Energy Pragmatism
In response to my piece that rails on the environmental extremists who decry solar if it carries with it the slightest ecological downside, frequent commenter Larry Lemmert writes:
I am really proud of you Craig. I have long thought that you were in the pocket of the far left lunatic fringe. Your post here demonstrates that you are not. Hopefully there are many others like you in the environmental movement who are educated in the reality of finite resources being chased by insatiable demand.
Larry, I had to smile when I saw this. Glad I could make you proud!
Yes, I consider myself an energy pragmatist. A bad idea is a bad idea regardless of what side of the political fence it hails from.
We have a huge problem to solve, and it won’t go away with a blend of impractical, idealistic thinking and a bit of grandstanding. It will, however, yield to a few really good solutions and the willingness to make tough choices.
I find myself somewhat amused by the idea that the far left lunatic fringe has pockets. ExxonMobil is, after all the world’s largest company by stock value, and Wal-Mart is the globe’s largest retailer by stock value. If this is a war of pockets, it won’t end well for the left, whose strength is (and always has been) in the people.
By the way, I personally am quite skeptical of any “environmentalist” who attacks desert solar – particularly CSP – on turtle and soil grounds. Their stance and tactics (and particularly the disinformation in this case) make me rather curious about whose pockets they might be in. There have been some shady deals on the “left” in the past few decades.
I’m skeptical too, though this phenomenon is not at all rare; I hear about this stuff all the time — and now have experienced it first-hand.