Friday, April 24, 2009

Lets start fixing the problems . . . From the ground up!

A friend of mine posted on another blog how he endured the "Blizzard of 1993" down in Georgia. In his post he described how powerlines and trees were downed for miles around and he was without electricity for two weeks or more. I remember seeing the photos of that storm back then, and it brought something to my mind in a flash!

In Southern California where I have lived mostly since 1960, each and every year the have these winds called Santa Ana Winds, and these winds blow big rigs over and off the highways, and trees are blown down by the dozens, along with powerlines - the results are wildfires. Wildfires in the southwest are devastating, they burn down entire towns, and not to mention hundreds of thousands of acres of forest land.

If the environmentalist whackos want a bandwagon to get on, do I have a great one for them!

My wife worked up in the San Bernardino Mountains for almost twenty years. Once, during a "March Madness" snowstorm I drove her up to work, but when it came time to go get her, the CHP was not letting anyone up the hill unless they lived there so she had to bum a ride from another person to get down to where the road was blocked where I was waiting for her. She told me that this person had been raised in Switzerland, and he said that none of their powerlines were above ground because of the heavy snowfall, that the snowfall would always break the lines that was above ground. Wow! What a concept! Put the powerlines underground so the snowfall won't break them.

I have a friend that worked for SCE at the time. I asked him about that concept. I then found out what kind of ire that idea would draw from - who else? - THE UNIONS! The unions strictly forbade that idea. Why? Well, just how many jobs would be lost in repairing and replacing those broken lines, fighting those wildfires, maintaining all those towers, etc, etc.

Well, those of you who have read my writings for any length of time know what I think of unions, so I don't have to say it again.

Here is my plan;

We can start curing the ills of this nation by getting practical. If our government really wants to spend money to get our nation out of this depression - I REFUSE to buy into the lie of recession - the money we can spend should be used to hire people to put all those power lines in the national grid UNDERGROUND! And we already have the corridors to do that in. They are called "The Interstate Highway System" . . . You know, the one that President Dwight David Eisenhower pushed for and got built.

If you do any long distance driving at all, then you know that most of these roads are separated by a very wide median, and it is in this very median that the new power grid can be built UNDERGROUND.

Once the national grid is complete, then we can turn to the local grids with the eventual goal of putting all electrical power lines underground. This would end the power lines being blown down and starting all those wildfires, and power outages in the winter snowstorms. Gee, what a concept!

First, it would go a very long way in modernizing our power grid. Second, it would save all those trees and wildlife that the environmentalist whackos love so much. Third, it would actually IMPROVE our national economy by CREATING jobs instead of soup kitchens. And finally it just might even give the voting public something to actually LIKE our congress for doing!

Okay, America, its now up to John Q. Citizen to get congress to get on the bandwagon for this . . . And don't forget those environmentalist whackos out there - here is something that would actually draw support for you from the general public . . . Hey, if you help us get this done, we might not call you guys whackos anymore!

2 comments:

undertaker said...

Your proposal appears to have a lot of merit. I don't see anything that would present an obstacle to it (other than the Union issue, and perhaps a bureaucratic idiot or two).
Now there is potentially another benefit that might warrant another look. Would it not be possible to "harden" the grid against EMP in the process? That would add the additional incentive of enhancing National Security

esomhillgazette said...

I asked the same question after the storm to my Power Co. (CEMC, poer Co-op) They said that they couldn't afford it! UhHuh! :-D