Hey all, I hope you’ll read my latest Boiling Point column for the L.A. Times and let me know what you think. Here’s how it starts:
>*The rain and snow that have drenched California and much of the American West over the last few months — at least relative to some of the hellishly dry years we’ve gotten recently — are a blessing not just for water supplies, but for energy.*
>
>*Or maybe they’re a curse (for energy, not for water). It depends on whom you ask.*
>
>*Much of the electricity powering our lights and refrigerators and cellphones comes from rivers, their once free-flowing waters backing up behind dams and trickling through hydropower turbines. The Colorado River, the Columbia, the Sacramento, the San Joaquin — they generate about one-quarter of the region’s power. In the dry years becoming drier with climate change, less water flows through those rivers. As a result, power companies burn more natural gas, a fossil fuel, making climate change even worse.*
>
>*So it’s a good thing that we’ve gotten relatively more rain and snow this year. Right?*
>
>*“We shouldn’t have to choose between free-running rivers and clean power,” Kyle Roerink said.*
>
>*As I’ve reported previously, hydropower dams definitely aren’t environmental saints. They disturb ecosystems and kill fish, even as the companies operating them try to minimize the deaths. And the reservoirs behind them burp out large amounts of methane, a powerful heat-trapping gas. That doesn’t make dams nearly as bad for the climate as fossil fuels are. But it does mean they’re not as good as solar panels or wind turbines, which are pretty close to zero-emission.*
>
>*For Roerink — executive director of Great Basin Water Network, an environmental group that works in Nevada and Utah — the solution isn’t to tear down every dam. But he thinks some of the worst offenders need to go, even as others continue to churn out power that’s become increasingly valuable for avoiding blackouts during heat waves and cold snaps.*
>
>*“We have to adapt as the climate keeps throwing new hurdles in the way of society,” Roerink told me.*
>
>*This conversation is particularly pressing in late summer and early fall, when rising temperatures are driving up air conditioning use and straining the power grid. So let’s have the conversation now, in March, when it’s not hot and we’re not panicking.*
Again, I hope you’ll read the whole column and let me know what you think! If you’re interested, you can sign up to get Boiling Point in your inbox twice a week here: [latimes.com/boilingpoint](https://latimes.com/boilingpoint).
1 Comment
Hey all, I hope you’ll read my latest Boiling Point column for the L.A. Times and let me know what you think. Here’s how it starts:
>*The rain and snow that have drenched California and much of the American West over the last few months — at least relative to some of the hellishly dry years we’ve gotten recently — are a blessing not just for water supplies, but for energy.*
>
>*Or maybe they’re a curse (for energy, not for water). It depends on whom you ask.*
>
>*Much of the electricity powering our lights and refrigerators and cellphones comes from rivers, their once free-flowing waters backing up behind dams and trickling through hydropower turbines. The Colorado River, the Columbia, the Sacramento, the San Joaquin — they generate about one-quarter of the region’s power. In the dry years becoming drier with climate change, less water flows through those rivers. As a result, power companies burn more natural gas, a fossil fuel, making climate change even worse.*
>
>*So it’s a good thing that we’ve gotten relatively more rain and snow this year. Right?*
>
>*“We shouldn’t have to choose between free-running rivers and clean power,” Kyle Roerink said.*
>
>*As I’ve reported previously, hydropower dams definitely aren’t environmental saints. They disturb ecosystems and kill fish, even as the companies operating them try to minimize the deaths. And the reservoirs behind them burp out large amounts of methane, a powerful heat-trapping gas. That doesn’t make dams nearly as bad for the climate as fossil fuels are. But it does mean they’re not as good as solar panels or wind turbines, which are pretty close to zero-emission.*
>
>*For Roerink — executive director of Great Basin Water Network, an environmental group that works in Nevada and Utah — the solution isn’t to tear down every dam. But he thinks some of the worst offenders need to go, even as others continue to churn out power that’s become increasingly valuable for avoiding blackouts during heat waves and cold snaps.*
>
>*“We have to adapt as the climate keeps throwing new hurdles in the way of society,” Roerink told me.*
>
>*This conversation is particularly pressing in late summer and early fall, when rising temperatures are driving up air conditioning use and straining the power grid. So let’s have the conversation now, in March, when it’s not hot and we’re not panicking.*
Again, I hope you’ll read the whole column and let me know what you think! If you’re interested, you can sign up to get Boiling Point in your inbox twice a week here: [latimes.com/boilingpoint](https://latimes.com/boilingpoint).