Tag Archives: california

Can clean energy replace a shuttered nuke plant in California?

by Bonita2376 Posted on January 23, 2014

Can clean energy replace a shuttered nuke plant in California?

By

spirit of america / Shutterstock

Last year’s decision to close the San Onofre nuclear power plant in Southern California has created a challenge for utilities and utility regulators: How best to replace the facility’s 2,200 megawatts of generating capacity?

The region’s utility is pushing for more fossil fuel power. Environmentalists want a cleaner solution — and the state’s thriving cleantech sector says it could provide just that.

The California Public Utilities Commission is due next month to consider allowing construction of a natural gas–fired plant near the Mexican border. The commission had rejected the plant a year ago, but it’s being reconsidered as part of a mixture of renewable and fossil fuel projects that could help meet the state’s electricity needs in the wake of the San Onofre closure.

Environmentalists and neighbors of proposed new gas plants have been pleading with commissioners for months to reject such proposals. They want more solar, wind, and efficiency to help fill the gap left by lost nuclear power. A clear majority of Southern Californians agree, according to a poll conducted last year.

“There’s all sorts of capacity for clean energy that will be able to take up the slack,” Solana Beach Deputy Mayor Lesa Heebner told La Jolla Patch. “It’s not in [San Diego Gas & Electric’s] financial plan to have solar rooftops in their portfolio as a generator, because they can’t control it.”

And now the state’s cleantech leaders are joining the fight, saying, “We got this.” Here are highlights from a letter that a coalition of renewable energy investors, companies, and industry groups sent to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) this week:

State agencies analyzing how to replace power for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), a 100% carbon-free facility, are considering allowing new fossil fuel plants to be built for a large part of that power. We believe this would be a step backwards for climate, clean tech and the California economy.

Replacing SONGS with new natural gas would be a missed opportunity to showcase the clean technologies coming out of California, which are fully capable of solving this decrease in generation capacity without using fossil fuels. Through renewables, energy efficiency, demand response and other smart grid technologies, California can meet all its future energy needs with clean resources.

We say, “Have at it, cleantech.” Here’s hoping that Brown and other officials come to see it the same way.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

View the original here – 

Can clean energy replace a shuttered nuke plant in California?

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, solar, solar panels, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Can clean energy replace a shuttered nuke plant in California?

No, Climate Change Is Not Waking Bears From Hibernation

by Hedrick Lepsch Posted on January 23, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Last week, a rogue black bear made a cameo appearance for skiers at the Heavenly Mountain Resort near Lake Tahoe. The month before, a 260-pound male bear had to be put down by wildlife officials after breaking into several cars and a home in the same area. The spate of run-ins comes as California’s brutal drought lingers on, with snowpack in the Sierra Nevada at a fifth of its normal level, leading several news outlets to suggest that balmy conditions have led bears here to awaken prematurely from their annual winter slumber.

That’s a nice hypothesis, but according to the California Department Fish and Wildlife, there’s nothing to it. Five to 15 percent of the Tahoe area’s 300 black bears stay awake every winter, said CDFW biologist Jason Holley, and “we don’t have any evidence to support that there’s any more this winter.” In fact, Holley said, the last few months of 2013 saw fewer bear complaints than average.

The front page of a recent San Francisco Chronicle. There’s no evidence that more bears are awake this year than in an average year, officials said. Clara Jeffery/Mother Jones

So why all the hullabaloo? Holley’s guess is that the drought cut down supplies of the bears’ natural food sources—mainly grass, berries, and insects, although they’ll eat just about anything—forcing those that are normally awake anyway to wander further afield, i.e., onto your ski slope or into your backyard. Not that the bears mind much.

“They are very adaptive and very mobile, so they will usually be able to take care of their daily needs in a drought situation,” Holley said. “But then they’re coming down to the lake to drink a lot, coming down for food. If the drought persists, it greatly increases the odds of a negative interaction with people.”

What motivates some bears to stay awake while others hibernate is still somewhat of a mystery to scientists, according to Roger Baldwin, a wildlife specialist at the University of California-Davis who has conducted extensive research on bear behavior. When small mammals (a squirrel, say) hibernate, their heart rate and body temperature drop radically, toeing death’s doorstep without actually stepping over, and stay that way for several months. Black bears, on the other hand, are much less extreme: They crank down their metabolism, heart rate, and body temperature just enough to get seriously lazy, but are still with it enough to be “perfectly capable of taking a swipe at you if you crawl into the den with them,” Baldwin said, so rousting them is neither uncommon nor difficult.

Continue Reading »

Link to article: 

No, Climate Change Is Not Waking Bears From Hibernation

Posted in alo, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on No, Climate Change Is Not Waking Bears From Hibernation

Observatory: A Queen Bee’s Secret, Pinpointed

by Myrna Posted on January 20, 2014

An international team of researchers has identified pheromones that are specific to queen wasps, bumblebees and desert ants that keep workers sterile while in their presence. View original –  Observatory: A Queen Bee’s Secret, Pinpointed ; ;Related ArticlesClimate Aids in Study Face Big Obstacles3 Campers Linked to Fire Are Arrested in CaliforniaTexas Company, Alone in U.S., Cashes In on Nuclear Waste ;

More:  

Observatory: A Queen Bee’s Secret, Pinpointed

Posted in alo, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, Monterey, ONA, Oster, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Observatory: A Queen Bee’s Secret, Pinpointed

Chemical Spill Muddies Picture in a State Wary of Regulations

by Myrna Posted on January 18, 2014

West Virginia, with its strong ties to coal and chemicals, has long had a fierce opposition to environmental regulations. Original article:  Chemical Spill Muddies Picture in a State Wary of Regulations ; ;Related ArticlesSevere Drought Grows Worse in CaliforniaAs California’s Drought Deepens, a Sense of Dread GrowsU.N. Says Lag in Confronting Climate Woes Will Be Costly ;

Visit source:  

Chemical Spill Muddies Picture in a State Wary of Regulations

Posted in Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, ONA, Oster, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Chemical Spill Muddies Picture in a State Wary of Regulations

California is now really, truly, officially screwed by drought

by MahaliaCooke Posted on January 17, 2014

California is now really, truly, officially screwed by drought

By

David Prasad

We tend to complain about precipitation in the winter: It’s cold, it’s depressing, it can make getting around dangerous and not fun. But as California can tell you right about now, there is definitely such thing as not enough “wintry mix.”

Friday morning, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) officially declared a drought emergency. He directed state agencies to use less water, and asked residents and businesses to voluntarily cut their usage 20 percent. Mandatory water limitations could follow, and Brown might ask for federal aid. Meanwhile, public landscaping will go dry and emergency firefighters will be added to the payroll.

We’ve been nervously watching the Golden State’s clear skies this winter, but recently things have gone from bad to worse fast. In the past two weeks, the percentage of the state experiencing extreme drought conditions shot from 28 percent up to a vertigo-inducing 63 percent, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is at a perilously low 17 percent of its usual level this time of year. Since as much as 65 percent of Cali’s water comes from this virtual water cooler, and much of that goes toward the state’s multibillion-dollar agricultural industry, the effects of a catastrophic water shortage may be widely felt in the year to come.

Though droughts are not uncommon in the region’s Mediterranean climate, the pattern of the past few years points to a slow-mo climate crisis crashing into the West Coast. 2013 was California’s driest year on record, with about two thirds of the state experiencing severe water shortage and fire danger. (Yesterday, a wildfire just outside of L.A. started gobbling up homes and trees in the Angeles National Forest, despite the fact that January and February are typically the wettest months in California.) From Salon:

Experts say that California must look beyond the current crisis … warning that the state can expect more of the same in future years. “The current historically dry weather is a bellwether of what is to come in California, with increasing periods of drought expected with climate change,” Juliet Christian-Smith, climate scientist in the California office of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. “Because increasing demand and drought are straining our water resources, we need to adopt policies that address both the causes and consequences of climate change.”

“Hopefully it’ll rain eventually,” Brown said during his announcement, with meteorologically sanctioned pessimism, as in: Probably not soon. The imminent return of the polar vortex is likely to impose moisture-free conditions on California while dumping extra snow over much of the rest of the country for the next few weeks.

Other states are suffering from dry spells too, including Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, and Hawaii. Maybe it’s time to put that spoon under your pillow and wish for a slush storm like the good old days.


Source
“The worst drought California has ever seen” is now an official emergency, Salon
California governor declares drought emergency, asks for conservation, NBC

Amelia Urry is Grist’s intern.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

View the original here – 

California is now really, truly, officially screwed by drought

Posted in alo, ALPHA, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on California is now really, truly, officially screwed by drought

Check Out This Shocking Map of California’s Drought

by nension Posted on January 8, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

â&#128;&#139;

NASA GRACE Data Assimilation. Click to embiggen.

While the country’s appetite for extreme weather news was filled (to the brim) this week by the polar vortex, spare a thought for sunny California, where exceptionally dry weather is provoking fears of a long, tough summer ahead.

The state is facing what could be its worst drought in four decades. The chart above, released by the National Drought Mitigation Center on Monday, shows just how dry the soil is compared to the historical average: the lighter the color, the more “normal” the current wetness of the soil; the darker the color, the rarer. You can see large swathes of California are bone dry.

Nearly 90 percent of the state is suffering from severe or extreme drought. A statewide survey shows the current snowpack hovering below 20 percent of the average for this time of year. The AP is reporting that if the current trend holds, state water managers will only be able to deliver 5 percent of the water needed for more than 25 million Californians and nearly a million acres of farmland.

A study published in Nature Climate Change at the end of last year found that droughts will probably set in more quickly and become more intense as climate change takes hold.

Read this article – 

Check Out This Shocking Map of California’s Drought

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Check Out This Shocking Map of California’s Drought

California’s cap-and-trade program could fund high-speed rail

by LamontMcdonald Posted on January 7, 2014

California’s cap-and-trade program could fund high-speed rail

By

California High-Speed Rail Authority

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) wants to take $250 million raised by the state’s cap-and-trade program and put it toward high-speed rail. That plan is expected to be part of the budget he unveils on Friday, The Sacramento Bee reports.

The rail project would carry passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in less than three hours by 2029, then be extended to reach San Diego and Sacramento. A $250 million infusion “could provide a significant lift to the project,” the Bee reports — a lift that’s sorely needed. The project has been beset by problems, and finding tens of billions of dollars to pay for it has proven challenging.

From the L.A. Times:

Brown has sold his plan for a high-speed railway as an environmentally friendly alternative to air or automobile travel, but the plan has lost popularity with the public, been derided by Republican leaders in Congress and been dealt a number of legal setbacks in the courts.

In 2008, California voters approved the sale of $10 billion in bonds to help pay for the bullet train, but the courts have questioned Brown’s construction and financing plan for the project. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said he will not sell any more bonds to pay for the project until the courts determine that the governor’s plan is legal.

Brown’s new idea for funding the rail line would still leave about $500 million in carbon-trading revenue for other environmental and climate initiatives, but some environmentalists “have bristled at the idea of using cap-and-trade money for high-speed rail, saying other projects could have a more immediate impact on greenhouse gas reduction,” according to the Bee.

Enviros are also still pissed that Brown borrowed $500 million of cap-and-trade funds last year to help fill a budget hole. He’s expected to propose paying $100 million of that back in his upcoming budget.


Source
Jerry Brown wants to use pollution funds for bullet train, Los Angeles Times
Jerry Brown’s cap-and-trade proposal for high-speed rail said to be $250 million, The Sacramento Bee

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Originally from – 

California’s cap-and-trade program could fund high-speed rail

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, oven, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on California’s cap-and-trade program could fund high-speed rail

Carbon trading is booming in North America, no thanks to U.S. or Canadian governments

by gwm6zjf3 Posted on January 4, 2014

Carbon trading is booming in North America, no thanks to U.S. or Canadian governments

By

NASA

In most of the carbon-trading world, it has been getting cheaper in recent years to buy the rights to pollute the atmosphere with climate-changing carbon dioxide. That’s largely because recession-afflicted Europe is awash with too many carbon allowances for its trading scheme to have any real bite, and because demand for U.N.-issued allowances has crashed along with hopes of a meaningful international climate agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

But in a bleak year for carbon markets, North America was a rising star.

Despite ongoing failure by the U.S. and Canadian governments to impose limits or taxes on greenhouse gas pollution, state and regional initiatives on the east and west coasts of North America moved forward.

California and Quebec are now the most expensive places in the world in which to pump carbon dioxide into the air.

Still, the value of global carbon markets plummeted last year, according to a new analysis published by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon. “The healthy growth in the North American markets was not enough to compensate for a stagnating European market and the collapse of UN-issued credits,” it found.

For the first time since 2010, the global carbon markets receded year-on-year in terms of transacted volumes.  …

The drop in value was more significant: as European carbon prices continued to fall, and the price of international credits collapsed completely, the total value of the transactions was 38.5 billion euros [$52.3 billion], a 38 percent decrease from the 2012 value. …

The year saw a bloom in the North American carbon markets, with strong growth in California and renewed activity in the north-eastern states’ Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) market. We assess overall transactions to have been 390 million metric tonnes with a value of $2.8 billion (€2 billion). This equals a volume growth of 200 percent and a value growth of 262 percent.

In the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) that encompasses California and the Canadian province of Québec, carbon allowance and offset prices are the highest in the world, with the allowance price floor of $10.71/t (approximately €7.8) in 2013 and trades clearing above that.

As the following graph shows, North America still has a long way to go before it could rival the sheer size of the E.U. Emission Trading Scheme (which trades EUAs) or, to a lesser extent, the U.N.-run international market for certified emission reductions (CERs) and emission reduction units (ERUs):

Thomson Reuters Point CarbonClick to embiggen.

Other highlights in 2013 carbon-trading news included the launch of trading programs in China and Mexico. A lowlight was Australia’s election of a new prime minister, Tony Abbott, who pledges to dismantle his country’s trading program.


Source
Carbon Market Monitor: A Review of 2013, Thomson Reuters Point Carbon

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Continued: 

Carbon trading is booming in North America, no thanks to U.S. or Canadian governments

Posted in alo, ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Carbon trading is booming in North America, no thanks to U.S. or Canadian governments

Meet the Americans Who’ve Lost Their Unemployment Benefits: "I’m Thoroughly Petrified"

by marques458 Posted on January 3, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

When Congress reconvenes next week, lawmakers will have to decide whether to extend federal unemployment benefits for about 1.3 million Americans. These emergency benefits—which Congress let expire shortly after Christmas—are part of a 2008 program that allows workers who have been out of the job for more than six months to receive an emergency extension on their payments up to 47 weeks. If Congress fails to renew these benefits, only a quarter of jobless Americans will be receiving any benefits at all, according to the Huffington Post.

As these charts show, the United States is looking at the worst long-term unemployment crisis since soup kitchen lines peaked during the Great Depression. Americans who have been unemployed for more than six months are often hit with major financial and personal hardship. Around 10 percent must file for bankruptcy, more than half report putting off medical care, and many say they have, “lost self-respect while jobless.” But who are these Americans who have lost their benefits? Some reached out to Mother Jones. Here are their stories:

Name: Anonymous

State: New York

“My benefits run out this week. I’m thoroughly petrified…I am the nice girl you went to high school with who was in the advanced classes, graduated with an A average, and went on to college. I’m the girl who always worked through high school, college, law school, and grad school. I never thought I would end up a welfare mother, but here I am. I want you to know how I got here and why I can’t get out. I want you to realize that your nasty comments on social media about the losers demanding entitlements and benefits and hand-outs as compared to your ‘hard-earned money,’ hurt more than you know. Those comments may also be hurting your friend or colleague or relative. I’m not alone in this situation. I do not want benefits, or hand-outs, or entitlements. I want a job. I want to be able to pay my own way. I want to be self-sufficient again and earn the money I receive through hard work. I don’t want to lose my house or have to talk to another debt collector. But in the meantime, I am grateful that some of our lawmakers saw fit to protect the vulnerable in times of need.”

Maureen “Momo” Kallins

Name: Maureen “Momo” Kallins

State: Washington

“I am 65 years old. For three years I worked as the General Manager and the Business Manager of a small public access television station in Washington State. I lost that job in January 2013, which supported half of our household. (I have two sons, 26 and 24, and I live with my husband.) I was awarded unemployment insurance of less than half of my salary that month, which was extended after six months. I have applied for numerous jobs but never even get an interview. A friend of mine in the film business said recently, ‘When you apply for a job at 50 people laugh at you. When you apply for a job at 65 people just look at you like you are crazy.’ Presently I am adding to my video resume and trying to build a business. I sincerely hope that the members of Congress can agree to extend these benefits and throw us a lifeline.”

Name: Carol Watterston

State: Nevada

“After being laid off after seven years at my job, I have now been unemployed since November 9, 2012. I job hunt for full-time employment everyday. I’ve been to multiple interviews and nothing has worked out. I’ve even attempted going back to school but I have bad credit and can’t afford it…I’m already struggling to pay my rent, my bills, my car insurance and feed myself and my pets. I have never been one that expects or wants any kind of charity, and this situation I’m in is degrading and shameful, but I have to do whatever is necessary for survival. However, I have a lot more than other people on this planet. I have a roof over my head, I have food in my fridge, I have a car, and I have a very supportive family, which I’m thoroughly thankful for.”

Tara Dublin

Name: Tara Dublin

State: Washington

“I was a very popular DJ on the radio in Portland. When I lost that job, I could not find another job in local media. The radio station that fired me has not replaced me. As a single mom of two sons (15 and 10 years old), it was imperative to me that I show my kids that we don’t roll over and die when bad things happen; we fight. And I’ve been fighting for the last four and half years. In the time since I lost that dream job, I’ve had small opportunities, but nothing long term. I’ll get a voiceover gig just when a bill is due…I worked holiday retail sales at Nordstrom but wasn’t rehired for this season, and despite applying for every retail and waitressing job I can find, I have yet to be hired. I’m on the verge of losing my house yet again, and I am terrified, I don’t ask for a lot out of life—just to be in a job that makes me happy and pays my bills.”

Name: Anonymous

“I lost my marketing communications specialist position in April and have not landed a job in nine months of looking, despite working at it diligently and investing in expensive job-hunt strategy and technique classes. I am 61. I believe my age and the reasonably good salary I was earning were factors in losing my job. I was replaced by a 20-something who could be paid a lower salary. I just do not get the assertion I see in so many news stories that eventually, long-term unemployed people just stop looking for work. Who can afford to do that? How can they live?”

Name: Jeff

State: Indiana

“I have an associate degree in hotel and restaurant administration. Right now I live in an old mobile home in pretty bad condition, but at least it is a sheltering place. I do not have a high standard of living, so really my only worry about not having a job and losing my unemployment benefits is becoming homeless. I only have rent, car payment and insurance, utilities, and food as expenses. I also worry about my three cats because I don’t want to see them suffer because of what is happening to me. I have pretty much been taking care of myself since I was 13, and the thought of not having a roof over my head is terrifying…I do think Congress needs to extend benefits, because people are suffering and it would be a catastrophe to let all those who are hurting slip even lower.”

Name: Anonymous

State: Washington

“I had a baby in July 2012. I was on unpaid maternity leave until November 2012. I was informed that I would be getting laid off in October 2012. I was in a unionized position but I got bumped by a more senior union member. We had insurance through my work. So we went on COBRA for $1800 a month. The unemployment benefits extension was covering the COBRA payment. Now we’ll be paying for COBRA out of pocket. And we have another baby on the way. I know I’m one of the lucky ones out there. I have enough in savings and an overall family income that I can make a choice to stay with the expensive COBRA, so that I don’t have to deal with this hassle of changing to Medicaid mid-pregnancy.”

And here are some stories from other news outlets:

David Davis, Virginia: “That’s one goal, to avoid living on the street or in my car.” (The New York Times )
Adaline Irizarry, New Jersey: “If I don’t get an extension, I’m screwed. I think a lot of people are in that situation.” (The Star-Ledger)
Celeste, New York: “I don’t buy books; I get everything from the library. We go to maybe one movie a year.” (Buzzfeed)

Kaitlyn Smith, California: “I have to keep the house at 55 degrees even though I have two little girls, ages 2 1/2 and 1 1/2.” (Los Angeles Times)

Mary Lowe, Ohio: “We didn’t do anything for Christmas—50 bucks for our daughter, that was it.” (CBS News)

View original article:  

Meet the Americans Who’ve Lost Their Unemployment Benefits: "I’m Thoroughly Petrified"

Posted in alo, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Meet the Americans Who’ve Lost Their Unemployment Benefits: "I’m Thoroughly Petrified"

Why Does the NYT Dialect Map Think I Come From Stockton?

by Arkady549e Posted on December 24, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Everyone’s favorite timewaster of the past couple of days has been the New York Times’ online dialect map. Answer 25 questions and it will tell you where you grew up. My results were disappointingly vague. Lots of people reported that the app practically located the city block they came from, but in my case it didn’t even get the right part of the state. I’ve spent my entire life within a radius of about 20 miles centered on Orange County, but the app thinks I come from northern California:

I had trouble with several of the questions. The freeway/highway distinction had a couple of answers that seemed OK. I refer to large vehicles on highways as big rigs, trucks, and semis fairly interchangeably. I’m fairly agnostic between yard sale and garage sale, as well as between drinking fountain and water fountain. But I took the test several times to see if answering these few questions differently made a difference, and it didn’t. I kept coming up as a northern Californian.

So I dug in further. Which question was IDing me wrong? After plowing through the test about a dozen times giving different answers to one or two questions at a time, I finally figured it out. It was this one: “What do you call the small road parallel to the highway?” I think of this as a frontage road, but when I switched to service road, the app pegged me with eerie precision:

So what’s going on? The truth is that here in Orange County we don’t really have roads like this, so I don’t call them anything. The only time I see them is when I’m traveling, usually in a car going north on I-5. Once you get up into the San Joaquin Valley, there are signs for these roads all over the place, and they’re always called frontage roads. Since that’s the only exposure I have to them, I call them frontage roads and thus peg myself as a northern Californian.

I’m pretty sure there’s more to it than just this, but since the test rotates questions it’s hard to consistently hold every variable constant but one in order to get clean results. As near as I can tell, frontage road reliably places me north of Bakersfield, but service road occasionally does too depending on how I answer some of the other questions. Most of the time, though, service road plus my natural answers to everything else places me solidly in Southern California.

See original article here: 

Why Does the NYT Dialect Map Think I Come From Stockton?

Posted in Casio, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why Does the NYT Dialect Map Think I Come From Stockton?