critical infrastructure. The same goes with refineries. The politicos tell the oil companies to produce more gasoline, but the same politicians have not permitted construction of a new refinery since the 1970’s.
San Diego had a flex alert the other day. We basically were told not to use any electricity between 4 PM to 9 PM. That is totally insane!
Yet, the state wants everyone to drive electric cars. The governor has banned the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035, but there aren’t enough charging stations to make it feasible. In any case, there isn’t enough electricity to even keep the lights on! (I challenge anyone to attempt a cross-country drive in an electric vehicle. Good luck when the battery dies and the nearest charging station is 500 miles away.)
The Wall Street Journal said that CO2 emissions from the mining of lithium and production of electric batteries is more harmful to the environment than oil and gas. Not to mention that disposal of the spent batteries is a toxic hazard.
There are commonsense solutions to our critical needs but — like energy and water — commonsense seems to be even more scarce.
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