Las Vegas Review-Journal: Been to Vegas lately, Harry?
posted at 11:49 am on July 7, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
Send to a Friend |
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
When the editorial board of the Las Vegas Review-Journal calls Harry Reid a “YouTube sensation”, they don’t mean it as a compliment. Given that the city runs on a tremendous amount of coal-based electricity and depends on oil-based transportation to bring gamblers and tourists to the desert oasis, they find Reid’s latest comments sickening in their own right. Far from making the world sick, the industrialization spurred by fossil fuels has made the world and its residents healthier than ever:
By Thursday afternoon, the video clip had close to 400,000 hits on YouTube. Like an “American Idol” reject who has no idea he can’t sing, Sen. Reid serves up speechification that crashes and burns in spectacular fashion. Doesn’t the Democratic Party have its own Simon Cowell, someone with enough common sense to cut off the Slipup from Searchlight before he finds all new ways to embarrass his home state?
Funny thing about coal and oil. Before they began transforming Americans’ everyday lives by providing electricity and transport that didn’t require a horse, average citizens trudged though life with mouths half-full of teeth, fortunate to live past age 40. Far from making us sick, they’ve powered advances that have extended the country’s collective life expectancy to about 80, helped eliminate hard-core poverty and made us the wealthiest nation in the history of the planet.
Today, coal still provides half the country’s electricity — power that allows Las Vegas air conditioners to run 24 hours per day during the soul-searing heat of July, power that lets partygoers enjoy the city’s luxuries at all times. And how did they — and the foodstuffs they ate for breakfast — get to this otherwise uninhabitable tourist outpost? They drove or flew here on a tank of fossil fuel.
The longer clip extends the silliness from Reid. There is a vast difference between water use and water consumption. Both are higher in nuclear plants, even in closed systems, but the difference is not anywhere near as large as Reid implies. Closed nuclear systems consume about 30% more water than fossil fuel or biomass systems, about 13 megaliters for each megawatt produced, as opposed to 10 megaliters for the traditional energy production systems. Moreover, this applies to existing technologies; design advances may reduce this difference as research continues. The vast portion of water used in the nuclear cycle gets returned, either to the system itself or to the environment, in once-through processes — just as it does in other traditional energy production.
That doesn’t make water a non-issue in the debate, but it’s silly to exclaim on one hand that traditional energy production makes us sick while hyperbolically screeching about the water consumption of the nuclear cycle. Of course, Reid does silly better than anyone else in the Senate, and he does hyperbole even better. It’s part of an effort to force energy production and use into a heavy federal bureaucracy that would hamstring industry and kneecap the American economy — and Las Vegas would likely be one of the first victims of Reid’s Chicken Little routine.
The Review-Journal shows that Reid’s antics have made him few friends back home. The “Slip-Up from Searchlight” may find a severe power shortage when it comes time for his re-election campaign in 2010.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: [1] 2 »
Harry Reid = Blithering idiot!
byteshredder on July 7, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Like the country, Harry is running out of energy.
normsrevenge on July 7, 2008 at 11:55 AM
I’m sure Mr. Cleanface’s mafia masters will “find” just enough votes to put the Gambino’s errand boy over the top.
This guy leads the league in corruption. If the media actually cared about Reid taking bribes, he would have been locked up decades ago.
NoDonkey on July 7, 2008 at 12:01 PM
Over on the McCain/Entitlements post, I suggested that McCain is running against the entire Democratic Congress, given people outside of Nevada the chance to vote against Reid. The strategy might work.
njcommuter on July 7, 2008 at 12:03 PM
All steam plants use water. Doh. Nukes also use it as a coolant. Reid seems to get his talking points from hard core enviro-nuts.
pat on July 7, 2008 at 12:04 PM
I will ask what on its surface, will seem like the dumbest question in the world, but I think it is important.
Can one consume water? Can a power plant consume water?
I guess what I am getting at is, Do we have the same amount of water now, as we did 100 years ago?
WoosterOh on July 7, 2008 at 12:04 PM
Harry Reid is making me sick.
Les in NC on July 7, 2008 at 12:05 PM
NoDonkey on July 7, 2008 at 12:01 PM
Reid does kind of remind me of the Senator from Nevada in the Godfather.
forest on July 7, 2008 at 12:05 PM
I’d say something like “what’s wrong with those idiots in Nevada” but I’ve got David Vitter(R)and Mary Landrieu(D) as my Senators.
Yeah, What’s wrong with idiots everywhere?
roux on July 7, 2008 at 12:08 PM
Ahh the Donks best and brightest. Oh! Grave New World.
ronsfi on July 7, 2008 at 12:10 PM
Silly, silly little man
Kini on July 7, 2008 at 12:11 PM
And in 2010 we’ll be speechless as he’s easily reelected.
amerpundit on July 7, 2008 at 12:16 PM
I was walking home Sunday night. My route takes me through the train/bus station. Next to it, on a second story wall of a house, was a huge RON PAUL banner.
In a way, this gives me hope.
Republicans have their failings. Democrats… sweet jeezuz. What a train wreck. And with those 2 parties, Paulnut can’t even get on the board.
Next time around, we’re back in.
But then, anyone who votes against drilling needs to go.
Mazztek on July 7, 2008 at 12:18 PM
Amerpundit: I hope you are wrong…landslidingly wrong.
HawaiiLwyr on July 7, 2008 at 12:20 PM
As a former Navy “nuke” I have to disagree with any claims of water consumption by nuclear or any other power plant. They don’t “consume” any water at all. In a pressurized water reactor (PWR) which represent all navy reactors and most, I believe, civilian reactors the reactor side coolant has a fairly static amount of water. Some water is lost to lubrication leagage but due to its potential radioactivity this amount is negligible. The secondary side, which includes the turbines that generate power, lose water to the atmosphere but again, it isn’t lost, just returned to the environment.
What Reid and most others are probably babbling about are the giant and obvious cooling towers all power plants have that suck in water from rivers or lakes and are used as heat sinks. They always return the wter to its source. So I don’t know WTF Reid is babbling about.
My dad used to work at a coal fired plant in Holbrook AZ when I was a kid and I remember skiing in the cooling lake created to service the power plant. It was always ~70 degrees and the fish and plants loved it.
Teh Dems are the new know-nothings
DerKrieger on July 7, 2008 at 12:22 PM
.
No, we do not consume water in the scientific sense, only in the marketing sense. Water you drink (and power plants use, and farmers spray onto fields) eventually reaches the soil. The dirt cleans the water. What the dirt doesn’t clean, solar radiation does. So, simply put, the amount of water in the world does not change, though it does properties, and sometimes ends up in salt water or vice versa.
Think_b4_speaking on July 7, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Except that the actor in the Godfather played a more convincing Senator than the corpse who plays Harry Reid.
And I doubt the Gambinos needed photos of Reid with a dead hooker to get him to do their bidding, he’s been in their pocket from the get go. Harry’s a high roller.
Just your garden variety, corrupt and incompetent Democrat politician. All of them are pure, unadulterated scum.
NoDonkey on July 7, 2008 at 12:25 PM
I guess my question could also be put as, do we have the same amount of Hydrogen and Oxygen today, as we did 100 years ago?
The answer is YES. Our ecological system replaces anything that is lost into space.
We dont consume water. Actually, we may have too much potential water on Earth.
It is silly to say a power plant consumes water so we need to precious water for ourselves to stay alive, which is what he is saying.
WoosterOh on July 7, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Hey Las Vegas, you put that piece of garbage in office and you can take him out. If he directly causes you financial disruption because of his idiotic views on energy and forcing everyone to cut back on traveling, then you have no one to blame, but yourself. Remember, all puppets wear out sooner of later. This one is long past being worn out. Flush.
volsense on July 7, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Corrupt Harry Reid was at one time the chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Nahanni on July 7, 2008 at 12:26 PM
And in 2010 we’ll be speechless as he’s easily reelected.
Tom Daschle is on line 1, something about not so fast, my friend!
I R A Darth Aggie on July 7, 2008 at 12:28 PM
All of it get returned to the environment. The vast portion of water used gets returned to where it was taken. The rest floats away downwind to eventually return to the earth, sometimes on my dry lawn.
Dusty on July 7, 2008 at 12:29 PM
Doesn’t Vegas actually get hydro-power from the Hoover Dam? It’s a minor point but it probably should be made instead of leaving the idea that Vegas is part of that 50% of the nation that uses coal.
highhopes on July 7, 2008 at 12:31 PM
Call this clip Exhibit A in my case arguing that the Harry and Nancy Show will not survive the first mid-term election they face without a Republican in the WH to hide behind.
thirteen28 on July 7, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Dingy Harry gets Dingier and Dimmer.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 7, 2008 at 12:35 PM
I wish these neo-luddites would practice what they preach…why doesn’t good ol’ Harry serve as an example to us all and forgo the use of the electricity, especially where being filmed or televised is concerned?
James on July 7, 2008 at 12:40 PM
People of Nevada, listen please!
Forget waiting for 2010 to vote this goof out of office!
RECALL HIM NOW!!!!!!
He is destroying the country, and that includes YOUR STATE!
pilamaye on July 7, 2008 at 12:45 PM
This clearly shows how disingenuous the Left is about energy production, their goal is to stop it at all cost. The only way the Democrats win is by “creating” a crisis and then proposing to “fix it” by taking our money and liberties. This is how Democrats and/or socialists work, its the oldest political trick in the book.
If technology found a way to make endless energy out of nothing, the Democrats would screech about using up all the “nothing.” They would want it stopped immediately.
Water consumption is not an issue, build bigger reservoirs, require the nuke plants to build their own, besides water is NEVER actually “consumed,” it can’t leave the planet, we always get it back. It simply evaporates and rains back on us later.
The water cycle carries water mostly from the oceans in the form of clouds over land and it rains. The only water that is truly wasted is the water that is never used and just flows back via rivers to the ocean. We get plenty of fresh water from the water cycle, if we need more capacity then we need to capture more of it. God provides plenty of fresh water to us, but the liberals deny that, they always want us to believe there is a shortage because that works to their political advantage.
Deception is Democrats’ standard operating procedure.
Maxx on July 7, 2008 at 12:45 PM
I don’t know about this enlighten me.
Nuclear uses water, but does it just use it and then it evaporates or disappears?
I know they need it for cooling, but doesn’t it, like any radiator, use it for cooling, return it, and then use it again?
The power plant in San Onofre was along the ocean, it had intake, and out tubes. The out tubes were a little higher in temp. (and hence better fishing), but not dramatically. I never saw “steam” rising from evaporation from the plant.
So my question is, if you take in 1,000 gal. how much of that is returned and able to be used?
right2bright on July 7, 2008 at 12:51 PM
Stop with all these facts, your just trying to confuse the issues. Harry Greid is right life does make you sick, the Messiahliar-Ahmadinerjacket dance party is the only way to achieve world peace and Belapelosi thanking the Iranians for making the surge work are all examples of the truth! You evil conservatives will say anything to get Bush elected again.
Remember: Obama or Die!
dmann on July 7, 2008 at 12:52 PM
Seriously.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 7, 2008 at 12:53 PM
And if it ever gets to the point we need more fresh water, remember those lily pads for when Glabal Warming makes the ocean rise (forgetting the fact that that is water), but since we wont get to the point of needing them for cities, we could use them as rain catchers. That would be cool. It only stops when we stop imagining.
WoosterOh on July 7, 2008 at 12:54 PM
No idea how I got Glabal for Global. I know my typing does not always keep up with my thoughts, but that is bad.
WoosterOh on July 7, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 7, 2008
Just quoting that cultural icon, Pee-Diddy or Puffed Rice-Diddy, or is it, Diddy I Pee, where Diddy I Pee. Heh maybe he can use the R.Kelly moniker, Who Diddy I Pee on…..
All right then: All Hail the Messiahliar!
dmann on July 7, 2008 at 1:01 PM
Its all part of this new breed of hard left Metaphysicsismologification, where every political and consumer choice we make somehow affects our health and spirituality, and that of the planet.
Everything gives us cancer but a Democrat ballot, I guess.
Dr. Manhattan on July 7, 2008 at 1:05 PM
I emailed Las Vegas’ excellent Mayor Goodman last week telling him that Senator Reid had convinced me to cancel my trip as the city was an unreasonable energy waster :)
JiangxiDad on July 7, 2008 at 1:10 PM
When it comes to global warming, I blame the REAL culprits!
scottm on July 7, 2008 at 1:16 PM
I know. I was playing the role of the hot beyach (in the clip) along side you in your role as Coco Crispy.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 7, 2008 at 1:18 PM
[right2bright on July 7, 2008 at 12:51 PM]
I’m no nuclear power expert, but a brief look at the pdf link Ed provided, reminded me that there are many different plant designs wherein the water is used differently. Those designs, btw, proabably have some to do with the age of the design when certain issues were more important than later on and some due to geography, among other reason I can’t toss out at the top of my head.
Anyway, Ed mentions closed system designs and that brought to mind plants that might have taken an amount of water “out of the environment” for the life of the plant relies on constnatly recycling it. (Seems to me something that’s something like building an olympic sized swimming pool, which we should probably prohibit, now, too.)
Some designs use it as you note with intake-outtake pipes and cool that way. Some use/used evaporation for some part/all of a process as the google images of “nuclear power plants” show.
There may be some seed kernel of reason in what Reid says, but he’s representative of the vast majority of those on the left who take a fault/minor inefficiency whether based on the state of technology or a change in what is important to kill absolutely everything, including reasonable debate, with a stubborn absolutism that has degenerated into a vile stupidism.
Dusty on July 7, 2008 at 1:19 PM
If the RNC had any guts at all, they would air ads consisting solely of those talentless, crimninal clown rappers chanting that inane slogan.
Hating hip hop and how it works to destroy families and communities, crosses all party lines when it comes to parents.
NoDonkey on July 7, 2008 at 1:20 PM
The water use from a nuclear reactor is not only from cooling (the reactor), but the heat from the reactor is used to make high-pressure steam, which drives a turbine to generate electricity. Downstream of the turbine, steam is condensed at low pressure, pumped to high pressure (as liquid), then returned to the reactor to be re-heated.
This is no different than a steam turbine in a conventional coal-fired plant–the only difference is the heat source. Most of the steam/water is recycled in the system, but particulates in the water can accumulate in the system, and damage turbine blades. For this reason, most steam systems have a “purge” system, where particles in the water are allowed to settle out in a drum, and some water is rejected to the environment, which must be replaced by fresh, clean water. In general, the purge rate is about 3 to 5 percent of the circulation rate (depending on the purity of the makeup water, and the filtration system), meaning that the average water molecule circulates 20 to 33 times before being rejected to the environment.
It’s true that water use could be a big problem in the desert. But what would prevent someone from building a nuclear plant near the Pacific, or near the Sierra Nevada where water could be provided by snow-melt, then sending the electricity through power lines to Las Vegas? How would that make us sick, Dirty Harry?
Steve Z on July 7, 2008 at 1:25 PM
Since using nothing does not create more nothing. And not using nothing does not create more nothing. The Democrats might be right to keep us from stealing nothing from our grandchildren.
I suspect that Reid can say any stupid thing he wants since the unions in Las Vegas and every other big donor in the country will shower him with money. And the union members will be told to vote for him and they will.
snaggletoothie on July 7, 2008 at 1:28 PM
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 7, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Hey…I like Coco Crispys and Coco Puffs and I go crazy….Your right Doc, she is one hot gangsta girly!!!
Say it loud, say it proud!!! Obama or Die
dmann on July 7, 2008 at 1:35 PM
NoDonkey on July 7, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Right on my man, problem is the RNC is NoBalls!
dmann on July 7, 2008 at 1:37 PM
Harry Reid, Kalifornia’s third senator.
Harpoon on July 7, 2008 at 1:39 PM
Harry is sick from all the oil; give him a break people!
carbon_footprint on July 7, 2008 at 1:40 PM
Why no more olympic sized pools? Last time I checked the earth’s surface was two/thirds covered by water.
Maxx on July 7, 2008 at 1:44 PM
If I’m not mistaken, I think Hoover Dam electricity goes to LA.
Harpoon on July 7, 2008 at 1:44 PM
Solar is problem-free? Tell that to a dermatologist.
whitetop on July 7, 2008 at 1:44 PM
People said the same thing about Daschle and Wright.
DOn’t give up hope before the campaign has even begun.
MarkTheGreat on July 7, 2008 at 1:52 PM
Get rid of Reid and what will the senate do for comedy relief?
GarandFan on July 7, 2008 at 1:54 PM
[Maxx on July 7, 2008 at 1:44 PM]
Because, by putting the water in a concrete container to swim in, it has been “consumed”.
My eyes may be deceiving me, but I do believe I can see the nascent seeds of a “water molecules have rights” sprouting from this on the horizon.
Dusty on July 7, 2008 at 1:56 PM
Dusty on July 7, 2008 at 1:56 PM
Oh, you might be right. I never thought about water-molecule rights. It’s not fair to “trap” them, they have a right to be free!
Maxx on July 7, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Reid looking strong as candidate for #1 Socialist Pissant of 2008.
whitetop on July 7, 2008 at 2:02 PM
Not all nuclear plants require water. High temperature gas nuclear plants only have a reserve supply of water for fire suppression, they use inert gas in a much higher efficiency arrangement. This is also known as Pebble-Bed technology, a very safe and efficient and cost effective system. They Chi-Coms are building this like crazy. We are sitting on our collective asses. (Not necessarily voluntarily of course)
Maquis on July 7, 2008 at 2:33 PM
[Maquis on July 7, 2008 at 2:33 PM]
Thanks for the info.
Dusty on July 7, 2008 at 2:45 PM
I guess that it’s a logical extension for a Socialist to want the United States to be like every other country in the world.
Yes. Yes. I, too, want to live like they do in Rwanda and Myanmar. We must all be equal. It’s only fair.
Yes. I see the light, now.
Thank you, Mr. Reid.
OhEssYouCowboys on July 7, 2008 at 3:05 PM
I’ve heard of them and know the Chinese and a few others are building them. There’s a general article on pebble bed reactors at Wikipedia, but I’ve heard they lack any kind of containment building so some people are scared of them more than light-water types with containment.
JiangxiDad on July 7, 2008 at 3:07 PM
Maybe there is hope that Reid will be replaced next time around? We can dream.
As to the “water” topic on this thread, clean fresh water availability obviously decreases as the population and usage increases, and it takes a while for even a renewable resource such as water to be easily available again. However, as the need increases, and desalinating saltwater becomes more economically viable, I predict many more plants utilizing the vast saltwater resources in the ocean for growing coastal cities- unless environmental rules make it too difficult. I think Tampa Bay brought a plant online in the past few years.
cs89 on July 7, 2008 at 3:08 PM
Harry Reid makes Jimmy Carter seem like a paragon of dynamic optimism. He’s such a wheezing gasbag.
Cicero43 on July 7, 2008 at 3:08 PM
Yeah, but Democrat Enviro-Fascists are against hydroelectric power, too!!! In fact, they are against any form of power generation which actually works!!
But electricity is fungible, so you are using energy from coal no matter where you live.
Coal comes from plants: so why don’t the “Enviros” call coal a “biofuel”??? And you can get oil from coal, so why do they call oil a “nonrenewable”??? Obviously these deranged, self-destructive Fascists are not interested in logic or reason.
landlines on July 7, 2008 at 3:11 PM
I agree with your comment in general, but is electricity really fungible? I thought you had to live within a certain distance from the specific generation point.
For example, where I live, the local utility generates electricity primarily from oil and natural gas. Another commenter told me that he gets his electricity from Three Mile Island nuclear plant. I told him he was lucky because his rates probably haven’t gone up wildly like mine have.
It’s true that electricity is electricity, but I’d prefer to get mine from a nuclear source, or hydro, only insofar as the cost of producing it should be lower.
JiangxiDad on July 7, 2008 at 3:18 PM
I’ve said before and I’ll keep saying until we get the Libs to go for it: Split the country in two, Libs to one side, sane people to the other. Let them implement all their crazy Liberal ideas. Only rule is there is to be no crossing over. Once you pick your side you have to stay there.
DerKrieger on July 7, 2008 at 3:25 PM
“Coal comes from plants: so why don’t the “Enviros” call coal a “biofuel”???”
Gas can be made from coal, why isn’t this an “alternative” fuel?
DerKrieger on July 7, 2008 at 3:26 PM
Reid is worried about nuclear waste being stored at Yucca Mountain. It’s a big issue in Nevada. He should have spared us the BS about the water use.
rockmom on July 7, 2008 at 3:27 PM
Been looking at property in Carson City area. One more vote NOT coming your way Harry.
Limerick on July 7, 2008 at 3:29 PM
I’m no scientist, but isn’t the water we drink today the same water that the dinosaurs drank millions of years ago. Go to the tap my friends… The dinosaur pee is flowing…
Swinehound on July 7, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Happy to spread the news! We have everything we need right here, including American ingenuity, to lead the world to a bright future. Unfortunately the Marxists have a different view.
I’m not an expert, but I doubt they lack any containment, we are talking about high temperature high pressure gas after all. Probably they don’t have the incredibly thick secondary containment systems of water plants, simply because they don’t need them. BUT, there’s no reason that we can’t over-engineer the heck out of them, hopefully within financial reason of course. There are always points that get inflated into weaknesses worthy of “people being scared”, but dang it, there are people afraid to leave their own houses and that’s not founded on good sense either. Pebble-Beds can’t melt down, they are simpler and safer and require much less attention and direct human control. Worst case coolant loss without any emergency coolant supplied, just sit and watch the results, and it reaches a stable temp and nothing bad happens. Terrorists that managed to get their hands on the fuel would have only cue ball sized spheres of graphite with uranium flecked throughout that they couldn’t even make a dirty bomb out of without substantial technological infrastructure. It’s just an incredible system.
America has been the light of the nations in so many ways, and really is in a position to bless the world with clear-eyed pursuit of clean affordable energy. Much as folks beat on African problems as being a matter of character defect, we’d see the beginning of solid civilizational advancement there if we developed and mass produced means of producing electricity like this. There is simply so much reason for hope, real hope, based on real science, and those that reject it simply have another agenda on their power-grubbing little minds. Sorta like Harry Reid.
Maquis on July 7, 2008 at 3:31 PM
Good points all. And I think a pebble bed reactor is being built in S. Africa.
McCain, listen to Maquis.
JiangxiDad on July 7, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Sure, electricity is fungible, California was getting some of their electricity from Canada back during the “rolling blackouts” of years ago. I guess they still are for all I know.
You can generate electricity on one side of the world and send it to the other provided the lines exist and there are boost transformers along the route, which are always necessary.
D.C. electrical current will only make it down a line for less than a thousand feet before you have excessive voltage drop. A.C. power will go much further before significant voltage drop. And A.C. power can have it’s voltage amplitude restored by using power transformer stations (I don’t know the actual technical name for them). But you see these transformer stations all the time, sometimes on telephone polls, to boost the voltage over long lines. They use additional current to increase the voltage, so it’s not getting something for nothing. The voltage drop is called “line loss.” The shorter the distance the less line loss you have.
So its more efficient to send electricity for short distances, but in theory you can send it as far as you want provided the lines are adequate to carry the load and you have enough voltage-boost stations.
Maxx on July 7, 2008 at 3:43 PM
Who the hell would researching nuclear power in this country? The nuclear industry was murdered thirty years ago.
thegreatbeast on July 7, 2008 at 3:50 PM
Big Bird and Mr. Rogers had a love child?
ronsfi on July 7, 2008 at 4:27 PM
We can only hope…….But who`d be the majority leader if he`s tossed out?
Durbin?!………..Now I don`t know how I should feel.
ThePrez on July 7, 2008 at 4:29 PM
Like Puff Daschle, one wonders how on earth a liberal douchebag like Dingy Harry gets elected in a largely conservative state. Forget Red-Blue wars; he exists in opposition to the interests of virtually the entire state of Nevada.
Jaibones on July 7, 2008 at 4:51 PM
Heh, great idea! But we’d have to be sure to build an impenetrable wall and secure the coastlines on our side as I’m certain when all the lefty whiners realize socialism doesn’t work (no incentive to work or advance) they will be desperate to get to our side, that is of course if they aren’t taken over by another nation seeing as how they won’t have a military to defend themselves!
Liberty or Death on July 7, 2008 at 5:08 PM
It ain’t that conservative anymore. Clark county is a democrat stronghold. The only reason Reid and Berkeley are in office is because they take the power base from there. Berkeley’s district is very small, but in the metro area. She’d never get elected outside of the county.
ScottG on July 7, 2008 at 5:14 PM
Civilian nukes are very different from navy plants. In civilian PWRs the primary is not static. Volume is stable but coolant is actually discharged and replenished on an almost continuous basis. Don’t have hard numbers but I think there are actually more BWRs out here in CivLand than PWRs, but it’s a fairly close split.
Oldnuke on July 7, 2008 at 5:30 PM
Not since Heavens Gate Cult Guru Applewhite Have I seen
anyone this messed up.
Texyank on July 7, 2008 at 5:43 PM
I remember in my many class trips to Hoover Dam while growing up in Vegas, that Vegas didn’t get much of the power generated from that dam. That was many, many, many years ago though, so things may have changed.
I would have never called Vegas conservative, but it was very western libertarian. That was before all the East Coasters and Rust Belt people started moving there and changing the demographics. They really started moving in around the mid 80s and Vegas has changed much because of it.
Ann NY on July 7, 2008 at 5:54 PM
If its making us sick why is life expectancy going higher and higher?
malkinmania on July 7, 2008 at 6:06 PM
Unless I’m mistaken those transformers you see on poles are step down transformers. They reduce voltage to something you can use in your house. In areas with underground service this transformer will be a box sitting on a pad.
As for those boosting transformers you mentioned. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them before. I know our main transformers stepped the generator terminal voltage from 22kv to 500kv and that’s pretty much the last boost that I know of from us to the customer. Neither do I recall ever jacking up current to increase voltage, we always just used the voltage regulator.
You might want to check this out before you write nuclear off as dead.
Just for the record that’s not the only one. There are several more in the works.
Oldnuke on July 7, 2008 at 6:17 PM
Unless I’m mistaken those transformers you see on poles are step down transformers. They reduce voltage to something you can use in your house. In areas with underground service this transformer will be a box sitting on a pad.
As for those boosting transformers you mentioned. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them before. I know our main transformers stepped the generator terminal voltage from 22kv to 500kv and that’s pretty much the last boost that I know of from us to the customer. Neither do I recall ever jacking up current to increase voltage, we always just used the voltage regulator.
Oldnuke on July 7, 2008 at 6:17 PM
Duh… on my part. You are of course correct. The lines that run from Hoover Dam to the city for example are very high voltage, so it’s stepped down, not up. I knew they did something.
Maxx on July 7, 2008 at 6:29 PM
I’m long past the point of considering anyone with a (D) next to his/her name a traitor. Any “sensible” or “loyal and patriotic” Dem who hasn’t started a petition to
impeachtar-and-feather this guy is essentially in support of what he says.One of the reasons they chose Reid after Daschle was that he had just been re-elected so it would be at least six years before there was an inescapable reckoning. But it is pretty obvious what the result will be. The problem is, he’ll have had six years to wage war against America in the meantime.
$%^&*, *&^%$@!, @#$%^&.
urbancenturion on July 7, 2008 at 6:36 PM
I don’t know how much Vegas gets but Nevada gets 26% of the power generated, California gets 56% and Arizona gets the rest.
I think the generator terminal voltage is somewhere around 16kv. I don’t know what it’s stepped up to for transmission but it’d be considerably higher.
Oldnuke on July 7, 2008 at 7:19 PM
Could this unter-male be anymore beta?
Claypigeon on July 7, 2008 at 7:54 PM
what a maroon!
Why does he get re-elected time and time again?
jdsmith0021 on July 7, 2008 at 9:08 PM
MRI? I’m sorry, you don’t have enough energy ration units. Besides we’ve used up our allotment for the month.
Oh, and about the plants in the hospital? They don’t grow well, not enough CO^2 ya know.
- The Cat
MirCat on July 7, 2008 at 10:43 PM
The world according to Scary Harry.
leanright on July 8, 2008 at 6:42 AM
How many hours a day will Las Vegas lower it’s lights?
drjohn on July 8, 2008 at 8:09 AM
He will have had handily destroyed the evil empire by 2010 of course and will crawl off to live the obscure yet lavish lifestyle of retirement o’ senato.
Griz on July 8, 2008 at 8:13 AM
Stupid
Shameless
Liars
marklmail on July 8, 2008 at 8:55 AM
And he will get re-elected over, and over, and over again. So the people in Nevada must not be too sick of him.
abcurtis on July 8, 2008 at 8:59 AM
Hey Harry… CO2 might make you sick but plants like it !!
Higher CO2 levels may be good for plants: German scientists
I can’t believe they put the word “may” in the headline, as if it was questionable. This is sixth grade science, it just doesn’t get much more basic than this.
Maxx on July 8, 2008 at 9:53 AM
I have read that the “Senator” character in the film Casino was based on Harry Reid.
MoCoM on July 8, 2008 at 9:58 AM
Last I heard, while the plant was finished, they were still trying to get it running.
MarkTheGreat on July 8, 2008 at 10:27 AM
While the electrons that are produced at a particular plant in Canada, probably will not actually reach a consumer in California, it is still fair to say that the power produced did.
Assume a plant in Canada has extra power, and a consumer in California needs it. Also assume that the power systems in Oregon and Washington have all the power they need.
The way this works (highly simplified) is that the Canadian power company puts it’s excess power onto the Washington grid. The Washington grid now has more power than it needs. So Washington put’s it’s excess power onto the Oregon grid. Now Oregon has more power than it needs, so it puts it’s excess power onto the California grid. The California grid now has the power needed by the consumer who paid the Canadian producer.
As long as the grids are interconnected, electric power is completely fungible.
The reason why consumers in Washington get lower priced electricity, is because local laws require the power companies supply local consumers first. The only electricity they get to sell to the grid, is their excess power.
MarkTheGreat on July 8, 2008 at 10:37 AM
I have read that Dick Smother’s character in Casino was based on Harry Reid’s time on the Gaming Commission.
MoCoM on July 8, 2008 at 10:58 AM
Last few years, it’s been the refugees from California who have been filling up the Vegas valley.
It’s gotten to the point where they had to build a new bridge across the Colorado river in order to allow people to start building houses in Arizona.
MarkTheGreat on July 8, 2008 at 2:08 PM
Comment pages: [1] 2 »