Would these be planned and scheduled blackouts, as opposed to the ones that happen because all that “green” energy cannot provide the power necessary in the People’s Republik Of California?
Would an occasional blackout help solve climate change?
What’s more important: Keeping the lights on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, or solving the climate crisis?
That is in many ways a terrible question, for reasons I’ll discuss shortly. (lots of yammering about lawsuits, unplanned blackouts, gas power)
Again and again, I’ve found myself asking: Would it be easier and less expensive to limit climate change — and its deadly combination of worsening heat, fire and drought and flood — if we were willing to live with the occasional blackout?
I’m not talking about a long-term future of sketchy power supplies. Plenty of studies have found that keeping the lights on with 100% climate-friendly electricity is entirely possible, especially if energy storage technologies continue to improve.
But our short- and medium-term futures are more tricky.
I have to wonder if writer Sammy Roth and the LA Times turn off all their power here and there
Could we get started ditching gas sooner — and save some money — by accepting a few more blackouts for the next few years? (snip)
I got a similar reaction on Twitter.
Of the hundreds of people who responded to my question, most rejected the idea that more power outages are even remotely acceptable — for reasons beyond mere convenience. A former member of the L.A. Department of Water and Power’s board of commissioners wrote that “someone dies every time we have a power outage.” An environment reporter in Phoenix — where temperatures have exceeded 110 degrees for a record 20 straight days — said simply, “Yikes.”
I wonder how many of those believe in anthropogenic climate change, but, aren’t willing to inconvenience their own lives? But, then Roth gets squishy
After reporting on clean energy for most of the last decade, I’ve increasingly come to the conclusion that solving climate change will require sacrifices — even if only small ones — for the sake of the greater good. Those might include lifestyle changes such as driving less or eating less meat. They might also include accepting that large-scale solar farms will destroy some wildlife habitat, and that rooftop solar panels — despite their higher costs — have an important role to play in cleaning up the grid.
Maybe learning to live with more power outages shouldn’t be one of those sacrifices.
It’s a long piece, and, at the heart, it really is about forcing Other People to accept blackouts which mean no Internet, no lights, not TV, no refrigerators, etc. All for a scam.
Read: LA Times Wonders If An Occasional Blackout Would Help ‘Climate Change’ »