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Good environmental policy is good economic policy. We are not only helping to save the planet in terms of global warming, we are also moving to get this country out of the economic crisis that we are in right now. Are we making some progress? We really are. In the stimulus package, for example, we are spending more money on energy efficiency and sustainable energy then in the history of the United States of America. We certainly have moved far more aggressively in the last year then Bush did in eight years. Here is what I think we have got to do. I think the low-hanging fruit and a real job creator is energy efficiency. As we struggle with the most significant economic crisis since the Great Depression, it is imperative that we create millions of good-paying jobs and, as I said, the interesting thing here is that good environmental policy is good economic policy.
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It really shouldn't be controversial to either party. The technologies utilized to do it tend to not transport well meaning the manufacturing stay's here along with the installation. It's also an important first step to protect against any energy innefficiencies of an energy changeover in the future.
It probably doesn't have the largest environmental bang for the buck, but may well have some of the largest economic bangs for the bucks of green action.
On a perverse note a fast efficiency switch might slow the implementation of green energy production as current innefficiencies drive a need to permit new production which can be constrained under existing EPA authorities.
It's also an important first step in isolating poorer populations from increased per unit energy costs it is only rational to expect in the short to mid term in any switchover.
Don't worry about Global warming. It is just the doomsday chant of the day. In 1976, these same type people were chanting about global cooling
See the Newsweek article from 1976
http://denisdutton.com/newsweek_coolingworld.pdf
Meanwhile, Texas is promised 240 massive Chinese built multimegawatt wind turbines on 56 sq miles of concrete, roads and steel Chinese financed for $1.5 billion. 600 megawatts peak, 125 megawatts average, $12000 kilowatt baseload eqv excluding storage, transmission, and millions annually for load balancing natural gas. Same energy as two Hyperion units or electric power as five (buried under the bunkhouse) for between 10 and 25 times the cost.
Now in Arcadia Fl we have covering 180 acres America's largest solar photovoltaic plant, 5 megawatts baseload equivalent, 180 acres of arsenic,steel and concrete., cost $150 million. 7% the thermal or 20% electric energy of that Hyperion hot tub buried under a tool shed.
The Hyperion on energy equivalents is 1% of solar and 4% wind cost, a tiny percentage of either's civil resources, and provides 24/7 always on power.
Renewables make us feel warm and righteous dancing us down the road to the as little as ten years away climate driven economic and even civilization collapse while $2.5 trillion in nukes, paid for by ending the US $1 trillion annual fossil fuel bill could with an extreme effort here and abroad save us.
At $30 million for 25 MW of baseload electricity they would be comparable in price to alternative energy sources now being built, although potentially more reliable.
Their website says thay they are intended for remote areas, away from electrical grids, if they are ever built.
I personally wish them well, but their website is long on hype and short on details. Still, if they ever deliver, this idea could be very useful.
They could be used to replace Coal boilers at existing sites. And the Hyperion is only one example of similar small Nuclear Reactors that have been designed, some built. Others Chinese HTR-10, Toshiba 4S, Nuscale, Babcock & Wilcox mPower, Sandia Labs Right Sized Reactor. And dozens of Naval Nuclear Reactors. Like the GE SG9, 50 MW, 33 yr refueling. Cost ? The entire sub is $2B for 50MW = $40k/kwe which is the price of Solar. This is for an ENTIRE SUB - THE MOST COMPLEX MACHINE EVER BUILT! The reactor is a trivial part of the Submarine - worth at most 5% of total value. SUB & Reactor designed in 3 yrs, built in 5 yrs.
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty society.
William Shakespeare
Cool!
Why does someone have to buy million dollar government permits to start an alternative fuel company?
If the politicians want competition, they should just repeal ALL of their energy laws and allow the people to compete freely and NOT pass Cap and Trade.... Cap and Trade was created by Enron and Wall Street, to enrich the Wall Street bankers.... It's one giant scam and won't do a single thing to ad competition to the oil and coal companies.
Say NO to cap and trade and carbon taxes, and YES to competition against the oil and coal companies.
Simple solution that will never, ever happen because of the embedded corporatism in our government. Sorry.
And you hit the nail on the head on the cap-n-trade scam.
Hopefully enough people are getting burned out on this paradigm but with the education system essentially ruined by republicans we have found ourselves flooded with "Libertarians" that don't have a clue.
As long as the US government remains hostage to old technologies and bowing to fossil fuel industries who are incessantly lobbying elected officials, America will continue to lose ground and miss great opportunities.
Why keep polluting the environment whilst sending billions to the middle east?
“Subsidizing renewable energy in the U.S. may destroy two jobs for every one created if Spain’s experience with windmills and solar farms is any guide.
For every new position that depends on energy price supports, at least 2.2 jobs in other industries will disappear, according to a study from King Juan Carlos University in Madrid.†This was reported in Bloomberg in March of this year.
Environmentalists would argue (and rightly in my opinion) that sustainable energy is bigger benefit here in the United States considering we are losing jobs everyday in manufacturing AND more importantly, pollution is a real problem whether you care or not. We have the highest asthma rates among developed countries and such.
Flemming Nissen, the head of development at West Danish generating company ELSAM tells us that “wind turbines do not reduce carbon dioxide emissions.â€
Recent academic research shows that wind power may actually increase greenhouse gas emissions in some cases, depending on the carbon-intensity of back-up generation required because of its intermittent character.
Denmark'selectricity generation costs are the highest in Europe (15¢/kwh compared to Ontario’s current rate of about 6¢). Niels Gram of the Danish Federation of Industries says, “windmills are a mistake and economically make no sense.†Aase Madsen, the Chair of Energy Policy in the Danish Parliament, calls it “a terribly expensive disaster.â€
http://bravenewclimate.com/2009/10/22/denmark-wind-experiment-awry/
Denmark has 881 gm CO2 emissions per kwh of electricity generation. France has 83 gm CO2 emissions per kwh of electricity generation.
The most recent Scientific American magazine (Nov. 2009) states that we could fill all of our (the world's) electrical needs with renewable energy by 2030 if we want to. "The cost of generating and transmitting power would be less than the projected cost per kilowatt-hour for fossil-fuel and nuclear power." The authors of the article estimate that wind turbines could provide about half of the energy needed, and would need about 50 square miles of total land area, worldwide. The authors estimate the cost at about $100 trillion dollars over twenty years, for the entire planet.
Interestingly, China is already outspending the USA in terms of the percentage of GDP that they are putting into renewable energy development.
There is plenty of reliable information available from journals such as Scientific American, and I encourage everyone to go to source materials instead of political blogs to get their advice.