Saturday, August 3

The whole idea of Tehachapi is a bad joke

California state laws require Southern California Edison to provide at least 33% of its power service from renewable sources by 2020. Southern California Edison developed the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project to build high-voltage transmission lines for transmission of electricity from wind farms and other generating units, at one point running through Chino Hills, which got some of the residents up in arms.

There's no question in my mind that Hope for the Hills is little more than another NIMBY group. As far as I can tell, their ire is not directed at the state of California, but at Southern California Edison. They're apparently not opposed to "renewable energy"; they just don't want to see high voltage transmission lines strung through their neighborhood. They claim that there are "health concerns" (see here), but I'm skeptical based on what I've read. Still, there's no question that real estate values would be negatively affected.

But I'm skeptical that wind power is all it's cracked up to be. See, for instance Mungowitz's posts on wind power.

The whole idea of Tehachapi is a bad joke.