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Hard-core/irrational environmentalists hate pumped hydro and really any large hydro projects. Some of this likely stems from a massive gaffe some years ago whe
by aerostable_slug 5y ago
Hard-core/irrational environmentalists hate pumped hydro and really any large hydro projects.
Some of this likely stems from a massive gaffe some years ago when California regulators demanded a certain percentage of state generation come from environmentally-friendly sources. PG&E laughed because it already had the largest hydroelectric portfolio in the US and didn't have to change anything. Democrat leadership, angry because they didn't find a way to punish the largest utility in the state, promptly recategorized large hydro as Very Naughty.
Does hydro have an environmental cost? Sure, so does everything. Is it a great way to generate and store electricity? Yes. Does that matter to lawmakers? No.
- ncmncm 5y agoCalifornia state elected officials have always been massively solicitous toward PGE, undercutting continual efforts to establish Public Utility Districts that could provide reliable, cheap service. A Public Utility District does cover Sacramento, so legislators are relatively insulated from PGE abuses.
- aerostable_slug 5y agoAny reliability coming to those municipal utilities would be due to PG&E's transmission system. No municipals, even the biggest like LA's, tackles anything near the scale of even our smallest IOU. Most critics of the IOUs ignore the sheer scale and geographic challenges of running a service area larger than some states across many different types of terrain. Running retail distribution and metering isn't that hard when other people run the grid for you. PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E have lots of issues to be sure, but to compare them to SMUD or Modesto is far from apples to apples.