Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Oil on water.

I have recently noticed that there are a lot of Tesla electric cars in the Napa Valley.  A lot. There was a time when spotting a Tesla was a rare event, but now they are ten a penny. Yesterday, a dusty, brown Model S sneaked up on me outside the Oakville post office (those things are dangerously silent).  Then today, on my way to work, I was behind a Model S that had decided that I was going to drive up to TWWIAGE at no more than 35 mph.  God love 'em!
The shiny, navy blue Tesla of this morning was brand spanking new and, as yet, had no license plate.  In lieu of a license plate there was a card that read 'ZERO Emissions'.  Well, obviously there are zero emissions, it's an electric car. However, the power station responsible for generating the electricity to power my friend, the tortoise-like Tesla, is most definitely not pumping out zero emissions into the atmosphere: the generation of electricity is not without consequences.  That fact, unfortunately, just happens to be an inconvenient detail that most electric car owners seem to ignore. Generally, I have discovered that just ignoring, and denying, reality doesn't make it simply disappear. My musings reminded me of a story that I read in the Napa Valley Register last month.
A short road that dead-ends at the Napa River, and is soon to be developed with a 489 unit apartment village, is to be renamed.  The current name, Oil Company Road, has been deemed unsuitable for the new residential complex and so the road is to be renamed Sousa Lane West (the continuation of a small road on the other side of Soscol Avenue that heads east to the Silverado Trail).  And why is someone bothering to rename Oil Company Road?  A spokesman, when asked this question, said, "We chose to change it because of the confusion of 'oil company' with 'oil cans'; it carried a derogatory feeling to it." What? How fragile are the psyches of the folks who will eventually inhabit these new apartments? Apparently, history has to be forgotten, or worse rewritten, to save these apartment dwellers from the perceived horrors that are fossil fuels.
In the 1890s, this part of Napa - along the river, but on the opposite bank to downtown - was a dockyard area mainly occupied by gasoline wholesalers who when the demand for petroleum grew supplied that demand.  The flourishing industries that relied on the gasoline wholesalers were tanneries, mills, cream of tartar factories (there were a lot of grapes here, even then) and, of course, the power plants that supplied the electricity to these industries.  The same electricity that powers the myriad of Tesla motor cars that are tooting around the Napa Valley today.
I am glad that I got a photograph of the Oil Company Road sign before it is removed, and before the powers that be rewrite Napa history to the absolute detriment of future generations of Napa Valley residents.

7 comments:

New Hampshire Wineman said...

VG: Wow; you are stepping out and holding all of us to that dreaded phrase "common sense"; of course I love that, and will post a link to FB. :-)

New Hampshire Wineman said...

Oh, and don't forget about all those polluting batteries!

Thomas said...

VG: History is either irrelevant or made to bend to a greedy culture.

Thud said...

I thought unicorn farts and rainbows came out of the back of teslas.

Vinogirl said...

NHW: I think common sense is becoming a thing of the past...like history.
And yes, how to dispose of all those batteries? Nowadays, folks are demonised for even thinking about popping a tiny AAA battery into the dustbin.

Tomasso: The entire planet is being dumbed down! History is indeed being made irrelevant by those who wish to rewrite it.

Thud: Some people would have us all believe that is true.

Thomas said...

I don't have a problem with conservation. It makes sense, and if you talk historically, that's what we used to do before we became a throw-away culture.

I do have a problem with history being re-written to make people ignorant for the good of commerce.

Tomorrow is May Day. I wonder how many Americans even know that celebrating May Day started in the U.S. in the nineteenth century, but was bent by commercial powers and their police force?

Vinogirl said...

Tomasso: California/Napa doesn't have much history...why anyone would want to deny the little bit it does have is beyond me. I do despair sometimes.

Re: May Day. To me, May 1st is more about paganistic/spring rites than anything else.