What would really help...

As one radio reporter put it, "The State of California is asking residents to curb their use of electricity to help the state's energy situation during this heat wave." Sounds good I suppose, only it doesn't really address the problem.

The AP report today about impending blackouts notes that: Scorching heat pushed California's electricity supply to the brink Monday and threatened another round of blackouts as utility crews across the state struggled to restore power to tens of thousands of people left in the dark over the weekend.

Authorities warned that the eighth day of the heat wave could drive demand for electricity in California to an all-time high.

'Course, with a few more power plants maybe we'd have the electricity required to run a state of nearly 30 million people. We're doing our part...sort of:

Eighty giant windmills planned on mountain ridges south of the city would supply enough electricity to power much of northern Santa Barbara County.
The proposal for the first wind farm on the Central Coast is being reviewed by county planners.

Six ranching families with 3,000 acres in the hills are leasing pastureland to Pacific Renewable Energy Generation LLC, a development company that wants to erect 60 to 80 windmills along the rugged ridge lines east of Tranquillon Mountain.

"There are very few places in the U.S. where there is enough wind to build a wind farm. We've analyzed the wind here for four years, and we feel it's adequate," Pacific Renewable agent John Stahl said.

A local report last week noted that residents living on the ridge line at the Northern end of the Valley were opposed to the wind farm for what it would do to their panoramic views. It's another put-up-or-shut-up moment.