Fukushima: Some Enlightened Ideas, Some Moronic

Understandably, accompanying the situation in Fukushima is a flurry of discussion of renewable energy. And, where some of that conversation shows a great deal of sophistication and enlightenment, some of it does not. I was amused by Fred Upton’s (R- MI) comments this morning, suggesting that the government should not subsidize wind and solar energy because they represent such small components of the current grid mix. This, of course, is akin to saying in the 1990s that we should not develop the Internet because there are only a few websites or that there are too few users online.

I thought it was a joke when I first heard it, then realized, no, this level of illogical, asinine stuff really does represent the quality of thinking from some of the people we elected to lead us through this very tough time.

Fortunately, the person responding to Upton was much sharper. “Oh,” he said, “I’m certainly not suggesting that renewables be subsidized for longer than oil – 80 or 90 years.” Now that’s clever; I only wish I were as fast on my feet.