TreeHugger:
Yesterday, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced his intention to make the city entirely coal-free by 2020, and turn to clean and renewable energy instead. Inspiring? Yes. Possible? Maybe not so much.
Now is the time for all good greens, rednecks, social entrepreneurs, hellraisers, Repower America and Al Gore to come to the aid of their fellow citizens in the Appalachian coalfields.
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Of course LA can do it. It's simply a matter of money. Replace the coal with wind, solar and geothermal generation, with natural gas for those times when the wind isn't blowing, the sun isn't shining, and the Earth isn't heating.
It won't be cheap, but the low cost of coal doesn't reflect all the bad side effects of its use.
2020 is probably too early to be completely coal free; cutting coal use b y half by 2020 is a more realistic goal.
Yes, and of course, California has all the money in the world.
If only we can get ALL the liberals to move to California... they can pass laws to solve all of mankind's problems, and then tax themselves into oblivion to pay for it.
LOL. That would be such a great idea.
"Why Conservatives Can't Govern":
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0607.wolfe.html
And I presume you are not a liberal. It shows - your ignorance.
what am I gonna do with my coal powered Chevy?
LADWP (LA dept of water and power) is one of the most powerful and wealthy agencies in CA, much less the US. If they wanted to, they could put solar panels on everyone's roof and charge them the same or less for the electricity. This will allow them to close down most of the coal plants. Convert what is left to natural gas.
We can help clean up LA and raise revenues at the same time. Tax excess house size, over 3,000 sq ft, 10% luxury tax on any extra homes above one, yard size tax, tax grass (xero scape). Tax a lack of trees, requiring at least one tree per 400sq ft of yard. Tax all power mowers, including electric. People can use push mowers or manual hand trimmers. All power tools should be taxed. We should also tax pets for their contribution to green house gases and consumption. Include a 100% excess pet tax for all pets over one. There will also be a pet weight tax. All farm animals will be considered pets for tax purposes.
The auto offers many options. Limit families to one car and place an annual 100% tax on any additional vehicles. Each car will have a transponder so we can tax any excess speed, excess acceleration, single occupant and total miles driven. Add an additional tax for driving during peak commute hours.
You seem to rely on taxes as the solution for every problem.
By the way, do you have any idea how big 400 square feet is?
it's about the size of a 2 car garage.
Some of em are good ideas but a little too late and clueless. There is not a lot of housing being built mostly due to the real estate slump and most of the land is already developed. I think there is also a program to reduce the lawn area and tree people gives away trees I think. Mowers don't think so but there is already I think incentives in place to go to rechargeable ones and some credit for newer more efficient appliances and there was an aborted attempt at getting pets neutered if only to have to quit euthanizing so many stray pets. Farm animals--not a lotta farms in LA wouldn't raise that much revenue. Altho I would outlaw 3 car garages and lotsa drive thru businesses and I think to promote transit oriented development around subway stops they want to reduce parking requirements.
And there are proposals to put up tolled roads on some freeways. I don't think how there can be much power growth because the city isn't growing that much anyway, it's too expensive most of the land area is already developed and the limiting factor will be water availability. I think this was in the pipeline anyway, the DWP used to be part owner of the coal plant but sold it's share but just buys the power.
Sounds like something out of the Chinese communist handbook.
I'm so glad we have smart people like you that tell us how to live our lives in such a complicated society. How many calories should I eat? Where should I go on vacation?, What color car should I drive.? What kind of pet should I buy? I'm lost without directions from government officials. ( I'm also broke ).
You forgot fat people. Taxes on everyone with a BMI in excess of Paris Hilton. All fast food will have a fatty surchage based upon the type of "Bad" cholesterol used to fry it. Then we can create a demand for better food by charging a "regularity" tax: anyone not having the government required amount of fiber, resulting in too frequent bowel movements and increased water/paper usage, will be charged per toilet visit.
Oh. Restaurants. Wooden chopsticks will be taxed, and customers will be required to use silverware used by prior customers unless they pay a "dishwashing" tax.
Be creative!!! There are all kinds of behaviors you people aren't regulating and taxing out there! Slackers!
It is the automobiles isn't it ?! !
We still need to (Replace Coal Burning Plants) with self sufficient electricity technology !
Repeal the second law of thermodynamics and all our energy problems will be solved.
"For some perspective, the largest solar plant in the country, the as-yet-unfinished Ivanpah Solar power plant in the Mojave Desert, will provide a mere 400 MW --"
--That's because Big Coal lobbies make it almost impossible to get startup funding FOR a giant solar plant that could produce 2800 MW.
The Ivanpah facility isn't even a photovoltaic plant at all, it is an EXPERIMENTAL SOLAR THERMAL generating station, and it uses a concentration of mechanically aimed concentric mirrors pointed at a central receptor
Each 100 megawatt plant requires 100 acres of land, thus 2800 megawatts would require
2800 acres of land IF IT were solar thermal. If you wanted to get 2800 megawatts out of photovoltaic panels it might take even less land.
Know how much land 2800 acres is?
Disney's planned "Disney's America" theme park in Manassas, Virginia is supposed to be located on a 3000 acre parcel of land.
So, for a plot of land the size of a Disney theme park, filled with photovoltaic panels, LA can forego its addiction to coal.
Yeah, I think I know what's making it difficult to realize, and it has a lot to do with palms being greased in Sacramento, and in Washington, and that's about it.
But how many Megawatts would it take to electrify L.A. in order to be self sufficient ??!
Currently, there's a 280 megawatt plant planned for Arizona that will power 70,000 homes and reduce CO2 emission by 400,000 tons. Check out http://www.greencoolhip.com/cool-stuff/79/solar-mirrors/
I would say a combination of solar and wind plants, and a push for electric cars can make that goal possible. Would it be 2020 - I don' t know. We can' t assume the next mayor will see things the same way as the current one, and we can't forget lobbyists and big business and their political donations.
woops! you are off by 10 times on the land CSP kills. Where do you get this garbage? Ivanpah is 4,000 acres, not 400, plus roads, staging and transmission. plus it will waste tens of millions of gallons of scarce desert groundwater every year just for rinsing mirrors. it will destroy precious desert tortoise habitat, and increase global warming by destroying highly-effective carbon-sequestering ecosystem and spewing SF6 out of all the new transmission infrastructure required (yep, although there are powerlines there, they are building out all new transmission). Plus, since the Mojave is so much hotter than LA, power production will STEEPLY DROP in summer, because CSP (and PV) are far less efficient in hot climates.
Ivanpah is a crime against nature and humanity. CHEVRON AND BP ARE THE ONES BEHIND IT - do you really think they are interested in "doing the right thing?" THEY ARE EXPLOITING US AND OUR PLANET AGAIN and you are helping them.
Why aren't you working harder on getting US loans for PV and efficiency upgrades on our own properties within the built environment, and feed in tariffs so we are paid to produce more non-lethal power than we use?
Residential recreational wood burning is a big problem there too.
You are correct up to the word "too."
Burning coal for electricity has nothing to do with smog in the Los Angeles basin.
The photo here is misleading.
As of March 2009 new construction and remodeling will not allow wood burning fireplaces, they have to be gas logs as with most of the rest of California.
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First Posted: 07-10-09 06:21 PM | Updated: 08-10-09 05:12 AM