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EDITORIAL
Soaking up green
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So-called "green" energy is all the rage in Washington. But as the federal government spends billions of dollars a year to encourage the development of solar, wind or other politically correct power sources, not all observers whistle and applaud.
"Forcing green energy on the market (is) much, much more expensive" than allowing private power companies to simply buy the cheapest sources available, writes Kenneth P. Green, an environmental scientist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, in his new article, "The Myth of Green Energy Jobs: The European Experience."
"Using Spain as a model, when you do the math, you realize that creating 3 million new green jobs could cost $2.25 trillion" -- nearly a million tax dollars apiece for jobs that are likely to go away as soon as the government subsidies end.
"Green programs in Spain destroyed 2.2 jobs for every green job created, while the capital needed for one green job in Italy could create almost five jobs in the general economy," Mr. Green writes. "Countries are cutting these programs because they realize they aren't sustainable and they are obscenely expensive."
And the wasteful subsidies involved in attempting to warp the economic equations to make "alternative energy" look attractive are massive.
Yes, most forms of energy enjoy some kind of government subsidy or support. Hydroelectric dams are usually operated by government agencies, for example; nuclear power benefits from legislated liability caps.
But when the Energy Information Administration worked out the costs of those "subsidies and supports" in dollars per megawatt hour in 2008, oil and natural gas received 25 cents per megawatt-hour; coal got 44 cents, hydroelectric 67 cents, and nuclear power $1.59.
The nuclear figure sounds high -- until you add in the new, "green" technologies: wind power subsidized at a rate of $23.37 per megawatt-hour; solar at $24.34; "refined coal" at $29.81.
The solution? Get rid of the subsidies and do nothing.
The leader of the nation's biggest nuclear power producer said this week Congress should get out of the way as the nation moves toward clean energy sources.
John Rowe, CEO of Chicago-based Exelon, said that in trying to boost "clean" energy -- wind, solar, nuclear and natural gas -- Congress and the states have enacted or proposed bills that would burden consumers, cripple markets and increase federal debt but do little to clean up the air.
In a speech to the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, Mr. Rowe said his message to lawmakers is simple: "I'm asking that Congress do nothing."
Mr. Rowe said utilities across the country are turning to "cheap" natural gas to generate electricity and do not need a clean energy standard proposed by President Obama.
Imagine that.
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Green energy will not run out cars, heat our homes and run our military. At least not for many decades. We need energy now. With Japan allowing the enviro whack socialists glee that America under Bama will not , will not build any more nuclear plants until a Republican becomes Prez and the Pubs win the US Senate, we will have to turn to oil,gas, shale, fracking use, coal . I hope and pray that we do it soon because green is a fraud right now.
But without massive government subsidies and intervention, there is no potential for rent-seeking, bribery, graft, and extortion. Thus, "doing nothing" has no future in the Obama Administration.
We're simply too broke to be this stupid. And more and more people are becoming vocal in opposing this fiscal insanity. Henry Ford, John Rockefeller and Bill Gates didn't need federal subsides. If the product is worthy, we don't need to spend money we don't have to enrich crooks that buy off politicians. Go ask Harry how his sons are doing working for DC lobbyists.
Hi Tom,
More like completely discredited American Enterprise Institute of Propaganda...at least with those who think critically.
Conservative "leaning" American Enterprise Institute? Oh, please. That's like saying the surface of the sun is "uncomfortably warm."
Solar Power Breakthrough Claimed By Stanford Researchers
Posted: 03/10/11 09:39 AM
From EarthTechling's Pete Danko:
It’s the Holy Grail at clean energy research labs all over the world and something which could address long term energy issues domestically and beyond: more efficient photovoltaic solar. Now a Stanford team is claiming a breakthrough in making cheaper, more efficient panels by adding a single layer of organic molecules to solar cells.
For Stacey Bent, a chemical engineering professor at Stanford, this represented something of a challenge. She knew that solar cells made of a single material have a maximum efficiency of about 31 percent, a limitation of the fixed energy level they can absorb, and that quantum dot solar cells didn’t share this limitation. “Quantum dots can be tuned to absorb a certain wavelength of light just by changing their size,” the Stanford report on her research says. “And they can be used to build more complex solar cells that have more than one size of quantum dot, allowing them to absorb multiple wavelengths of light.”
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whether or not global warming is real and whether or not it's caused by man, we have to start creating new energy sources. problem seems to be when, what kind and how. way i figure, we take full advantage of the resources we have now and turn the scientists, engineers, etc loose. in 50 years or so we should have everything we need. that is, if the pols and enviro-nuts don't **** it up.
Saw a story on TV the other night about Bloom Energy. Ceramic type plates painted on either side that when exposed to humidity and heat generates electricity. Water is recycled. Heat from nat. gas or reclaimed methane. On sight electrical generation. Cool stuff. Check it out.
The oil companies have spent MUCH more money for AGW than against it...after all, they can't wait to cash in on the scam known as cap and trade, brought to us by Enron.
Scientists: Sun's approaching 'Grand Cooling" assures new Ice Age - http://www.helium.com/items/2094726-scientists-suns-approaching-grand-cooling-assures-new-ice-age
German Scientist: CO2 Not The Cause of Climate Change – Cold Period Is Anticipated - http://notrickszone.com/2010/11/16/german-scientist-co2-not-the-cause-of-climate-change-cold-period-is-anticipated/