Dumb as We Wanna Be

[gunit_sangh]

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: April 30, 2008
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.

<snip>

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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/opinion/30friedman.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

This shows you where dear leader's priorities lie.

[wow]

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.
But another obstacle is a political heavyweight with a famous name, a local Cape Cod address and hardline opposition to the project, Senator Ted Kennedy.

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's primary residence is in Hyannisport, Mass., on the Kennedy family compound. It's one of the closest landfalls -- about 6 miles -- from the proposed site of the 440-feet turbines, which would be visible from his house as well as other surrounding coastlines.

Since 2001, there have been various legislative attempts to quash the project in Washington, many of which could be tied one way or another to the Democratic Bay State senator.
The state environmental office -- one of a battery of local, state and federal agencies reviewing the project's permits -- ruled that his proposal to build 130 turbines in the waters of Nantucket Sound complies with the state's environmental policy.

Gordon and his Cape Wind project, which he says would generate 79 percent of the power for Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, have been pitched in a series of regulatory battles since 2001.

Already, he has spent $30 million in pursuit of the renewable energy project, which he argues the nation desperately needs to help combat global warming and promote energy independence.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2995334&page=1

[lastone13]

Solar energy and wind energy credits are not new - they were making great headway back in the 1960s and especially early 1970s, as was auto fuel derived from corn, then all those energy initiatives were squashed by Ford and Reagan administrations. 

This alternative energy battle has been around for a long time, at least since Ford invented the automobile.  Rockefeller's Standard Oil intervened with the U.S. government to ensure that automobiles would be using oil driven engines, not electric ones or some other fuel.   Just as Bush's family has ties with the oil industry going back at least 4 generations, most U.S. presidents have been influenced or dominated by the oil industry and other big business interests.   

[Vermouth]

Solar energy and wind energy credits are not new - they were making great headway back in the 1960s and especially early 1970s, as was auto fuel derived from corn, then all those energy initiatives were squashed by Ford and Reagan administrations. 

This alternative energy battle has been around for a long time, at least since Ford invented the automobile.  Rockefeller's Standard Oil intervened with the U.S. government to ensure that automobiles would be using oil driven engines, not electric ones or some other fuel.   Just as Bush's family has ties with the oil industry going back at least 4 generations, most U.S. presidents have been influenced or dominated by the oil industry and other big business interests.   

Interesting. I need to read up on this.

[BIGTEX]

Wind energy is what got ol' Chris Columbus to America.

The Rockefellers facilitated a much better way, however.

NOTE:  The first sign of an idiot is one who criticizes "Big Oil."  They are fools of the highest magnitude.

[gorknoids]

Solar energy and wind energy credits are not new - they were making great headway back in the 1960s and especially early 1970s, as was auto fuel derived from corn, then all those energy initiatives were squashed by Ford and Reagan administrations. 

This alternative energy battle has been around for a long time, at least since Ford invented the automobile.  Rockefeller's Standard Oil intervened with the U.S. government to ensure that automobiles would be using oil driven engines, not electric ones or some other fuel.   Just as Bush's family has ties with the oil industry going back at least 4 generations, most U.S. presidents have been influenced or dominated by the oil industry and other big business interests.   

Wind turbines take a long time to pay for themselves, and their generating capacity isn't what it's all cracked up to be.  Anyone who has driven from LA to Palm Springs can tell you that.  California is the Queen of Brownouts.
     I signed a lease two years ago to permit a Spanish company to put them on family land up north, and the only opposition to the project (It's part of a major system) is from "environmentalists".  The same people who insisted that oil rigs be removed from the Gulf of Mexico when they are tapped out simply because they are oil rigs.  Never mind the abundance of aquatic life that call them "home". 
     I'd really love to see community nuke plants, but that's a dead horse.