Hoover Dam power and rural counties that rely on it

Whew! Yet again this year, neither the house nor area pines caught fire despite a steady onslaught of quite large and of course entirely illegal fireworks which are set off in our neighborhood every 4th of July. (And every New Year's Eve too). Cosmo the dog mostly snoozed through it all ha ha. Our previous dog Billy was super scared by firework pops and bangs and booms. We tried one of those thunder jacket things or whatever, but she still shook and shivered. Cuddling was about the only thing that helped. A little. She was very sweet. But I digress. Anyway, another successful 4th, I guess. (Disclosure: I did my best to ignore all the Trump-themed crap going on.)

IN NEVADA CURRENT

Most of the electricity generated at Hoover Dam goes to California, but a portion of it powers parts of Nevada, and the dam is the major power generating source for a couple of rural electric districts. Those districts already have — and already have had to use — contingency plans, i.e, buying power from elsewhere. And that costs a lot more than power from Hoover Dam. I learned a lot from this very informative (and not a little scary) story by Jeniffer Solis: Rural NV counties especially vulnerable to Hoover Dam hydropower decline

The Lombardo administration loves to cut regulations, and Nevadans love him for it. At least I think that was supposed to be the takeaway from a Lombardo campaign ad that interrupted my streaming the other day. One proposed regulatory backtrack recently presented to a panel of state lawmakers would allow generous reductions of penalties for employers even if they are committing "willful" safety violations. “They had knowledge, they did it anyway, and we’re still going to give them a reduction for that?" asked state Sen. Skip Daly. "I’m not seeing how that’s a deterrent.” (Hmm, deterrence might not be the Lombardo administration’s goal, senator.) April Corbin Girnus reports: Lawmakers balk at Nevada OSHA push to weaken job safety standards

Fires not sexy enough? A discussion at last week's Western Governors confab came on the heels of a report which found FEMA’s hazard mitigation efforts concentrate on hurricanes, floods and tornadoes, leaving “gaps” when it comes to wildfires, drought and earthquakes. Via Source New Mexico: Western US emergency experts say FEMA response still favors East Coast hurricanes over Western fires

Good Luck