CA: Geesman pulls no punches on energy

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But Geesman, a 54-year-old Orinda resident, recently oversaw preparation of a report warning that "California's way of life is threatened" by unsolved energy problems and recognizing "only minimal progress" since the 2000-01 energy crisis.

That conclusion seems at odds with the more upbeat outlook of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wrote recently that his administration had made "significant progress" in addressing energy issues.

Politics is familiar terrain to Geesman, who was appointed to his current state government job -- and several others -- by former Gov. Gray Davis, a friend from Democratic Party campaigns as far back as the early 1970s.

One point from the article I'll clear up:

"(We also need) a greater reliance on what used to be called cogeneration, but what is now called, for reasons that I don't completely understand, combined heat and power. We've allowed a variety of institutional barriers (to) impede greater progress in that area."

Why it is now called "combined heat and power" is pretty simple. If you locate a mini-cogen facility -- which these days has much better efficiency due to our increased ability to scale down generation technology -- at a facility, that facility gets to keep, and use, the waste heat. If they suck power out of the lines instead, the waste heat is generated at a power plant that has no use for it, and usually just vented into the environment. The new name emphasisize that you get to keep the heat in these schemes. FWIW.

The consequences of heat (and water) waste are addressed in more detail here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x29658