Blind Carbon Copying

Our grandfathers were builders.  Our fathers were maintainers and we, alas are dismantlers. 

Theodore Roosevelt looked at the isthmus of Panama and envisioned a canal. Then Roosevelt looked at the arid west with its raging rivers and envisioned dams and irrigation.  That's why we can live here.  It's why Phoenix isn't like Egypt--400 miles long and a mile wide, lifeless desert cut by the thin blue ribbon of the Nile

Then men like Carl Hayden, Morris Udall, John Rhodes and Barry Goldwater looked at Arizona and realized that it has plenty of water--it's just in the wrong place.  They envisioned a project that would move 1.3 million acre feet of Colorado River water over a distance of 300 miles, with a rise of 3,000 feet.

Do you know how much power it takes to move 1.3 million acre feet of water up 3,000 feet and across 300 miles?  It takes an entire power plant.  Our Grandfathers who built the canal and the power plant also realized that they could use Navajo and Hopi coal to power that plant and give the tribes a revenue source for generations to come. 

Today's "leaders" want to close the plant--We've gone from "envisioning" to "building" to "maintaining" to "dismantling" in four generations.  And each generation seems to find a novel way to screw the Indians. 

In yesterday's post, I pointed out the irony of Representative Tom Chabin railing against Carbon despite representing a district whose main industry is coal power production.  Today, I point the finger more widely.

Sure, some have argued that we could tear down the Navajo generating station and replace it with a solar plant.  Those who make that argument don't understand that a 2,200 Megawatt solar plant would cost $9 billion and still only have 30% capacity. 

If you want to understand the magnitude of the cost of tearing down the Navajo Generating Station, watch this five minute video by CAP President Susan Bitter-Smith. 

After you watch it, ask your self what your grandfather would think about it.

Post Script:  While it's obvious that our political leaders lack the gravitas of previous generations, what about our journalists?

In early November I pointed out the Republic's use of inflammatory and inaccurate caption on the photograph of the Navajo Generating Station. 

Then, last Friday, the Republic ran another article on Arizona's carbon production that focused on the Navajo plant and was based on this statement.

Carbon dioxide contributes to poor air quality and is a component of pollution that can cause respiratory illnesses.

The Carbon debate is the most pressing environmental issue of our time and that sentence was written by the Republic's environmental reporter and yet Shaun McKinnon got that sentence--and thus the story it undergirds--completely wrong.

I'm not saying it's wrong in some sort of Global Warming Denier kind of way.  I'm saying that every environmental scientist will tell you it's wrong.   You might even say there's a "consensus" that it's wrong.

Carbon dioxide goes straight into the atmosphere.  It is not an ambient air pollutant, so it does not "contribute to poor air quality" and it is not a "component of pollution that can cause respiratory illnesses".  The entire carbon debate is limited to carbon's effect on humanity through its impact on the global climate.  There is obviously a lot of good liturature on the topic, but here's a good start.

There was a time when reporters knew as much about their subjects as the practitioners themselves did, but the expert curmudeons are gone--replaced by interns and newbies. 

Now someone who last week was editing the entertainment section  can have a job criticizing Congressmen.  The readers can spot fraud.  It's not just the kids who no longer subscribe, it's also the professionals.  The kids instinctively don't trust the papers, while the professionals know the articles aren't accurate. 

Our grandfathers could build, they could lead and they could write.  Our generation is replacing the reporters with bloggers...but who will replace the builders and leaders?

Comments

[todd]

Actually you are both wrong.

CO2 does contribute to poor air quality because of increased temperatures which stimulate and concentrate ozone production and other particles which are directly connected to respiratory illness. The science is actually becoming quite clear on this in the past couple of years.

[Kristen Burroughs]

If you believe the foundation is so rotted and weakened it needs to be unearthed, you'll dismantle and rebuild.

But Greg, you appear to believe the foundation can still support a superstructure, so dismantling, to you, makes little sense.

I tend to agree with you, but we need to understand the passion of those who see our political structures as fundamentally flawed, not by design, but in construction. For them, unearthing the foundation is a necessary, clean start. Think secession. Or,going Galt.

When law-abiding voters feel the structures of political society can no longer be rebuilt on the current foundation, then what?

[PW]

The reality is that we know a lot more about coal today than we did 40 years ago - and we are going to have to deal with NOx, mercury, coal ash, and CO2 within the next decade. Each will cost a lot of money.

We will still burn coal - there's no way around it; but we have to do it more efficiently. The problem with Navajo and 4 Corners is they are predicated on Arizona's energy-water model of "do everything as cheaply as possible and hope for the best in the long-term".

The Colorado River is running at 40% less than allocations, coal is going to have to deal with those 4 byproducts and instead of dealing with the energy-water crises coming at us, our leaders are pointing fingers at environmentalists; or, on the left, making wild-eyed claims about how solar will solve everything. (Solar has 1/3rd the capacity and requires 1/3rd more water than nuclear.)
q.v.www.azwaterinstitute.org/media/Pasqualetti%20fact%20sheet

John Rhodes, Carl Hayden (q.v. Hayden-Rhodes aqueduct), and Barry Goldwater worked with people on both sides of the aisle to build Arizona's future.

But who is that person today? Name me one Democrat or Republican who can work with the other side... That is our problem, and the fact that 99% of people reading this blog will say to themselves, "yeah but [dems/repubs] are different today, you can't work with them anymore", confirms my pessimism.

[Mesa Republican George]

PW - Bill Konopnicki

[ron]

"They envisioned a project that would move 1.3 million acre feet of Colorado River water over a distance of 300 miles, with a rise of 3,000 feet."

Yup, the largest lift of water in human history. Water weighs 10 pounds a gallon - so figure the amount of electricity needed to move 325,851 gallons or 1 acre foot of water? Maybe God never planned for all of us to live in this desert?

[Steve F.]

"Maybe God never planned for all of us to live in this desert?"

Feel free to move, Ron.

[Stewie]

If the industrial revolution happened today...can you just imagine setting up a power grid or highway system with all the pantywaists, NIMBY's and chicken littles running around? It's really easy to sit around and complain about how we need to get back to nature when you flip on a light switch, adjust the thermostat, and use your computer.

Thank goodness for those generations before us who dreamed big.

[Winnie]

An Imperial Gallon is 10 lb.

"A pint's a pound the world around."

A "U.S." gallon of water weighs eight pounds.

[Nick]

todd

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) show that no ground-based warming has occurred since 1998. Oddly, this eight-year-long temperature stability has occurred despite an increase over the same period of 15 parts per million (or 4 per cent) in atmospheric CO2.

[Nick]

Senator Inhofe Declares 2009 “The Year of the Skeptic”

" Despite the millions of dollars spent by Al Gore, the Hollywood Elites, and the United Nations, climate alarmism has failed.
The bottom line is that efforts to pass the largest tax increase in American history have clearly failed, handing the American people a tremendous victory.”

[todd]

Nick - from 1960, CO2 has increased from 315ppm to 390ppm and we have seen disturbing increase in temperature. Within that time period there have been other periods of 'stability'' which is what one would expect from a complex non-linear system. The overall trend is clear and the reason is well understood and it largely has to do with human made C02. Senator Inhofe is not a reliable source of information in these matters and i suggest you look at the wide array of scientific articles documenting what has been happening.

[mahtso]

Bad timing, Todd. The news about Hadley Center casts doubt on the temperature data.

But even if the information from the Hadley Center is innocuous, the surface temperature records should not be considered reliable. It is now known that most of the stations in the US are located in places that do not meet the quality guidelines (e.g., in parking lots or near air conditioner exhaust fans). Other problems also exist.
http://www.surfacestations.org/

[todd]

mahtso
By " news " I suppose you mean the emails that actually are not frm Hadley which don't show anything indicating there is something wrong the data? Nice try though.

[Simon says:]

Adam Driggs, Chad Campbell and Michele Reagan all work well across party lines. And, yes, Bill Konopnicki too. The antithesis would be Jerry Weires, Rick Murphy, Phil Lopes and Steve Yarbrough. The reason there are less Dems in the second list is because they are in the minority. They have to work with the R's to get anything through.

[Nick]

you lost todd.
imhoff has enough votes to block
waxman markey

[Nick]

The Kalifornia central valley has 40 percent
unemployment cause some people say SMELT are
more important than HUMANS.

Water delivery to the Central Valley in
Kalifornia has been disrupted by ecooolagist
in the courts so people starve and stupid
import fish are still eaten by larger fish.

[Nick]

Arizona is small fish.

Real problems exist in Kalifornia.

My retirement income is $42,000 AND
KALIFORNIA TAXES THAT INCOME AT 8%.

[Nick]

todd

There is a limit to how many taxes
humanity can endure!

[todd]

Nick - I think cap and trade is a terrible idea.