New study shows that drought could shut down the biggest US Hydro Plants in the next few years

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Originally published at: New study shows that drought could shut down the biggest US Hydro Plants in the next few years | Boing Boing

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Meanwhile, ads funded by the petroleum industry be like, “People need to stop drinking so much water. What can you do to reduce your water intake?”

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I’m sure that Coke has a plan to offer to top up the reservoir.

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Not at a price that the plant operators would be willing to pay, I imagine. Unless…

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Come on, the cost would be paid by the taxpayers, as usual.

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I was thinking more along the lines of how they could donate their usual bottled tap water to Flint, Michigan and other locales with water supply issues and then send back the lead/poison/biological weapon-tainted water in the empty bottles to refill the reservoirs on the cheap. It would be a huge PR win, and the tainted water is for hydroelectric power generation, so who cares? /s

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It is sad because it is true.

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This is going to translate into a lot of heat-related deaths in the southwest when brownouts shut down the A/C.

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Better yet – we can use Brawndo to power the hydro plants because it’s got electrolytes!

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Ugh… Critics of clean, renewable energy are going to have a field day with this while completely ignoring the more dire implications.

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Gentrify them into large skate parks, think of the money they’ll make…

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Ironically, it looks like climate change may force what some environmental groups have been calling for for years now.

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Or maybe the categorization of hydro power as a renewable should be revisited?

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I believe it still stands because water is not used up in the process itself.

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Renewable energy source? Absolutely. Environmentally friendly? That’s a more complicated question.

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George Hayduke and the rest of the Monkey Wrench Gang would be delighted.

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Yeah, when it stops raining upstream of the dam, the water above the dam doesn’t renew.

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there’s a 34% chance of reaching “critically low reservoir elevations” by 2023. There’s a 25% chance it’ll happen by 2024.

Mmm, what’s that now?

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but what about the crops we need all the electrolytes for the crops.

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Can’t we vote on it? Like, you want water, or you want power?

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