While visiting the Monterey Aquarium in California, they had a film on a plan to use tidal flow, ocean currents and underwater wave motions to generate power underwater. I had seen other ideas being tested in the Thames in England but these designs were much more forward thinking in my opinion. We have so many brilliant people in our nation and world, I wonder how many ideas are being stored in safes and vaults and protected by copyright laws by people who have no intention of letting such things see the light of day until they’ve made as much profit as possible off of oil, coal, and gas? If the oil companies had thought Edison’s lights in Menlo Park would actually work, they would have never let him get the permits and permissions he needed. We need to find renewable energy sources before our finite sources run out, or, through accidents and lies, kill us by poisoning our water as is happening in W.Va. A chemical used to ‘wash coal’ has forced hundreds of thousands to find other sources of water with which to drink, cook, and bathe.Respectfully,C.
Ah, your knowledge of the geography of the state of California is at best totally flawed. The Central Valley of California is absolutely NOT a desert! And in fact is quite probably the greatest single agricultural area in the entire US (if not the world itself). Plus, at one end of the currently planned HSR is the Bakersfield area with a population of just about 500,000. A very politically conservative population might I add, as this is the district of none the less an ultra conservative US congressman as Darrell Issa! The other end of the HSR is to connect with the Fresno area (at about 110 miles from Bakersfield) with a population of about 1 million. Less conservative than the Bakersfield area, but still conservative. So neither of these terminus for the currently planned HSR are “Nowhere” either. This is generally the easiest built area for the HSR as it is extremely flat, but it is still costly, as the right of way needs to be bought ( I do not know just how much of this has already been done, but I expect at least most of it has).
The second phase of your so called “Train to Nowhere” would extend northwards to Sacramento through even more heavily populated areas. This is also a relatively easy area to build HSR in, as it is also very flat (and in fact is the delta area of the Central Valley).
The final phase would be the hardest to build, as it would extend initially over the mountains to the constantly growing desert communities of Lancaster and Palmdale, and then through more mountains to Los Angeles.
In fact, the most expensive part of the over all HSR would be that side line that would extend up to San Fransisco. Admittedly, the most liberal part of the state, but strategically one of the most important hot beds of business in the entire world!
Indeed the costs are going to be high. But the over all benefits to the most populous and best strategically placed state of the US would be even higher. At least in the long run, which is certainly not something that most of the ultra conservatives on this site ever seem to think about anyway!! And besides, if you are not a California voter, just what bloody business is it of yours (or other non Californians for that matter, conservative or not) just what we flakes and such, do in California anyway??
The San Jaquin is one of the most important agrcultural areas in the west, and for decades, the water, and the soil, were wasted on growing low quality cotton (best only for pill bottle packing actually), and the poisons used to keep the bugs off the cotton polluted many acres.
HSR makes more sense than regional air traffic to transport from L. A. to the Bay Area, and as for “business”, glad nobody has ever used computers or knows where “Silicon Valley” is.
Issa is from Vista btw, down near San Diego, and IS one of the most conserative regions, with all of Orange County in the United States, not just California. The south end of the Central Valley is also extremely conservative, and has given Congress some ot it’s most destructive Representaives, for a long time.
Agreed, Mr. Snare. Oil companies are not ‘evil’. But they do have a ends justifies means attitude toward the protection of profits and a certain callousness to damage done when one of their locations have an incident. My statement regarding copyrighted technologies being kept away from the public is based on other readings and hypothesis provided by others.Did you read where some power companies are trying to charge solar power users a fee to compensate for the ‘damage’ being done to power lines when unregulated power is put back into the system? Hawaii in particular is seeing a lot of this.Respectfully,C.
cubed: sorry about the typo, but the “water issue” in the Central Valley precedes Obama by about 40 years. That “guppy” problem is sending water to L.A. from all over the west, the Colorado, Feather, Owens rivers, and more.. BTW, I graduated from Fresno State a long time ago (over 40 years), a prime agricultural school, and the problems with agriculture weren’t “new” then! The Sacramento and Klamath river systems have their own problems, but Obama is way late in having anything to do with those either.
chazandru over 10 years ago
While visiting the Monterey Aquarium in California, they had a film on a plan to use tidal flow, ocean currents and underwater wave motions to generate power underwater. I had seen other ideas being tested in the Thames in England but these designs were much more forward thinking in my opinion. We have so many brilliant people in our nation and world, I wonder how many ideas are being stored in safes and vaults and protected by copyright laws by people who have no intention of letting such things see the light of day until they’ve made as much profit as possible off of oil, coal, and gas? If the oil companies had thought Edison’s lights in Menlo Park would actually work, they would have never let him get the permits and permissions he needed. We need to find renewable energy sources before our finite sources run out, or, through accidents and lies, kill us by poisoning our water as is happening in W.Va. A chemical used to ‘wash coal’ has forced hundreds of thousands to find other sources of water with which to drink, cook, and bathe.Respectfully,C.
frodo1008 over 10 years ago
Ah, your knowledge of the geography of the state of California is at best totally flawed. The Central Valley of California is absolutely NOT a desert! And in fact is quite probably the greatest single agricultural area in the entire US (if not the world itself). Plus, at one end of the currently planned HSR is the Bakersfield area with a population of just about 500,000. A very politically conservative population might I add, as this is the district of none the less an ultra conservative US congressman as Darrell Issa! The other end of the HSR is to connect with the Fresno area (at about 110 miles from Bakersfield) with a population of about 1 million. Less conservative than the Bakersfield area, but still conservative. So neither of these terminus for the currently planned HSR are “Nowhere” either. This is generally the easiest built area for the HSR as it is extremely flat, but it is still costly, as the right of way needs to be bought ( I do not know just how much of this has already been done, but I expect at least most of it has).
The second phase of your so called “Train to Nowhere” would extend northwards to Sacramento through even more heavily populated areas. This is also a relatively easy area to build HSR in, as it is also very flat (and in fact is the delta area of the Central Valley).
The final phase would be the hardest to build, as it would extend initially over the mountains to the constantly growing desert communities of Lancaster and Palmdale, and then through more mountains to Los Angeles.
In fact, the most expensive part of the over all HSR would be that side line that would extend up to San Fransisco. Admittedly, the most liberal part of the state, but strategically one of the most important hot beds of business in the entire world!
Indeed the costs are going to be high. But the over all benefits to the most populous and best strategically placed state of the US would be even higher. At least in the long run, which is certainly not something that most of the ultra conservatives on this site ever seem to think about anyway!! And besides, if you are not a California voter, just what bloody business is it of yours (or other non Californians for that matter, conservative or not) just what we flakes and such, do in California anyway??
Dtroutma over 10 years ago
The San Jaquin is one of the most important agrcultural areas in the west, and for decades, the water, and the soil, were wasted on growing low quality cotton (best only for pill bottle packing actually), and the poisons used to keep the bugs off the cotton polluted many acres.
HSR makes more sense than regional air traffic to transport from L. A. to the Bay Area, and as for “business”, glad nobody has ever used computers or knows where “Silicon Valley” is.
Issa is from Vista btw, down near San Diego, and IS one of the most conserative regions, with all of Orange County in the United States, not just California. The south end of the Central Valley is also extremely conservative, and has given Congress some ot it’s most destructive Representaives, for a long time.
chazandru over 10 years ago
Agreed, Mr. Snare. Oil companies are not ‘evil’. But they do have a ends justifies means attitude toward the protection of profits and a certain callousness to damage done when one of their locations have an incident. My statement regarding copyrighted technologies being kept away from the public is based on other readings and hypothesis provided by others.Did you read where some power companies are trying to charge solar power users a fee to compensate for the ‘damage’ being done to power lines when unregulated power is put back into the system? Hawaii in particular is seeing a lot of this.Respectfully,C.
Dtroutma over 10 years ago
cubed: sorry about the typo, but the “water issue” in the Central Valley precedes Obama by about 40 years. That “guppy” problem is sending water to L.A. from all over the west, the Colorado, Feather, Owens rivers, and more.. BTW, I graduated from Fresno State a long time ago (over 40 years), a prime agricultural school, and the problems with agriculture weren’t “new” then! The Sacramento and Klamath river systems have their own problems, but Obama is way late in having anything to do with those either.