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The Environment / What renewable energy sources are there?
« on: 08/12/2010 16:01:49 »Yes oil is incredibly cheap. Consider that you could buy a vehicle that gets 30mpg and drive it 200 miles for a mere $21.00, that is incredible!The facts are they are not getting more expensive, their price has just risen by inflation. Coal and oil are very, very plentiful and cheap!I'm pretty sure the price of oil has risen a lot faster than inflation in recent years.
Also ignoring how supposedly "plentiful and cheap" they are, there is a further (little) concern over their climatic impacts to take into account.
I find a particular irony in the you saying "[Wind] will be leaving our children a terrible legacy to clean up".
Regarding Climate Change and Renewables. This thread is not one to debate Global Warming, however, I can absolutely, positively assure you beyond and reasonable doubt whatsoever, that solar and wind gadgets will not play any major role in decreasing our output of CO2. Considering world population growth and the constant pressure to increase the standard of living world-wide, which will only come about using traditional energy sources, (ie. ones that actually work), you can try try try as hard as you want, but our civilization will not appreciably decrease CO2 output using renewables. Just simply consider that solar/wind play not role in heating, transportation fuel, industrial use etc, and only play a very minor role in creating electricity.
Here is a recent article from our legislators.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/131049-senate-dems-press-for-lame-duck-action-on-renewable-power-grants
It is quite simple. No enormous subsidies, meaning - the gadgets don't make enough energy to pay for themselves, so there is a simple slight of hand, we just borrow the money from China and pay for this energy Forever! in the way of interest payments and decreased value in our dollar. All the while, we have cut payments to vital functions of our society, like helping the poor, building infrastructure, providing health care > a thousand areas in which funding is being cut, and we have the money for "spinning machines". Oh well, guess we have to save the world don't we!
Don't worry about it, the kids and grandchildren will clean up this mess. And they will have the mess of many thousands of wind turbines literring our landscape like they do in California. Junk Piles in Palm Spring and Altamont Pass. Here, read about them, 5,000 of them, built because of "favorable tax policies". Just like now!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Pass_Wind_Farm