It takes a lot of energy to run a modern society.
If the H. of Rep. appropriated funds to build solar collectors on every public building and open land in the sun belt, funded an effort to build wind geneators in the wind belts, and gave tax credits to establish solar collectors on all new roofs built in our nation; fund public transportation, inter and intra the urban areas of our nation and built bullet trains to transport the goods of our nation from coast to coast and Canada to the Gulf, and rebuilt the electrical grid, we might become solve much of our problems by creating jobs and using home grown energy.
But big coal and big oil don't give a damn about anything of the sort. Ask those meeting with the Brothers Koch in Palm Springs.
What I find the most disappointing is that I have been hearing politicians from both sides of the aisle pay lip service on a commitment to renewables since the 70's. I used to subscribe to the Whole Earth Catalogue when I was really young
. I go back that far.
They have yapped about it for decades. And I can't think of one country that has pulled off renewables successfully. You would not believe how badly the Liberal government in Ontario has screwed up their "new energy" programs. It's a nightmare. And because they were so busy lining the pockets of friends and family with subsidizing different ventures they've lost the trust of the public along with billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars.
Britain's failures are becoming legendary. Germany hasn't been able to pull it off either.
I find it outrageous that especially with the technology we have today someone out there couldn't come up with a comprehensive plan to be able to utilize fossil fuels produced as environmentally clean as possible in conjunction with renewables.
Politicians sadly will not be the ones to help us move forward.
I could go on but it's for a different thread in a different forum.
The public was/is influenced by propaganda produced by the special interests (Big Oil, Big Coal in this case) and for months hysteria over Solyndra was packaged as a failure of the industry, not simply one entity, with allegations that friends of the President took the money and ran.
I don't know about other parts of our country, or our friends to the north, but solar and wind energy production is obvious throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
In the county where I live and worked, the Country Jail, sheriff and probation departments had solar panels placed on their roof as early as 2002; in my neighborhood, on the court where we live, three homes have had solar panels installed on their roofs in the last year. Homes with pools have had water heated by the sun for decades here and Hybrid cars are ubiquitous in the Bay Area; lights, emergency call phones and signage is lighted by solar energy collected during the day on freeways too.
Windmills have been built on and around the passes which bring the winds from the Pacific Ocean to the interior, and charging stations for electric cars are becoming common sites at malls and in office building parking lots.
Those who denigrate such efforts have been brainwashed by the special interest who profit from the status quo. Much like the effort to disparage the PPACA (Obamacare) it is an effort [SOCIALISM!!!!] by those who profit to protect their golden goose and those too dumb or too scared to embrace the future.
