First published in the Sept. 3 print issue of the Glendale News-Press.
I am 78 years old and have just realized I am an idiot.
I have been concerned about the infrastructure (water and electricity) in California for years.
I have never understood how you could continue to add tens of thousands of apartments and houses with little or no regard for where the water, electricity and sewage processing will come from.
I have been told “renewables stupid” so many times I actually started to think maybe I didn’t get it.
So here we are on day two of a five-day heat wave and the headline in the L.A. Times is “Heat Pushes Power Grid to Limit” and we are one broken pipe away from having no water.
If we think the existing power grid is being pushed to the limit, now wait until hundreds of thousands of electric cars come on line, all new housing units (homes and apartments) can only install electric appliances and the electric powered bullet train is running — then think where we will be when we have a hot spell.
I understand about wind farms, solar farms and batteries but please.
Until our enlightened leaders understand that we need to beef up the infrastructure can we just stop talking about “renewables” and realize that it takes massive amounts of water and electricity to just maintain what we presently have.
Now that they have decided to ban gasoline-powered car sales in 2035 (13 years from now) let them now concentrate on how to make sure my lights don’t go out when the temperature gets above 100 and water continues to come out of my shower.
Unfortunately, I don’t think they have the intelligence or the will to figure it out.
Jim Kussman
Glendale
