When Susie and I returned to the States after a year in Mexico we made ends meet by painting apartments. I started first by painting with a friend who had been a missionary to Iran during the Carter years when the Shah was overthrown.
One of our earliest jobs involved painting the hallways in an apartment building on Stevens Square in South Minneapolis that had been damaged by fire. What I vividly recall was the poor planning involved. There were three different contractors assigned. One did the carpets, a second did the electrical work so there were lights, and the third (Dennis and I) were responsible for painting the walls and ceilings.
The silly thing was that the carpet was laid first and the lights fixed last. As a result, we painted in the dark, with a brand new carpet that needed to be kept clean. There was enough light from the ends of the hall to see, but it was pretty dim in there. Evidently we succeeded in our task so that afterwards we got quite a bit of work in the three buildings that were part of this complex.
THAT STORY CAME TO MIND as I thought about the approach being taken with regard to our energy grid transition. The wrong way, it seems to me, is to dismantle what's working before you have reliable replacement energy sources in place. Right now the powers that be have been shutting down reliable energy production--coal and natural gas--before alternatives are in place. Intermittent solar and wind will not work without sufficient battery or energy storage and that technology does not yet exist. One day, maybe, but why shut down what's working before you have the replacements in place?
This past week our power was out for two hours when it was twenty below and it got pretty darn cold in here quite quickly. If we had an extended winter power outage in this part of the world, there will be water pipes bursting, and probably some people who will die.
It's the poor who will suffer. Not everyone has the means to acquire personal solar panels or wind turbines for their homes.
Just sayin'.