Commentary: Water is life. It’s also energy — whether you like dams or hate them
The rain and snow that have drenched California and much of the American West over the last few months — at least relative to some of the hellishly dry years we’ve gotten recently — are a blessing not just for water supplies, but for energy. Or maybe they’re a curse (for energy, not for water). It depends on whom you ask. Much of the electricity powering our lights and refrigerators and cellphones comes from rivers, their once free-flowing waters backing up behind dams and trickling through hydropower turbines. The Colorado River, the Columbia, the Sacramento, the San Joaquin — they generate about one-quarter of the region’s power. In the dry years becoming drier with climate change, less water flows through those rivers. As a result, power companies burn more natural gas, a fossil fuel, making climate change even worse.
-By Los Angeles Times climate columnist Sammy RothRelated article:
- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: President proposes $1.6 billion in fiscal year 2025 for Bureau of Reclamation.
- California Globe: Opinion - Power plays