http://2greenenergy.com/renewables-and-the-us-government/2474/ Renewable Energy Business and Investing Wed, 23 May 2012 14:52:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://2greenenergy.com/renewables-and-the-us-government/2474/#comment-2207 Dan Conine Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:58:39 +0000 http://2greenenergy.com/?p=2474#comment-2207 Thanks for the discussion, Craig. I don't know where this came from: "First, I’m not asking Congress to help renewables — only to level the playing field. Remove the subsidies, force everyone to pay the full price of the power they’re producing and consuming, and see what happens. We’ll have renewable energy in about 10 minutes. Btw, you often mention that you’d like to see less consumption of power overall; this action will achieve that goal in a big way.", since you WERE advocating for the Federal government to step in and secure rights of way for renewables, not leveling the playing field. Leveling the playing field would be eliminating subsidies, I agree. I disagree that we would have renewables that fast, though. Too many people would rather say "Not In My Back Yard" and continue to buy energy from the established infrastructure until it got too expensive for them to do so. Initially, only the poor would stop buying it, and that may just free up more cheap electricity for corporations, who would negotiate deals even better than the ones they already get from utilities for 'volume sales'. It's too complex to come up with regulations, so I submit that the regulations aren't the problem: consumption and complex nonsense regulation are the problems. Most of the electricity people get (including myself) isn't necessary. Most of the activities we perform are useless to the future and only serve our entertainment (such as jobs to get money to buy stuff to get to a job) and our pollution of the world. Vehement argument may ensue here, but it will be because we hate to admit how horrible we really are to the world around us. No amount of technology or 'Smart Growth' can solve the main problem, which is too much technology and too much consumption. Sorry, I think I'm babbling and I should just leave it be. Thanks for the discussion, Craig. I don’t know where this came from:
“First, I’m not asking Congress to help renewables — only to level the playing field. Remove the subsidies, force everyone to pay the full price of the power they’re producing and consuming, and see what happens. We’ll have renewable energy in about 10 minutes. Btw, you often mention that you’d like to see less consumption of power overall; this action will achieve that goal in a big way.”,
since you WERE advocating for the Federal government to step in and secure rights of way for renewables, not leveling the playing field.
Leveling the playing field would be eliminating subsidies, I agree. I disagree that we would have renewables that fast, though. Too many people would rather say “Not In My Back Yard” and continue to buy energy from the established infrastructure until it got too expensive for them to do so. Initially, only the poor would stop buying it, and that may just free up more cheap electricity for corporations, who would negotiate deals even better than the ones they already get from utilities for ‘volume sales’.
It’s too complex to come up with regulations, so I submit that the regulations aren’t the problem: consumption and complex nonsense regulation are the problems. Most of the electricity people get (including myself) isn’t necessary. Most of the activities we perform are useless to the future and only serve our entertainment (such as jobs to get money to buy stuff to get to a job) and our pollution of the world.
Vehement argument may ensue here, but it will be because we hate to admit how horrible we really are to the world around us. No amount of technology or ‘Smart Growth’ can solve the main problem, which is too much technology and too much consumption.
Sorry, I think I’m babbling and I should just leave it be.

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