My friend and co-worker Marty Rosenberg, in his latest post, points out that natural gas prices are going to rise dramatically this winter. He's right, but it may be worse than he predicts. According to the respected research firm Wood-McKenzie, which specializes in tracking the wholesale and retail energy markets, if the Warner-Lieberman carbon tax bill expected to be taken up in the Senate next week passes, natural gas supplies in the U.S. will plummet, just at the same time, as Marty points out, it is becoming increasingly difficult to import natural gas. Here's the report: http://www.axpc.us/enviro/pdf/080529.pdf.
Rather than pounding on Bush, pound on the environmentalists who oppose the building of LNG plants at every turn--constantly filing lawsuits--or any other method of expanding generation except through their specific brand of preferred renewables, mostly wind (intermittent and not a substitute for base load) and solar (not even yet a fully mature technology and still cost-prohibitive). They also continue to file lawsuits to block any effort at renewing the building of nuclear generation.
Contrary to what anyone may believe, I actually favor renewables. In the distant future, we should be free of carbon-based generation. But that future is a long way off. There still is much basic research and development to be done to make renewables fully practical. Meanwhile, the drumbeat of the left in politics and the "protect the environment at any cost" group is driving up the price of fossil fuels and seeking their demise before their natural time.
The Bush administration is pouring billions into research and development on renewables. But until they're ready to assume base load generation capabilities--and that is at least 20-30 years in the future--it's going to get very ugly for the American consumer. If, as my friend Marty hopes, the Democrats win the White House this year, it will just get that much uglier that much faster. You can't kill the goose that laid the ubiquitous electricity egg without cutting off the egg supply. But socialists/environmentalists never seem to understand that fact. If they continue to succeed in denying America the ability to build new fossil or nuclear generation--and their success rate is approaching 100%--it's going to be cold and dark very soon. In addition, the next president may preside over the second Great Depression! Neither America, nor the world, can afford environmentalists, or their fellow-traveler politicians like Al Gore and those proposed by the far left this year.
People who argue that wind power is not suitable as a baseload generating technology and use that argument to dismiss wind power, or claim that additional R&D or technology development are needed (such as the need for energy storage to "firm" wind power, another myth), are not understand how wind power is operating in many countries in the world today, and is one of the fastest-growing forms of electricity generation today. Wind energy provides clean, inexhuatible, domestically-produced electricity and will play a key role in reducing harmful emissions from fossil fuel generation until such time -- a decade or more in the future, when truly clean-energy baseload technologies are ready to be deployed. They are not available today, so our best strategy for the next decade or more is to accelerate the growth of wind power to start making a downpayment on our efforts to address global warming in this country. See more at:
www20percentwind.org
Jeff Anthony
American Wind Energy Association
Were this merely a case of two competing resources, one might reasonably take the view 'too bad for coal'. However, wind requires massive subsidies, both direct and through mandates. Were it not for the subsidies, we wouldn't even consider wind.
Our government is not concerned with the average family anymore other than to extract as much money as it can from them in the form of taxes, Interest fees and insurance premiums.
Nuclear energy is a very real possibility for our energy needs however it still keeps the existing structure in place. What I mean is that people still pay for electric like they do now. If we have learned anything it's that the price of electric changes on a whim. I suggest we pursue every option we can to make renewable energies affordable and more efficient. Allow people to create and use their own electric energy and become self sufficient.
Tommy Tokar
President
SolarMecca Inc.
214-550-9817 Main
214-550-9817 Ext 704
ttokar@solarmecca.com
http://www.solarmecca.com
Wind power works and it is growing rapidly. It brings enormous benefits to consumers and will help in any number of ways as it becomes a major part of utility power supply portfolios. To learn more, read the recent U.S. DOE report "20% Wind Energy by 2030" at www.20percentwind.org
Jeffrey Anthony
American Wind Energy Association
Jeffrey Anthony
American Wind Energy Association
1> For the most part, those subsidies deflect the industry towards socially beneficial activities that they would otherwise not perform, such as investing in renewables. They are not required for the very survival of the industry.
2> More pertinent to my original point above, Big Oil, Big Coal and Big Nuke pay far more in taxes, royalties, etc. to government than they receive in direct subsidies and indirect subsidies. Can Big Wind say the same thing? Of course not.