It should come as no surprise to users of California’s electric system that extreme heat events increase risk of rolling blackouts. Meeting consumer demand with increased electrification requires a balanced mix of resources. This includes baseline, dispatchable, fluctuating and storage resources.
There have been demonstrations that integrating non-dispatchable renewables, such as solar and wind resources (which vary with atmospheric conditions), into a reliable grid requires increased storage. This includes pumped storage, to allow total resources to balance against load.
Moving away from base load or dispatchable resources will produce a need for storage, either at the grid level or the customer level.
We should all encourage the California Energy Commission and the state’s independent system operator to recognize that a proper mix of resources, including renewables and storage, along with baseline and dispatchable generation, is necessary for grid reliability.
— Kermit Kubitz, Larkspur
There is nothing normal about 2020. The COVID-19 virus has taken more than 181,000 American lives and infected nearly 6 million — numbers that are shocking enough to be disbelieved. This unprecedented disaster requires extraordinary action to protect our health and safety wherever we go, including in the voting booth.
Sufficient personal protection equipment and disinfectant for polling places, expanded early voting and options such as online voter registration and paid vote-by-mail systems require additional funding this year to enable equal safety and protection for all states.
I believe those who estimate that $3.6 billion is needed for these reforms to secure our elections. The U.S. House of Representatives proposed that amount in their version of the current stimulus bill. The Senate version, however, included zero dollars for this and, in an astounding dereliction of duty, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called a recess rather than deal with this immediate crisis.
Our constitutional right to vote has made the United States a beacon of democracy for decades. Governors who are both Democrats and Republicans believe we need to act urgently so no one in America is forced to choose between their safety and their vote this year.
The Senate must return from their vacations and approve the recommended budgets for both voting and the post office in time for the monies to be implemented — immediately.
— Susan E. Stanger, Mill Valley
I am a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. Like most of my fellow veterans, I rely on the Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Postal Service for my medications.
For more than 15 years, they have both been reliable and trusted providers. Today, with what I believe is criminal interference with the USPS, the Trump administration has created life-threatening situations for tens of thousands of vets. This is totally inexcusable and must be addressed and fixed by Congress ASAP.
I am fortunate in that I can drive into San Francisco to pick up my meds. Many vets don’t have this luxury. We must all do everything we can to stop this travesty immediately and please vote.
— Larry Moss, Mill Valley
As was the case with atrocities committed in the Vietnam War — at My Lai and many other places — as well as the torture of individuals captured in Iraq and Afghanistan, the serious and consequential factor was not simply the treachery itself, it was the institutional acceptance of that treachery by the military, by elected officials and by the American public.
Those who perpetrated war crimes, on the ground in Vietnam and in former President George W. Bush’s administration regarding the Middle East, have never experienced true consequences for what they did.
The same can be said about the Trump administration. It appears that President Donald Trump has no regard for democratic institutions and his behavior has indeed been atrocious. But what is most troubling is the institutional acceptance, even promotion, of his antics, in the Senate and in the Justice Department — two formerly somewhat respectable institutions of democracy.
If and when democracy returns to America, some people are going to pay.
— Craig J. Corsini, San Rafael
