Too little Not soon enough

I just read an article about how the United States is planning on switching over the electrical system to a smart grid. The professionals say that by switching the US over to a smart grid that carbon emission will be reduced by 12% by the year 2030!

Hooray! we are all saved...

The smart grid is supposed to allow power companies to manage power on a higher level. During peak usage hours they will be able to spread the usage across different lines and over different areas allowing them to reduce critical load on any given line. During hours with minimal usage the companies will be able to subsidize mainstream power sources with natural sources like wind and solar power, which means the guys at the power plant can ease up on the smog producing habits.

Not producing smog

The only thing about this that sucks is that it is having a minimal impact at best on the environment. 12% by 2030? 12% of what? Total emissions that are produced every year? Total emissions of a certain industry? Assuming that we are already at "screw the earth" levels (100% emissions) then subtracting that 12% does not make for an especially eco-friendly punch. The professional clarify that it the smart grid would cut emission from US utilities only and that 12% would be equal to 66 coal plants or 442 million metric tons of carbon emissions. Seems like a lot until you look at the US's total emissions. According to wikipedia the United States ranks second in emission next to China (go figure) with an emission of 5,752,289,000 metric tons.

thats over 5 billion!

Reducing utility emissions by a measly 12% does not even make a dent, especially when you figure that China is still in the process of building coal powered plants, although they are technically cleaner, they still are COAL plants.

In my opinion a smart grid that reduces emissions by 12% is not a good start, it would make a better addition to a system that was already good. For example, if a majority of the grid was drawing from wind and solar sources and we wanted to increase the reduction abilities of an already very clean system. But we don't have that system and 12% isn't even a start, it's an excuse to say that the US is doing "something" to help the planet. And it will only be 12% by 2030! and thats only if the entire grid becomes smart...that's less than a percent a year! That's not worth publishing an article about, that's not even worth writing to mom about.

Sorry mom

Stop it