Green Energy Investments Pay Off in the Long Run

BTW, Professor, Could you site your source, for the evidence, which tells you these "investments" pay off in the long run? You have not one shred of evidence to back up your claim.....

J. Russell of OK 12:29AM January 20, 2012

How many billions of our ever more scarce taxpayer dollars are we supposed to pour down the Solyndra, Solar City, etc. hole in the vague hope of payback … SOMEDAY? Did Henry Ford get Government subsidies – or Steve Jobs, the Wright Brothers, Clarence Birdseye, Robert Goddard, Thomas Edison, … and on and on get Government subsidies to “see if the idea would become practical – someday?” NO, in fact ‘those in the know’ in Government and elsewhere thought them fools! Yet automobiles, computers, airplanes, frozen foods, jets and rockets, electricity and all are part and parcel of life today. A man nursed an idea – a free market found a niche for it – it became a part of life!

I’ll be the first to admit that coal, oil and even current nuclear energy is not the ideal way to power this great Country of ours! I’d even go so far as to say that someday wind, solar, geothermal and even ethanol may be viable alternatives. The key word in this last sentence is “SOMEDAY”!

Yes, pristine skies, land and waterways are an absolutely laudable GOAL. But it takes energy NOW to produce the engines of the FUTURE! Starve the entrepreneurs of today of energy and they’ll not be able to create the engines that will drive that cleaner future.

A creative, prosperous and free economy can do miracles! At the urging (NOT command, regulation or law) of JFK we went from glorified skyrockets to a man on the Moon in only ten years! It is quite easy to envision that a strong economy, aware of the failings of our current energy sources, could do the same to power our cleaner future!

It’s no future I’d want – to admire the pristine environment while standing in the welfare line!

Winston Smith of AL 11:15PM January 19, 2012

GREEN ENERGY IS A FANTASY...

Windmills and solar panels are destroying thousands of acres here in California and elsewhere.

Wind and solar farms require massive grading and excavation, hundreds of thousands of tons for concrete foundations, hundreds of miles of roads and trenching. What's left is a wasteland of giant, flailing scarecrows, blowing dust and reflective glare.

Animals flee the vibrating, futuristic nightmare or die under the bulldozer - many are killed by the whirling blades. Dozens of eagles, hundreds of condors and hawks and thousands of common bird varieties are killed each year.

More access to public land is lost - more fences and barbed wire.

All this for virtually no "net" energy produced after we factor in all the energy expended in the mining of the metals, smelting and processing, transport of product to factories, manufacturing of towers, generators, panels in China. Than transport around the world to U.S. ports. Then more transport by truck and rail to construction sites. Roads, foundations, trenching, transformer stations, huge power transmission lines, giant cranes and hundreds of vehicles moving crews and equipment around.

In a windy area the wind farms only produce power about 18% of the time and the power is not stored More that 60% of that power is "dirty" and can't be used by electric companies - but they must buy it anyway. The purchase of unusable power and massive government subsidies means we all pay more for power.

When the huge subsidies end the "Green Energy" industry will quickly die. Unless Obama and his Green High Priestess, Lisa Jackson, are successful in their attempts at closing down coal, nuclear, hydroelectric, fuel oil and natural gas generation. Then, of course, energy prices will - in Obama's own words - "necessarily skyrocket". Which translates into fewer American jobs because U.S. industry can not compete, and, naturally, higher prices for food, and just about everything else consumers need.

Environmentalism has become the quasi official State Religion. It controls, media, education, courts, politicians and the bureaucracies of government - at every level.

"Going Green" has gone stark, raving mad.

An example.

Recently, in Montana, an Australian company wanted to bring revenue and jobs to the state by developing mineral resources. The area was used for mining and drilling in the 60's and 70's but is now 200 yards inside a mandated "roadless area". The Forest Service was willing to offer a conditional drilling/mining permit. However, among the 25 pages of requirements were the following conditions;

* The drill sites must be cleared using hand tools,

* The drilling equipment and fuel must be transported to the site by a team of pack mules,

* The mules must be fed certified weed-free hay, and

* Drill site and trail reclamation must be done using hand tools.

After more than 20 months of applications, studies and forms the company finally admitted defeat.

Going Green Has Gone To Far!

R.L. Schaefer of CA 10:23PM January 18, 2012