Is alternative energy a pipe dream in the short run?
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at
6:53 pm
Should the citizens of the united states demand the government provide energy by any means until the technology and the hardware for alternative energy are ready?
I am not saying alternative sources of energy will not happen, of course they will, but we need energy now.
Get the electricity any way we can and phase out fossil fuels as alternative energy comes available.
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Tagged with: Alternative Energy • alternative sources of energy • citizens • electricity • fossil fuels • sources of energy • united states
Filed under: Alternative Energy
You are correct.
Massive taxes on energy will NOT solve the problem – it will just cause more suffering for people already just trying to make ends meet.
Alternative energy is already here. We don’t have it because of lack of political will — basically, Congress is in the pay of the energy industry. But France for example moved almost all of its power generation to nuclear in a little over a decade. And wind with storage is economical and practical in many areas. The thing is, we have to start now. We should have started 10 years ago, 15 years ago, then we’d have energy independence and wouldn’t be contributing to warming.
No, it isn’t a pipe dream.
No, there are efforts being made world wide in this endeavor. The problem is that our needs are so great, and you can’t build or produce this type of energy solutions overnight. You also can’t destroy the present methods until you have a viable affordable solution to replace it with. So baby step will be needs. Remember all the brouhaha we heard about ethanol? And it turns out that if we switched to this as our primary, not only was it more expensive, but we would starve the earth. We need smart solutions…..
Yes – they cannot survive without enormous, direct government subsidy. And their energy output is miniscule compared to fossil fuels.
But we can’t reach that ultimate achievement of 100% renewable energy until we put enough resources into funding its study and implementation that we can actually accomplish anything.
We might as well just be progressive for once and just solve the damn problem instead of perpetually arguing over the politics. This is what the big energy corporations want us to do. The longer we put it off, the more non-renewable resources we deplete, and the warmer the globe becomes.
It’s not a politics issue, it’s a human issue.
Contrary to common thought, harassing alternative energy sources has been a on going process and very little progress has been made into making such significant in regards to effectiveness, reliability, and affordability. There is one source, and only one source, that will significantly drop our use of fossil fuels and that is nuclear energy. Wind and solar, even after spending trillions, will not be able to cover even 10% of energy needs in the United States. It is not a secret.
If we’d demanded that space program or the navy be funded by private enterprise and tax credits, would we have reached the moon or ever had a navy worth mentioning?
Would we have a modern highway system or a rail network, without government backing?
Expecting new technology to develop without cost, is essentially adopting the Chinese method of research. Which would mean ceding such technology industries to the Europeans, followed by the usual third world labor marts.
We put a man on the moon, developed nuclear weapons, came up with a way to network with people around the world, created electricity, now there saying we have a breast cancer vaccine…. etc. We have done so many things our ancestors could ever dream of doing, so no I don’t think it’s a pipe dream. We can’t work on alternative energy if we keep spending money on war, and draining the planet dry, and oil spills lol. It takes money, and if we don’t start working on it soon it may be to late, heck it could already be to late lol.
Commitment to alternative energy systems that already exist is what has been lacking by political leaders.
Nuclear energy, unpopular to many, has the best score card of any. It’s cleaner, cheaper, more efficient, and all but eliminates our need for fossil fuel and middle eastern oil barons. naturally, there is risk, but is the risk any greater than what is happening in the Gulf right now ? I think not !
No but the libs would have to let go of the fact that bio fuels will cause the 3rd world to suffer due to sky rocketing food prices.
If we put that aside bio fuels could be used now, ditto with nuclear energy
It’s only a pipe dream, as long as we only pay lip service to developing those alternative energies.
Fact of the matter is………many technology advances that "Star Trek" envisioned, have come to pass. And way before the century they portrayed. It stands to reason, that someday, we WILL develop those other technologies, in the due process of things. But the longer we RELY on OIL and fossil fuels……..the more far off those advances and developments will be.
Usually, NECESSITY is the mother of all invention………..and that’s what it will probably take, to break OIL’s stranglehold on us.
Some major freaking catastrophe, where OIL just ISN’T an OPTION anymore.
Oh, LOOK! What timing………….I was just saying……………….
Government cannot provide anything that it doesn’t first take away from productive sources. (Private sector)
Unfortunately, many alternative energy schemes are:
1. Completely inefficient and not cost-effective on a macro scale. (wind and solar).
This is caused by converting large amounts of expensive land into a use that yields little return.
2. Causing more environmental problems such as interrupted migration patterns and desertification. (wind, solar and hydro)
3. Usually only exist because there is government handout offsetting the costs of using more energy to create less energy. (bio-fuel and ethanol)
Nuclear energy is possibly the cheapest, cleanest and safest form energy and is rapidly becoming the energy of choice for Europe.
The short run – and long run – pipe dream is that we have a choice.
The problem is not in generating the energy, it is in the transmission and distribution of that energy. Our energy grid needs needs to be upgraded and expanded. It already is outdated and overloaded.
We need to improve it anyway, so we should plan for future energy needs and sources now.