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March 24, 2015

California first to feel hydro-power crunch

  • California's situation could have serious implications for the entire West if the drought not just of water, but of snow, persists.
    • By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
    Associated Press

    SAN FRANCISCO — Flying over the Sierra Nevada as California entered its fourth year of drought, the state's energy chief looked down and saw stark bare granite cloaked in dirty brown haze — not the usual pristine white peaks heaped with snow that would run the state's hydroelectric dams for the year.

    Spring is arriving with the Pacific Northwest measuring near record-low-snowfall, and much of the rest of the West below average. But what California is experiencing is historically low snowpack — a meager accumulation that has serious implications not only for the state but potentially for the entire West if the drought not just of water, but of snow, persists.


     
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