Our Ridiculous Energy Policies

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Dumb as We Wanna Be

Thomas Friedman, NYT

It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit.

No, no, no, we’ll just get the money by taxing Big Oil, says Mrs. Clinton. Even if you could do that, what a terrible way to spend precious tax dollars — burning it up on the way to the beach rather than on innovation?

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

Good for Barack Obama for resisting this shameful pandering.

But here’s what’s scary: our problem is so much worse than you think. We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage — gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars — and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage — new, renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.

Are you sitting down?

Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.

These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again — which often happens — investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That’s how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies.

The Democrats wanted the wind and solar credits to be paid for by taking away tax credits from the oil industry. President Bush said he would veto that. Neither side would back down, and Mr. Bush — showing not one iota of leadership — refused to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise. Stalemate. Meanwhile, Germany has a 20-year solar incentive program; Japan 12 years. Ours, at best, run two years.

“It’s a disaster,” says Michael Polsky, founder of Invenergy, one of the biggest wind-power developers in America. “Wind is a very capital-intensive industry, and financial institutions are not ready to take ‘Congressional risk.’ They say if you don’t get the [production tax credit] we will not lend you the money to buy more turbines and build projects.”

It is also alarming, says Rhone Resch, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, that the U.S. has reached a point “where the priorities of Congress could become so distorted by politics” that it would turn its back on the next great global industry — clean power — “but that’s exactly what is happening.” If the wind and solar credits expire, said Resch, the impact in just 2009 would be more than 100,000 jobs either lost or not created in these industries, and $20 billion worth of investments that won’t be made.

While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America’s premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany — 540 high-paying engineering jobs — because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not.

In 1997, said Resch, America was the leader in solar energy technology, with 40 percent of global solar production. “Last year, we were less than 8 percent, and even most of that was manufacturing for overseas markets.”

The McCain-Clinton proposal is a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious — the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/opinion/...xprod=permalink

[Heracles 417]

Wind and solar.. lol

And how are these going to power our cars again.. People bring them up over and over again yet fail to answer how wind or solar will replace petroleum in our vehicles..

The area those two technologies are trying to replace is silly considering we already have an environmentally friendly alternative such as nuclear.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Two words.

####### power.

[Heracles 417]

Two words.

####### power.

Why do you like that sort of stuff..

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Two words.

####### power.

Why do you like that sort of stuff..

No - but as a source power?

Woefully untapped.

[Heracles 417]

No - but as a source power?

Woefully untapped.

Some more than others..

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Wind and solar.. lol

And how are these going to power our cars again.. People bring them up over and over again yet fail to answer how wind or solar will replace petroleum in our vehicles..

The area those two technologies are trying to replace is silly considering we already have an environmentally friendly alternative such as nuclear.

Yes...those silly Germans and Japanese. What are they thinking? I'm thinking it's some genetic defect.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

No - but as a source power?

Woefully untapped.

Some more than others..

Now now. Can't we take an innoccuous joke without making a personal jibe out of it.

[DeadPoolX 9]

I think Doc Brown (from "Back to the Future") had the right idea. No, not plutonium; trash. In BttF2 and BttF3 the DeLorean powered itself through trash and waste. I think that's a great idea. Not only does it get us off oil and is trash a very renewable resource (we're constantly making more of it), but we'll be cleaning up the environment at the same time!

Don't ask me how it'd work, however. I'm not an engineer. Try asking Consolemaster. But if it could work (and I don't know if it could), I think it'd be a fantastic solution. I do ask that no one invent "flying cars" or the "Flux Capacitor." B)

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I think Doc Brown (from "Back to the Future") had the right idea. No, not plutonium; trash. In BttF2 and BttF3 the DeLorean powered itself through trash and waste. I think that's a great idea. Not only does it get us off oil and is trash a very renewable resource (we're constantly making more of it), but we'll be cleaning up the environment at the same time!

Don't ask me how it'd work, however. I'm not an engineer. Try asking Consolemaster. But if it could work (and I don't know if it could), I think it'd be a fantastic solution. I do ask that no one invent "flying cars" or the "Flux Capacitor." B)

Dunno - I still there's merit in having the driver connect a hose to his ####### everytime he wants to drive anywhere.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Wind and solar.. lol

And how are these going to power our cars again.. People bring them up over and over again yet fail to answer how wind or solar will replace petroleum in our vehicles..

The area those two technologies are trying to replace is silly considering we already have an environmentally friendly alternative such as nuclear.

Goooo nuclear power!!!!

[Jamie76 0]

Wind and solar.. lol

And how are these going to power our cars again.. People bring them up over and over again yet fail to answer how wind or solar will replace petroleum in our vehicles..

The area those two technologies are trying to replace is silly considering we already have an environmentally friendly alternative such as nuclear.

They are making great strides in battery capacity. Solar and wind can also be used to produce hydrogen. Nuclear? Peak nuclear will hit in another 50 years or so. We should put all of our eggs in one basket with nuclear and then be in the same predicament in the not so distant future by not developing solar and wind?

[kaydee457 13]

Wind and solar.. lol

And how are these going to power our cars again.. People bring them up over and over again yet fail to answer how wind or solar will replace petroleum in our vehicles..

The area those two technologies are trying to replace is silly considering we already have an environmentally friendly alternative such as nuclear.

They are making great strides in battery capacity. Solar and wind can also be used to produce hydrogen. Nuclear? Peak nuclear will hit in another 50 years or so. We should put all of our eggs in one basket with nuclear and then be in the same predicament in the not so distant future by not developing solar and wind?

Yes, great strides but unfortunately none of these technolgies are viable and can compete with oil.

Batteries, Wind Turbines, Solar panels/cells, and all the other novelty "alternate" energy sources are either dirty to produce, which means the pollution and energy savings go up the factory smoke stack and transparent to the end user, or are only viable with government subsidies allowing R&D to continue......

Most greenies are either ignorant of this or simply ignore it.

How many times is this same ####### going to be posted here on VJ?

Is there anyone that belives that these are viable alternate sources to OIL that we, and the rest of the western industrialized world wouldn't be exploiting them?

It's an absurd notion........

[Empress of Groovy 373]

Two words.

####### power.

That would look good on a bumper sticker.

[Peikko 1,575]

Wind and solar.. lol

And how are these going to power our cars again.. People bring them up over and over again yet fail to answer how wind or solar will replace petroleum in our vehicles..

The area those two technologies are trying to replace is silly considering we already have an environmentally friendly alternative such as nuclear.

They are making great strides in battery capacity. Solar and wind can also be used to produce hydrogen. Nuclear? Peak nuclear will hit in another 50 years or so. We should put all of our eggs in one basket with nuclear and then be in the same predicament in the not so distant future by not developing solar and wind?

Yes, great strides but unfortunately none of these technolgies are viable and can compete with oil.

Batteries, Wind Turbines, Solar panels/cells, and all the other novelty "alternate" energy sources are either dirty to produce, which means the pollution and energy savings go up the factory smoke stack and transparent to the end user, or are only viable with government subsidies allowing R&D to continue......

Most greenies are either ignorant of this or simply ignore it.

How many times is this same ####### going to be posted here on VJ?

Is there anyone that belives that these are viable alternate sources to OIL that we, and the rest of the western industrialized world wouldn't be exploiting them?

It's an absurd notion........

What do you care anyway right? I mean, you'll be dead in what? 30 years? Doesn't really matter what happens after that does it?