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Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.
Another view?
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How inspiring to read the transcript of Sen. Harry Reid’s remarks to the Nevada State Legislature. What a marvelous vision of our “Battle Ready” Nevada leading the local, national and global charge into the (inevitable) renewable energy future!
Harvesting sunlight and harnessing the wind rather than continuing to dig and drill for finite fossilized sunlight is not only good for our economy, it is good for the environment. It is high time we cease our plundering of the planet for profit while simultaneously defaulting on the true costs of polluting our air, land and water.
How exciting that we could become true pioneers in something that is this crucially important! It makes me hopeful to be a Nevadan.
LOL
STILL LOL
there is no rush the renewables in Nevada
I suspect if Senator Reid did a cost comparison of his energy ideas about windmills, sun, and green algae to fossil fuel and fracking, the math costs for doing the former would trump the latter by an exponent of infinity. But, since when is saving taxpayers' money and getting better results in the process ever high on Senators' list of priorities. It's [the US Senate] called the millionaires' club for a reason.
CarmineD
"True pioneers", "Battle Ready".... If you have $30,000 dollars just laying around to invest would you buy a solar system, wind system or Nevada Energy Stock?......... Raw land in Nevada is the only natural resource I'm interested in, the rest of this feel good green energy stuff is just a high dollar slow paying, if ever, headache.
The question of renewable energy versus fossil fuels remains contentious. The economics of each depend on many variables and many more unknowns.
Renewable energy offers a zero "fuel" cost in exchange for a higher upfront investment. Backers of fossil fuels maintain they can predict the future cost of those fuels with an accuracy that has never been demonstrated in the past. The latter also tend to ignore such things as health costs, the cost of military committment required to protect those resources, environmental damage, and the inconvenient truth of climate change which has an unmeasurable cost.
i want some of what Gail is smoking!
Guided by media, convenience and the BLINDERS, we have screwed the pooch, environmentally speaking and psychologically also.
As Gail makes abundantly clear, even effusive, what we have here is the dump. What we could get is a paradise where a sustainable growth plan benefits our planet and ourselves.
Our history is one of potentials gone awry from misguided drives to amass personal wealth rather than social evolution and individual optimization.
Harry and Gail are onto something. We have the potential for greatness along with the understanding of our tendencies to goof up on the side of selfish.
If Harry and Gail are on to something, then why isn't the State of Nevada and Clark County Building Departments requiring green energy retrofits and hardware on all building permits? Harry's leading the national and global charge in the inevitable renewable energy future alright, but first it must pass through a government taxed smart meter.
Jim et al:
I thoroughly agree with you that health care and environment costs MUST be factored into the cost of ALL energy sources even windmills. Here's one of many articles on the issue:
http://www.notritonknollsubstation.webs....
I didn't provide a link to the numerous birds that windmills kill and injure every year, some of which are extinct. You can do your own research and reading on it.
CarmineD
"Harvesting" sunlight and "harnassing" the wind sounds very poetic -- it just isn't practical at this time. The technology is not yet cost competitive with conventional energy sources. Government needs to get out of business of trying to drive the public towards the fad of the moment (or protecting special interests) and facilitate open competition; tax dollars should only go towards basic research. As fossil fuel demand goes up and supply declines (and prices go up), as they inevitably will over time, increased efficiencies will be found and competitive alternative energy sources will be developed.
Investing in the future isn't one of the items on conservatives lists to do. It seems many of them live in the Cold War years. We can not continue to rely on fossil fuels. The time to research and develop new energies is now. We should be treating this problem as we did during the race to space.
Ms. Gail Collins-Ranadive thank you for the letter.
"We should be treating this problem as we did during the race to space." Vernos Branco
You are saying the government should recuse itself from energy research and development by letting the private sector take the lead. Then, government can contract with the private sector vendors for the alternative energy sources and services. If that is what you are saying, then I agree. The private sector already proves it does a better job for lesser costs with fossil fuels and fracking.
CarmineD
Gail.....GREAT LETTER!
YES, the time is NOW, not later, for renewable
energy.
Harry Reid and PRESIDENT OBAMA are leading on
this most important issue.
And what the ignorant republicans don't understand
is that if any part of our electrical grid goes
down, the only people with power will be the ones
with solar and wind power.
The rest of the world is moving ahead with
renewable energy.
We can't afford to let stupid republicans hold
us back.
It is useful to remind ourselves of the 40-year old history of that UN-led conspiracy. It started in the 1970's by the announcement of the coming ice age; in the 1990's it continued by the announcement of the man-made catastrophic global warming panic; after 16 years of considerable global cooling that panic was replaced by the climate change flim-flam and now by the cap & trade power grab. Whatever that far-left coterie of government-paid drones controlled by the far-left UN Panel "specialists" is cooking up by means of faked data and erroneous calculations -- the final aim is to empower a new UN-controlled world socialist government authorized to "spread the wealth around" and so save the planet from a sure annihilation caused by rapacious and irresponsible capitalists.
Those green and renewable energies -- solar, wind, geothermal, plant-derived -- are all energy balance-negative (they require more conventional energy to produce than they can generate), unreliable, extremely expensive, and environmentally destructive.
"And what the ignorant republicans don't understand
is that if any part of our electrical grid goes
down, the only people with power will be the ones
with solar and wind power." Teamster
Redundant and backup electrical systems and power provide fail proof continuance in blackouts.
CarmineD
Let me add several notes on the subject of "renewable energies".
a) Solar panels, photovoltaic or mirrors, attract dust brought daily by breezes, especially in our deserts, that drastically cut down their efficiency; weekly power sprays by water jets are required to get rid of that dust, to be followed by drying -- all using manual labor that is never included in their cost analyses. Also, nights and cloudy days result in zero electricity production. Huge fields covered by solar panels kill everything in their shade -- whether animals or plants, rare or otherwise.
b) Wind turbine blades are veritable "cuisinarts" for birds that do not see them. After two years of operation the wind farm erected in high Sierras of California was found almost buried in dead birds, including rare bald eagles and albatrosses. Huge manpower costs were incurred in burying the birds and cleaning the blades from blood and guts.
@Teamster: "And what the ignorant republicans don't understand is that if any part of our electrical grid goes down, the only people with power will be the ones
with solar and wind power."
This is an ignorant statement. Wind power has been around since Jesus. Over promise and under deliver. They say they'll last 20 years but then it turns out to be only seven. Who will "decommission" them when there life has expired? Taxpayer, i suppose.
And power supplied by wind during the British summer olympics was 0.0%:
"Anyone impressed by the efficient way in which Britain has organised the Olympic Games might consider the stark contrast provided by the shambles of our national energy policy -- wholly focused as it is on the belief that we can somehow keep our lights on by building tens of thousands more wind turbines within eight years. At one point last week, Britain's 3,500 turbines were contributing 12 megawatts (MW) to the 38,000MW of electricity we were using. (The Neta website, which carries official electricity statistics, registered this as "0.0 per cent")."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/94686...
"Harvesting" sunlight and "harnassing" the wind sounds very poetic -- it just isn't practical at this time.
Hahaha
Solar PV has improved efficiencies significantly in just the last three years. Prices have dropped a bunch too.
In fact, the per watt cost is competeive with COAL burning!
PV installed is actually about $1.19 a kwh, the equivalent of coal selling at $0.06 a kwh.
What we in the business are finding is that most of the world where we install PV and DHW systems (Europe, asia, Australia) is about HALF the price as the US for installs. And the hold-up is... the paperwork here. For example, the Germans put in a system for $100 grand and we need about $200 K for the same array in the US.
Not saying ignorance is bliss, just pointing out that in some of our marketing area, the costs of doing business with nay-sayers, doubting Thomases and pro-combustion heretics is costing us carbon and jobs, trashing our planet and frustrating those of us who are bringing the future with backlash from those who prefer their understanding in pill form..
More roads, highways, vehicles, crossroads, + carbon dioxide tax. Why no Green eco-nature solutions.
We are blessed to have such interesting comments about things real and imagined...
"I didn't provide a link to the numerous birds that windmills kill and injure every year, some of which are extinct. You can do your own research and reading on it.
CarmineD"
Nope, I couldn't make this stuff up. According to the extinguished Carmine, our dang windmills are KILLING off species that are already EXTINCT!! God, what awful windmills we have devised - murdering extinct birds!!
FYI airweare
"In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms (taxon), normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively."
ONLY THE FACTS.
CarmineD
"According to the extinguished Carmine..."
BTW Lamy, this rumor, to quote Twain, is overly exaggerated.
CarmineD
So the extinct birds we killed with our windmills were blind, too??
If so, maybe, Cramine, just MAYBE we did 'em a favor whacking them a good one so as to minimize their life struggles!?
Either way, my good uncle Sam Clemens would be laughing at your feeble cover for your egregious blundering.
What's even funnier is the chagrin of the hapless..."although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point." ..poor carmine
"So the extinct birds we killed with our windmills were blind, too??" Joe Lamy
If that is a question, the answer is most definitely yes. Many like bats are sight impaired and use hearing and sound for flight. If it is a statement my response is TRUE.
CarmineD
"Either way, my good uncle Sam Clemens would be laughing at your feeble cover for your egregious blundering."
And I at his.
CarmineD
Are birds blind?
Answer:
Yes. Some are born blind and others can be blinded later in life.
;-)
JUST THE FACTS
CarmineD