LA Voted To Boycott Arizona,, But They Get Some Of Their Electricity From Hoover Dam

Moonbats on the Los Angeles city council have voted to boycott Arizona.

City Council members who voted 13-1 in favor of the punitive measure said it could affect about $8 million in contracts with Arizona, but Los Angeles must first decide which of those agreements it can break without triggering lawsuits.

Another $50 million in contracts will remain in place but the council directed city department heads to refrain from doing future business with Arizona or companies headquartered there whenever possible.

They must have forgotten where they get their electricity. A significant portion of Arizona's electricity comes from Hoover Dam in Arizona. They also get electricity from coal powered plants in Arizona. If LA continues to buy electricity, Arizona should pull the plug.

The LADWP currently maintains a generating capacity of 7,200 megawatts, in excess of the peak demand of 6,165 megawatts by the city of Los Angeles. It provides this surplus electricity to other utilities, selling 23 million megawatt-hours in 2003. As of 2005, the LADWP operates four natural gas-fired generators within city boundaries, which account for 26% of capacity. It receives 52% of its electricity from coal-fired plants in the city as well as in Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. A further 11% is generated using nuclear power. It receives about 6% of its electricity from hydropower, most coming from Hoover Dam and the rest coming from the aqueduct system itself as the water descends from its mountain sources.

GAO: Electric Cars Won't Reduce CO2 Emissions

The startling conclusion of a new GAO report is there would be no reduction of carbon emissions from switching to electric vehicles.

From Hot Air:

The push for conversion to plug-in electric cars will do nothing to stop carbon emissions, a report by the GAO warns, throwing cold water on a push by Democrats to get more plug-ins on the road. In fact, the problem could be made worse as demand goes up at coal-fired electrical plants. Plus, the need for batteries may just have the US changing the dictators to which we’re chained, as IBD reports:

It’s a beautiful theory — highways full of electric cars emitting no greenhouse gases or pollutants after being plugged into an outlet in our garages overnight. The problem, according to a new Government Accountability Office report, is that the effort may only shift the problem somewhere else.

“If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country’s electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?” asks Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report. The report itself notes: “Reductions in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy.”

The GAO report says a plug-in compact car, if recharged at an outlet drawing its power from coal, provides a carbon dioxide savings of only 4% to 5%. If the feeling of saving the environment from driving an electric car causes people to drive more, that small amount of savings vanishes entirely.

Electric cars might get us out from under the heel of OPEC, but we would just have a new overlord.

The GAO also points out that electric cars would have the US trading one set of dictators for another in order to power our cars. The batteries for electric vehicles are lithium-ion, and for the experimental production levels in the US at this moment, we have enough lithium resources to keep pace. However, once we start building electric cars in mass numbers, we will quickly run through our proven stores of lithium. We would most likely have to do business with Hugo Chavez lackey Evo Morales of Bolivia, where half of the world’s proven stores of lithium reside. Even if we didn’t buy directly from the leftist leader, Morales has the ability to set the global price — just as Saudi Arabia and OPEC do with oil.

China and Russia hacked our power grid

With friends like this, who needs enemies? China and Russia have infiltrated our electrical grid computer system and left behind malware. The purpose is to enable them to turn off our electricity in case of hostilities. Here is the story from the Wall Street Journal online.

WASHINGTON -- Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.

"The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid," said a senior intelligence official. "So have the Russians."