At 6-foot-2 and 240 pounds, Steven Kemp had to move his size 14 shoes to avoid tripping toddlers at his pediatrician’s office in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “It’s kind of awkward, but we’re good friends,” says Mr. Kemp, now 19 years old and a student at Butler University, still looking for a doctor he likes as much and still consults his pediatrician occasionally….These days, more and more are staying with their pediatricians through their college years,” says the past president of the American College of Pediatrics.
Here’s a wonderful example of the WSJ telling you exactly what they want you to believe. Yes, they’re serious; they want you to accept the idea that you’re better off with a doctor of some sort walking around with you every day of every year of your life – through your childhood, then through your college days—and, of course, until the day you die.
How roped and tied to you have to be to believe this, though? If I asked you – and a thousand randomly chosen people like you — to choose which of the following two statements you thought better approximated the truth, what would you say:
A) It’s good for your children to become associated with modern medicine and its associated practices (pharmacology, psychiatry, etc.) — and remaining so from the time they’re born, or
B) If your kids eat well and play outdoors, you’re much better off with a very infrequent relationship with these practices.
I friend of mine noticed that the concept of “Tough Realities” (as in the title of my report: Tough Realities for Renewable Energy Businesses) resonates with people. I agree. That’s the reason that I’ve subtitled my book (“Renewable Energy — Facts and Fastasies”) as follows: “The Tough Realities as Revealed in Interviews with 25 Subject Matter Experts.”
For pretty-much everyone associated with this industry — and certainly for me — it’s clear that there are indeed Tough Realities faced by those working to drive the migration to clean energy. Nobody who studies this with any level of depth could possibly see this as a walk in the park, where the key players in energy are saying to one another, “May the best man win.” This is a complex story of big money, back-room politics, secrecy, and betrayal. You don’t find multi-trillion dollar industries unfolding without a heavy dose of the worst of cheesey human misbehavior. Now add in the disruptive element, i.e., the fact that “new energy” is a direct threat to “old energy.” For every kiloWatt-hour of solar, we need one fewer kiloWatt-hour from oil and coal.
Hold on to your hats. Sorry to say it, but we haven’t even begun to see the tough realities hit those battling it out in the energy industry.
A friend from the UK asked for my take on a new Swiss movie on Jimmy Carter’s efforts to reduce the United States’ dependence on oil at the end of the 1970s. He points out, “I am sure it will not be well known in the States. Perhaps it should be.”
The movie in question, “The Road Not Taken,” is a documentary centering around President Jimmy Carter’s having a series of solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. At the time, he told the crowd gathered to mark the installation of the new units:
“A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people – harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.”
A few years later, President Ronald Reagan famously had the solar panels removed.
I wrote back:
In my mind, there is no doubt that the conversation, mute as it is in the US, has already added luster to Carter’s star and, I suppose, some tarnish to Reagan’s. But I’m more interested to know what this means in terms of the future. We’re still subsidizing fossil fuels. There are still 7000 lobbyists cruising around the Beltway influencing lawmakers to ensure that that oil, coal, and gas remain at the core of our energy future until the last drop of crude is sucked out of the Earth, we’ve ripped the top off the last mountain, and fracked the planet’s crust to smithereens.
Having said that, there are hundreds of lively discussions in the blogosphere every day about the R&D for clean energy. Bill Gates’ 2010 TED talk is getting some very good distribution. Perhaps this stark dichotomy between these two US presidents and the concept of the “road not taken” will be viewed as an iconic piece of US history — and perhaps it can be spun into the idea that “it’s not too late to get back on the right road.”
Author and ammonia-as-fuel advocate Greg Vezina writes:
As part of the research for my upcoming book, I include a complete analysis of the subsidies to all forms of energy. This took a lot of work. In today’s Globe, there is an editorial page article about the subsidies to coal, oil and gas which is now over a half trillion dollars each year. Four international organizations – the International Energy Agency, the OECD, the WTO, and, remarkably, OPEC – are collaborating on a study of these subsidies to be presented at the G20.
No wonder most alternative energy and conservation solutions have a hard time entering the marketplace in controlled or supposed free market economies.
In the specific case of NH3, with equal treatment, it would be less than 35% the price of hydrocarbons, including all applicable taxes.
With full cost accounting principles applied, if Environmental, Health and Trade costs were included and a carbon tax or Cap amd Trade, then NH3 would be less than 20%. The research also shows that using domestic feedstocks to make NH3 would create 5 times the net employment and tax revenue to governements.
Talk about a global solution. Food, energy, jobs and opportunity for all. Only a dream you might think, not so, in the next few months we will release definite proof for all.
Keep the faith people, the solution is coming soon.
Thanks, Greg. Your thoughts and echoed here, to be sure, where we ceaselessly repeat our demand for a level playing field for renewables. As suggested in my article linked above, I see this as inextricably linked to campaign finance reform and getting a grip on the bloat and corruption that permeates our governement.
Thanks for raising your voice so eloquently, and good luck on your book project. Please let us know when it becomes available.
Here’s the first in a series of interview snipets that I conducted with Paul Scott, vice president and co-founder of Plug-In America. Here, we discuss the concept of “internalizing the externalities” associated with fossil fuels, i.e., requiring producers and consumers of oil, coal, etc. to pay the true and comprehensive costs associated with these ecologically harmful forms of energy.
Here’s a post I wrote on Renewable Energy World on president Obama’s State of the Union address the other night.
I like to support Obama for his efforts along a number of lines, especially a progressive energy policy. But to me, all the pandering to the masses in that address served more to confuse people than to enlighten and motivate them.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Amir Mikhail, Senior Vice President of Engineering for Clipper Windpower, in an effort to develop my chapter on wind for my upcoming book on renewable energy. This talk was full of interesting nuances about the physics and engineering aspects of cutting-edge the technology for extracting energy from the wind and converting it to mechanical – and ultimately to electrical energy. And, as suggested by today’s photo, we began with some fascinating history on the subject.
But Dr. Mikhail raised a few basic points about the renewables industry in general that I thought I would share in this post:
The issue of energy storage is – for the US at this point at least – something of a red herring. With 2% overall penetration of clean energy (across all forms of renewables) the fluctuation associated with the intensity of the wind – even locally — is of essentially no consequence to overall energy availability levels whatsoever. Moreover, by the time the penetration rate increases to anywhere resembling that of Europe, we will have developed smart grid technologies that will enable far better real-time control of large sections of the grid. E.g., if the wind is not blowing strong in area A, let’s see what it’s doing in area B, C, or D.
We also discussed the tough choices forced upon us a we migration to renewables. The wind industry takes seriously the issue of environmental damage associated with its farms, and conducts ongoing research to ensure that the size of turbine rotors and the hours of operation are creating a minimum of negative impact. In the early days of commercial wind, the primary issue was large raptors; now, decades later, the focus is on bats, whose tiny lungs cannot handle the differential in air pressure around the turbines. The industry also is making an effort to build farms in areas that already have a significant human footprint, recognizing the imperative to preserve the true wilderness wherever possible.
However, Dr. Mikhail points out that there are no existing clean energy technologies that come with zero environmental impact. We do have to make choices, and each of these choices will represent some level of sacrifice. “The people in a coal mining state back east were offered a choice of either putting wind turbines on a local mountain, or chopping off the top of the mountain, pulling the coal out of it, and burning it. Craig, do you realize that they chose the latter? There are choices. We simply have to make the best ones.”
From today’s Wall Street Journal:
I friend of mine noticed that the concept of “Tough Realities” (as in the title of my report: 
A friend from the UK asked for my take on a new Swiss movie on Jimmy Carter’s efforts to reduce the United States’ dependence on oil at the end of the 1970s. He points out, “I am sure it will not be well known in the States. Perhaps it should be.”
Author and ammonia-as-fuel advocate Greg Vezina writes:
Here’s a post I wrote on 
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Amir Mikhail, Senior Vice President of Engineering for Clipper Windpower, in an effort to develop my chapter on wind for my 
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