The Politics of Renewables
In this post (the blog’s 100th, btw) I offer a video that I put together on the politics of renewables. I hope you enjoy it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V9vAu4oqI0&w=425&h=344]
In this post (the blog’s 100th, btw) I offer a video that I put together on the politics of renewables. I hope you enjoy it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V9vAu4oqI0&w=425&h=344]
“The earth receives 6000 times more energy than the people use each day.”
This is a non sequitur. The energy coming from the sun has no relation to the purpose of human beings. The amount of energy used by humans has no relation to the needs of the planet at this point.
Humans need the planet, the planet doesn’t need us.
“I know we are all concerned about moving toward socialism; a concern I share myself.”
WHY?
Why is there so much concern over socialism? Isn’t socialism actually just ‘shared risk’? Isn’t that what an insurance company does? “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” sounds like health insurance to me.
Why is it so hard to understand that none of the things we take for face value (socialism, fascism, capitalism, libertarianism) are really what the loudmouths claim them to be?
I understand the libertarian bent, but it doesn’t work. The real world is one of cooperation, not competition. There are no libertarian tigers: they have to cooperate with their food if they want to survive as a species. There are no libertarian sharks or worms. All living things are socialists in some way; it’s forced upon them by evolution and reality. Humans are not some separate ‘product’ of a creator, with the right to devour and soil the planet as they choose without retribution. The problem is that our mistakes NOW don’t cause US pain, they cause pain to the poor and especially to the future poor.
Renewables politics and technologies can’t help a world culture of consumption. There is one solution, but it won’t get serious consideration, and that is the FairTax bill already proposed every year in Congress and the Senate.
We get the government we deserve, and the cost of that government needs to be reflected in the cost of the products we buy. Chevron is big and rich because WE BUY THEIR STUFF. Period. The government is overbearing and complex because we let corporations sell us crap we don’t need, then we demand protection from our lizard brain marketing vulnerability.
A sales tax to replace ALL taxes and fees puts the actual costs of our burdens at the point where we make ‘decisions’: the cash register. We currently pay more than 50% of our income to taxes, but we believe the lies of ‘progressive’ income taxes.
Explain how taxing the average person’s productivity to pay for windmills is a good idea while corporations (legalized psychopaths) get tax deductions for buying bigger and bigger machinery. Please. Now, consider taxing their PURCHASES of all products to pay for the government.
If people go ‘underground’ and stop buying stuff at retail because of the tax, then they are going local and deconsuming. If they continue to purchase big screen tv and cigarettes at a 50% tax (the FairTax is only 23% and I think it should be doubled), then that amount of money will be available to the government for energy and health care. It’s a Win or Win scenario.
Socialism? Sure it is, but so is civilization.
Here’s one thing no one can deny…..everything in this solar system relies on the sun already. Just like the Beatles said, “I am you and you are me and he is she and we are all together,” or something like that 😉 The sun doesn’t care if we kill our planet or not. The sun doesn’t care if we use the vastly excessive amount of energy that is already bombarding the planet.
Politicians are always in the pocket of whoever pays the most or scares them the most. We need government that is completely divorced from corporate interest. No more subsidies, no more lobbyists and total submission to their constituents.
Amen for your comments about how we are already a socialist civilization. Forget the politicians and their squawking about how we must not be socialists. We must have some form of world government that is true. We must recognize that capitalism has formed a huge gap between the rich and he poor of the planet, corrupted our once democratic government, and is in the process of killing the planet and all of the life on it. How utterly stupid we are as members of society to let this happen. We can stop this by radically reforming our government to actually serve us, the people, before it is too late.
Interesting, I’ve actually gone the opposite way. I used to think the “free” market wasn’t good enough until I realized we’ve never really had a truly free market. Most of those companies which you cited (Chevron, Exxon, etc) I also happen to abhor but they get a lot of support from our federal government via subsidies. That’s NOT a free market. We also have a central banking system which arbitrarily raises and lowers interest rates (which causes malinvestment), prints money out of thin air and all in all is illusory and has proven to be destructive as far as devaluing our dollar as well as being the main instrument to fund and perpetuate these wars in the middle east and anywhere else for that matter. AGAIN, NOT A FREE MARKET. The more I’ve learned what govt (especially the feds) actually does, the more libertarian I’ve become but I’m still a strong proponent of green energy. As far as government’s role, we should probably look to start seriously curtailing these subsidies to the oil companies and coal/gas utilities first before asking for more “stimulus” money which will further devalue our purchasing power and even if it didn’t, can we TRUST government to allocate the money where they promised? Looking at their track record, the answer is an obvious NO. The bowl is overflowing at this point, government has proven to be a gang of thieves, so I say the best move at this point is curtail government subsidies. I’m also always on the lookout for DIY solutions. If you build a PV panel yourself, it can potentially cost less than half what a normal panel costs. Let’s do our best to look to ourselves for the solutions and NOT GOVERNMENT.
It’s not that the “free” market isn’t “good” enough, it’s that it’s not FREE ENOUGH. I can’t stress enough that we’ve NEVER REALLY HAD A FREE MARKET. Thanks for the video and commentary, btw. Cheers!
Thanks for the video and commentary. I agree with you. Brett brings up a good point. Has anyone done an honest evaluation as to what the net effect on energy cost would be if ALL subsidies were removed? Then it would be a level playing field and encourage innovation and development in the right direction(s).
One of government’s roles, amongst many, is to level certain playing fields within the ‘free’ market. Spock characterized one aspect of it rather succinctly prior to his death rattle. A slightly more subtle component of government’s role is the actual recognition of the needs of the many. I can’t say that I would likely ever have been aware of the global warming phenomenon had there not been the many layers of support leading to its recognition. A personal question that I have no particular answer to, is how to differentiate actual need from what turns out to be the seemingly many false positives. By example – the whole corn ethanol market or the abovementioned domestic oil subsidies (a non-trivial area of study due to many years of building complexity). The sky is the limit on the number and variety of such subsidies, so I will go no further in that vein. Bottom line economics of energy in the USA is quite simple however – coal wins big time. Even natural gas, with the trillions of proven cubic feet in the ground, comes up considerably more than coal. A truly free market? We already know the answer.
Postscript on the above: the economics of negative externalities is simply ignored in our current practices. The statements I’ve made above abide by that. If such externalities were taken into account, I think it would be quite easy to prove that sustainable practices are the most cost effective. Unfortunately, that is a sea change not yet on our horizon.
Let us subsidize green products by de-subsidizing oil. Can we come up with a better description which will appeal to both sides of the political aisle? “De-subsidizing” something is not as appealing as “subsidizing” something. Meanwhile: bicycles are GREAT.
The government’s role and entrusion into energy has caused much of our problems today…that is why most of our energy needs come from oil and from dictatorship-type countries. We became scared of nuclear rather than solving the problems and moving forward with it. More government control is NOT the answer. Libertarian platform is sound…it is NOT anarchy…allow people to be free but with strong arm of government to assure we do no harm to others….this includes pollution. In the USA today we indeed have fairly strict pollution laws and our industrial plants and cars are much cleaner and improving. Some of the emerging markets need to play catch up. Tree huggers should focus on those countries. Socialism we have to a large degree already in the USA and look at the degradation of our society as it has increased….key example is % of taxes we pay is causing 2-parents to work and our kids are NOT being raised by their parents. Our standard of living is now declining as we let socialistic unions destroy manufacturing and it is now exported. Socialistic unions in our public schools are doing the same with 90% of our children…placing great limitations on the potential of the minds of our children…google 2 Million Minutes and watch the video. In the long run socialisms harms innovation and growth and only teaches man that it is OK to steal from those that produce to help those who cannot. Or to force one man to do what another think is more correct in his opinion. Excess government taxtion and controls is NOT the solution. We need zero subsidies and zero taxes on energy. Just have laws to limit harmful pollutants. Remove CO2 from pollants until sound science prevails based on FACTS and not on simulation foecast based on politics of fear and control over world doom. Want to see a more objective analysis of “global warming”..see this link then Google the “CBC Documentary – Global Warming Doomsday Called Off” – it is about 44 minutes and free.
Oil and big oil companies are NOT the enemy!! This is a falacy. 30 years ago the tree-huggers claimed we would run out of fossil fuels by 2000. They always fail to use OBJECTIVE analyses. Greed is also not our enemy…some men/women who get rich are greedy and some are not…but both in the end contibute the MOST to employment, innovation, wealth creation, and improving/maximizing the standard of living for the WHOLE society. A “greedy” oil executive may buy a $100,000 Mercedes…but look at the people he just helped by buying one. Or he may build a $20 million home…but look at all the people he employed to help build it. Obama tells executives to stop using corporate jets and wasting money on off-site business meetings and who suffers….all the maids in the hotels and resorts who were laid off. The rich also pay for MOST of our taxes! The rich are our friends! Of course there is corruption in companies and in government…it ALL must be rooted out. Excessive government only limits wealth and does not create it.
Every year we discover more and more OIL and improved technology to make use of it cleaner. We need to use the resources of our planet. Solar, wind, geo-thermal, nuclear, etc. ALL need to compete on an economical basis and all need to be reasonably low on polluting our planet so we do not harm us physically. Your video is only preaching FORCE and CONTROL to do in your mind what you think is right. Your problem is you trust a POLITICIAN more than you trust an INNOVATOR. Why not instead just have LAWS (force and control) to limit pollutants and then let the free market innovation of mankind flourish and let the best solutions win based on simple economics. Government should NOT choose the energy solutions or even place bets…it should ONLY limit pollution levels to protect. This will natually lead to independence as well. The POLITICS of “energy” have ONLY limited the most economical and clean solutions. We must literally UNLEASH mankind and let him produce economical energy that is clean. Sad thing is another controlling dictator type is born every day!