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132 Comments
- Propethic, on 07/12/2009, -4/+44Or we could just build another nuclear plant, one using modern technology
- novenator, on 07/12/2009, -9/+41We need to redouble our efforts to encourage renewable energy. Wind, solar, tidal, even geothermal. These technologies will improve with greater usage, and this could be a big boom to our manufacturing industry if we get out in front and can...gasp...start exporting things again!
- fetalpig, on 07/12/2009, -7/+38Three whole billion? I like it phrased in relative terms better. For example, we could say, "Obama readies 0.4% of the the annual Department of Defense budget (786 billion) toward sustainable future society. Change you can believe in!
- RAAFStupot, on 07/12/2009, -11/+38This is the kind of stimulation I like.
Kevin Rudd (Aus PM) - take notes please. Australia could literally be a solar energy powerhouse. Heck we could desalinate seawater using solar / wind power and sell it to China! - gakboi, on 07/12/2009, -4/+28lol. renewable energy is expensive because we don't produce enough. With econmies of scale (the more you produce something the cheaper it becomes per unit) renewable energy will become cheaper. Already we are tapping into the more expensive to extract deep oil fields which are non renewable and therefore a waste of time because it's 100 year old technology. Using that now is the same as still patch upgrading the original windows os instead of developing a newer better more technologically advanced OS.
And that's only the fiscal costs.... environmentally we cannot afford another second of delay in implementing technology which will improve the quality of all our lives exponentially. You are either being sarcastic, 3 years old, simple or just a complete **** - Amazetbm, on 07/12/2009, -1/+18Nuclear really needs to be put back on the table. A good portion of the waste can be reprocessed to be reused on reactors. Then there are the fission-fusion hybrid designs that could eliminate waste completely...although it will take 20 years to get the fission-fusion hydrid design online.
- Rudegar, on 07/12/2009, -2/+19"I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processings is a fad that won't last out the year."
- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice-Hall, 1957
“There is practically no chance communications space satelliteswill be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television, or radio service inside the United States.” — T. Craven, FCC Commissioner, in 1961 (the first commercial communicationssatellite went into service in 1965).
“To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth – all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances.” — Lee DeForest, American radio pioneer and inventor of the vacuum tube, in 1926
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” — Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.
“The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.” — The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” — A memo at Western Union, 1878 (or 1876).
“Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.” — Mary Somerville, pioneer of radio educational broadcasts, 1948.
“When the Paris Exhibition [of 1878] closes, electric light will close with it and no more will be heard of it.” – Oxford professor Erasmus Wilson
“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?” — Associates of David Sarnoff responding to the latter’s call for investment in the radio in 1921. - fancywares319, on 07/12/2009, -3/+18this is a good investing opportunity imo renewable energy companies, in a good position financially, would be a good bet right now imo.
- raleel, on 07/12/2009, -3/+18For those of You who are opposed to this, I invite you to go do the math on dollars saved by the dams on the Columbia or from Hoover dam. Think longer than 5 years, try more like 50
- Paranor01, on 07/12/2009, -1/+13Spending 3 billion will make it cheaper because you build the infrastructure that will make it cheaper. Oil is cheaper in part because the infrastructure is already in place.
your argument fails. - inactive, on 07/12/2009, -4/+16Nice partisan blindfold you have there eh.
- inactive, on 07/12/2009, -1/+12Dams are horrible if you care about the environment.
- Paranor01, on 07/12/2009, -2/+13The only reason oil is as cheap as it is, and "green" isn't, is because the infrastructure for oil & gas is already here. "green" has to build it's infrastructure to a greater degree and therefore is "costly" right now. As the infrastructure grows for it, the costs will decline.
- WasabiBomb, on 07/12/2009, -0/+10@gakboi: "You are either being sarcastic, 3 years old, simple or just a complete ****"
Why can't it be all three? - nugx, on 07/12/2009, -3/+13...after dropping $15 trillion on the shady-ass banking industry. Way to have your priorities straight, Mr. President.
- Frixionburne, on 07/12/2009, -4/+12And in that 20 years, the solar, wind, and geothermal projects will have generated as much power as the fission-fusion engine could in one year.
- linkesslover, on 07/12/2009, -2/+10To all the people talking about Nuclear... It should be on the table!
...and I think it is. I just think it will take longer because there are more roadblocks in place to building more plants. - Suricou, on 07/12/2009, -2/+10To be fair, the republicans don't like them either - concerns about security, and general terrorist paranoia. The nuclear industry has few political friends.
It goes right down to the local level, where you'll see a lot of politicians who are supportive of building new plants so long as they are built well away from their own district. - inactive, on 07/12/2009, -0/+7China in the background: Nooooooooo!!!
- inactive, on 07/12/2009, -1/+7There is a big NIMBY factor in power plants.
- offrdbandit, on 07/12/2009, -4/+10And the companies operating them wouldn't employ uneducated union labor.
- mweels, on 07/12/2009, -1/+6Doesnt seems like a lot for such a large problem.. Swine flu funding just got way more money.
- morcheeba, on 07/12/2009, -0/+5to be fair, mksmothers didn't make much of an argument ;-)
I think the reasoning was "fact, unrelated assertion". - FireSlash, on 07/12/2009, -1/+6RE isn't always about being cheap. There are some circumstances where you can break even or even get a return on RE, but it's mostly used in areas were there are no transmission lines. For instance, you've probably seen a few road signs with solar panels on them; these are placed in areas where it's cost prohibitive to get power from the mains. It's also used in a lot of remote houses. I'm sure it's also more cost effective in areas where power is more expensive.
Also, the technology is becoming cheaper to manufacture, prices are plummeting. Since January it's fallen almost an entire dollar per watt. - Barackalypse, on 07/12/2009, -2/+7I long for the day when the "renewable" part refers only to the energy, not to the Government subsidy. Its not ready for prime time and won't be until it isn't any more expensive than conventional power generation.
- r00fus, on 07/12/2009, -0/+5What you don't hear about Nuclear is that it uses large quantities water... LOTS of it. Coal uses a lot, but nuclear uses more.
http://www.cleanbreak.ca/2009/06/01/when-will-wate ...
In the coming decades with climate change already happening, water will become a more scarce resource, perhaps even causing armed conflicts.
When nuclear power (and coal) water usage is factored in, it is not really renewable. - alais, on 07/12/2009, -11/+16Democrats don't like those, the companies that build them and manufacture the parts for apparently didn't contribute enough to their campaigns.
- SpeedSteamBoat, on 07/12/2009, -1/+6If you assume that all advancement of solar, wind, and geothermal technology stops immediately and remains at a stand still for two straight decades, yeah. Otherwise, no, not really.
- Nintendesert, on 07/12/2009, -2/+6Those other sources can NEVER be up to par with the potential of Nuclear power. Not even close.
- biogears, on 07/13/2009, -0/+4I hope he has as much fun spending it as I had making it. /S
- 5ean, on 07/12/2009, -2/+6Agreed. When these technologies become more economically feasible, there will be greater usage. It's kinda the same thing with hydrogen cars, they're very expensive now, but, as the technology further progresses, and more people get interested in them, they'll become cheaper.
- randumbusername, on 07/12/2009, -0/+4be careful
- inactive, on 07/12/2009, -3/+7It would take a fat piggy to not like the idea of supporting renewable energy. Back to your slop troff.
- Suricou, on 07/12/2009, -1/+5I don't blame the government so much as I blame economy of scale. Fossil fuels are very cheap, in part because there is such demand - renewables can't compete on price with a technology that's had the best part of a century to get it's infrastructure built and technology perfected.
- Suricou, on 07/12/2009, -2/+6Bonds and loans mostly, I gather. Not issueing new currency. That's considered an option of last resort, due to the effect on inflation.
- Suricou, on 07/12/2009, -3/+7Solar and wind farms employ minimal people once built - but during construction they very labor-intensive. All that equipment to manufacture and install. So, at least for a few years, it should soak up some of the unemployed.
- mweels, on 07/12/2009, -0/+4Nugx my thoughts exactly.
- gakboi, on 07/12/2009, -1/+4@wasabibomb: lol. fine have it your way :P
- realeskimopimp, on 07/12/2009, -9/+12Cheers for American jobs!
- lead2thehead, on 07/12/2009, -7/+10Well, we're already broke, but sure. Spend another $3 billion!
- SpeedSteamBoat, on 07/12/2009, -1/+4"Renewable energy is MORE EXPENSIVE than oil" for now...
Environmental arguments aside, we're at or very near global peak oil. See how "cheap" that oil is in a few years when production numbers keep dropping off annually.
It's called investing in the future, and it's really important to do if you want to remain a global economic power. Most forward looking investments are more costly than immediate solutions, but they pay for themselves when the world inevitably changes and you're prepared. - biogears, on 07/13/2009, -0/+3Or rather, Democrats have to spend taxpayers money to make votes.
- r00fus, on 07/12/2009, -1/+4You forgot to mention that all the "externalities" of oil, like oh, say, western powers propping up dictators and wars of invasion, and all the resulting lives and dollars spent to secure the oil in the first place...
If we had to actually account for all that, we'd realize that oil is much MUCH more expensive.
http://www.iags.org/costofoil.html
On an aside, oil isn't useless... try to run a modern military without it. - JStraum, on 07/12/2009, -0/+3I know where you can get some cheap windmills, go talk to TBoone - he'll hook you up!! Or.....
....is this what the wise old Mr Pickens was looking forward to all along? - inactive, on 07/12/2009, -2/+5Oh, it's just socialistpig. King of trolls. nm.
- AaronS2000, on 07/12/2009, -0/+3Loneranger85 back from hell?
- erkokite, on 07/12/2009, -0/+3I read about your plant in Vermont. The cooling tower is about to collapse IIRC (actually I think it already did). It's in very poor condition. It needs to be replaced.
- alais, on 07/12/2009, -3/+6More deficit spending the better eh?
- gakboi, on 07/12/2009, -1/+4no one is going to invest $3b in solar panels... times have changed and technology has moved on. Solar-Thermal and Hydro-Thermal are improving at quite a rate. If you don't invest now the technology won't get better.
- mweels, on 07/12/2009, -0/+3Im curious why people are digging me down on this.
How much was spent on the GM bailout?
How much was spent on the TARP funds?
How much is going to be spent on healthcare?
.. Trillions ..
3 Billion? Energy is one of the largest expense any person and/or business occurs in terms of money, environment and national security.
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