Presidents Clean Energy Plan

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Permalink Reply by SJC on September 16, 2009 at 8:51am

I think that it has more to do with clean power. Coal is used for half of our electric power and is dirty. If we can promote more clean sources like combined cycle renewable methane, wind, solar, geothermal and other methods, we can clean up the environment and have plenty of power. Just using power more efficiently will clean it up and go to the bottom line right away.

So, to attempt to answer your question, it does overlap with the Plan in the wind power area. However, the Plan has put large wind projects on hold for the time being. If the public and private sectors decide to get serious about clean power, we could do a lot in the next 10 years, but the profit status quo is hard to change.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Woodson on October 15, 2009 at 4:15am

I have not determined there is any definitive plan that will prevent us from making the same mistakes of the mid 70s, during the oil embargo. We have history to refer to in assisting us in setting policy for clean independent energy, but our elected officials seem interested in special interest more than national security. Most of the plans I've reviewed offer lip service and little in the way of an action plan with measurable goals and objectives. Convince big money that it is profitable for them, they then will influence our leaders, that much of history is never forgotten. Are our kids doomed to repeat history for a third time?

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Permalink Reply by SJC on October 15, 2009 at 6:44am

Bob,

I will agree that our institutional memory is poor, we do not pass the lessons learned to the next generation well. However, it was OUR lesson in the 70s and it was up to US to fix it. Instead of synthetic fuels programs the next administration sent war ships to the gulf. I hope we get it right this time or we will all pay the price yet again for making the wrong decisions.

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Permalink Reply by neil cox on October 15, 2009 at 3:21pm

Who has the time to search diligently though thousands of pages of the bills that congress is considering? Most people can't even get access to the thousands of pages of often conflicting details. We need to find a way to express our laws with many fewer words. Obviously " be nice" is not enough details, but I'm sure we can do much better than we typically do. The last legislation that passed that was more good than bad was 1945 = the Marshal plan, so it is hard to be optimistic. Do you know of anything more recent that produced more good than bad? Of course we have yet to see all the results of most bills that passed the last ten years. Neil.

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