Weather, Water, Energy 6-05-07

Couple of good posts at Grist on the coming on of wind power, this one on how to deal with the wind intermittency problem and this one on the need for the same kind of government support that has kept nuclear and oil from becoming cost-prohibitive. IA’s new gov is already out on the hustings (what are hustings?) promoting his state as the national leader in the wind initiatives, but he’s never been to western OK or TX. We need to line up all the people who say wind can’t be competitive and having them saying it in the direction of the turbines. Nations would be powered. . . .

This is probably not the last time we’ll hear of these kinds of problems. Turns out the aquifers that feed NV water needs are more closely interconnected with those in UT than previously believed, meaning that as NV sucks them dry to keep Vegas going, UT folks will be losing water, too. Not sure they’ll be good sports about keeping Sin City going, but we’ll see. . . .

This article lays Europe’s claim to superiority over US on global warming efforts, although it admits that the major component (a cap-and-trade system) still needs substantial revision to eliminate the politics imbedded in it (good luck on that), while this op-ed claims that Bushnev’s “asspirations” for emissions goals really are genuine and should be welcomed. Can you guess which was published in an international paper and which in an American one?

You get an A!!!