Will miss Mary Fischer
I was saddened to learn this morning that Mary Fischer died Feb. 4. While I was not on Mary or her family’s A-List, in some ways I was on Mary’s A-List just because I knew her. What a woman!
I met Mary a few years back when my husband, Peter Smith, worked with her on the Gardeners Reclaiming Our Waysides project. We discovered we had a lot in common with our love of an outdoor life in the mountains and desert. I fondly remember one afternoon we spent with Mary and Al having lunch, hearing their “origin” stories, and getting a tour of Cottonwood MHP. I had never been to that part of Carson City and was amazed at the oasis that exists there.
I was privileged to go to a couple of Mary and Al’s famous Christmas parties. These parties were not just a Christmas celebration but were a celebration of family and friends where everyone who stepped through their door was unconditionally welcomed. Everyone was requested to bring a homemade ornament to add to a very large tree. When you placed your ornament on the tree, you were asked to tell a story about your contribution. Mary and Al had dozens and dozens of boxes of ornaments that had been collected over decades of these parties.
I recently saw Mary at the Carson City swimming pool and we briefly chatted through our masks. As always, she was upbeat and cheerful. I was more concerned about Al’s health, and didn’t think we would lose Mary so soon. I will miss her.
Patricia “Patti” Cooper-Smith
Carson City
Aldean chillingly inaccurate
Shelly Aldean’s column, “A Chilling Realization,” is chillingly inaccurate. She blames the Texas power outage on the failure of wind turbines. The facts are that the majority of the failure in the energy supply was due to frozen infrastructure for natural gas and not wind-powered generators.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that natural gas generation dropped by 23 percent in a matter of hours, causing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to start rolling blackouts. Wind energy plays a significant role in Texas’ power supply, but there is no indication it was the primary cause of outrages.
The truth is that the power failure was caused by Texas’ failure to weatherize its power grid. For example, Iowa, where wind energy accounts for 42 percent of its power generation, has not suffered major power outages. Mid America Energy, the state’s largest utility, had enough electrical supply to get its customers through the same cold snap that Texas suffered. This is even though 80 percent of Mid America Energy’s electricity is generated by renewable energy.
Again, Texas’ problem was a failure to invest in weatherization of its system. As another example, a North Sea wind farm where temperatures are as low as 22 degrees Fahrenheit has not failed because they heat their wind turbines, a part of grid maintenance. Similarly, gas fired plants in several northern states have not failed because they are weatherized.
We know that maintaining, including winterizing, wind turbines and other power generating systems, has a cost, but that may be the price Texas must pay to avoid even more expensive future disasters and the harms suffered by its citizens.
Ernest Adler
Carson City
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