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"Use Of Wind Energy Expected To Grow"
news.yahoo.com — Two decades from now Americans could get as much electricity from windmills as from nuclear power plants, according to a government report that lays out a possible plan for wind energy growth.
roosevans- 37 diggs
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- roosevans, on 05/13/2008, -0/+4The challenges of climate change and clean energy makes this an exciting time for creative and innovative science and technology minds to come up with doable means to solve these pressing environmental issues. The idea of "wind power" is so much more appealing than nuclear power, as such an energy source is clean and safe for humans and Nature. American ingenuity and wealth would be well spent in converting to wind powered electricity, in my opinion.
- joseday, on 05/13/2008, -0/+1Many birds are killed by turbine blades. Wind power is unreliable, and is the "justification" for Smart-Grid, a government invasion of our homes.
Sounds weird, but I didn't invent this. Smart Grid is a network to be constructed inside your home that will allow utilities and government regulators to control your demand for power. They will be able to know what devices you use in your home and when. They will be able to turn off anything they believe you don't need to use. Is that what you want?
This program is well under way now, but it is being kept quiet. It is an extension of "Demand Response" which has made power use more efficient, but now is being taken well beyond what is reasonable.
The fact is, our population is growing, and we will need more generation capacity. Our regulators got by for 30 years without building as many power plants. Our per-capita power demand has remained flat for decades despite using more devices.
We already build more efficient appliances. However, now we are experiencing the hard limits of physical laws. Now we need more generation capacity. The choices of past decades to burn natural gas made sense at the time, but the cost of all hydrocarbon fuels except coal have risen dramatically. You are paying higher energy bills because of those realities.
There is a clean technology used around the world that has the ability to deliver steady, abundant, cheap power. This power is needed to revitalize our economy. If you want a job, you need nuclear power. It will help keep businesses from moving jobs offshore. Cheap power will offset the search for cheap labor. If you need government programs, you need a strong economy to deliver revenue.
Wind: Higher energy cost. Invasion of privacy. Unreliable power delivered. Little chance of keeping our economy strong. Little chance of making your job more secure.
Nuclear power: Cheaper power than currently produced, resulting in lower power bills. Abundant power, no need for utilities to control your power use. Able to strengthen our economy, and secure better paying jobs.
Nuclear power is the answer. Wind power is not.
- joseday, on 05/13/2008, -0/+1Many birds are killed by turbine blades. Wind power is unreliable, and is the "justification" for Smart-Grid, a government invasion of our homes.
- RIZZE, on 05/13/2008, -0/+4There are ways to break America's oil addiction, experts say, but it won't be easy. Cures include stricter conservation, higher fuel-economy standards, alternative fuels made from common crops and next-generation batteries for hybrid cars that could get more than 100 mpg.
These and other options are promising, but all would require sacrifice and trade-offs. And, importantly, none are yet cost-competitive - chinacensored, on 05/13/2008, -0/+0This is great news for the future of the country. The real question is, will this have an positive affect on the electricity bills of Americans?
- Shellius, on 05/13/2008, -0/+3I heard a conservative from the AEI giving a speech yesterday on CSPAN about how wind energy is just too troublesome to bother with very much and we should be looking at "clean" coal which doesn't even exist ... somebody better wake these guys up. Wind energy is a great source of energy but most windmill parts are manufactured in other countries. When are we going to get on board with this? I'm not worried about my electric bill as much as I'm worried about breathable air, peak oil and polluting ourselves out of existance. Other countries are already getting much of their power from solar, wind, geothermal, even nuclear, making the U.S. look positively backwards.
- AlwaysAwake, on 05/13/2008, -1/+2With the help of their servants in Government, Big Business and the Bankers are already lining up their strategies to screw us again, and satisfy their greed, while pretending to be "green" advocates. Man, are we gullible. Wind power is not the best technology available to replace oil; just the one that suits their greed opportunities best at the moment. Least investment, most return. See Boone Pickens recent remarks.
- joseday, on 05/13/2008, -3/+1Beware wind power. Not only is it more expensive than nuclear power, but it will bring Big Brother into your home.
Government regulators are now planning "Smart Grid". Smart Grid is a new home network designed to allow utilities to monitor and control appliances, computers, and outlets in your home. It has bi-directional capability to collect and transmit and deliver detailed information about your activities in your home. New appliances are being designed with networking capability built-in. The reason for this effort is to permit utilities to control consumer power demand.
Bottom line: Because regulators don't like building new power plants, they are trying to make "renewable" power sources workable. Wind is highly variable in output during the day, and so utilities "need" to be able to power you down when the wind power drops suddenly. This network will give utilities and government the ability to know what you are using in your home and when. They are also planning to install time-of-use water meters which will allow utilities to know when you flush your toilet, how many times you flush, when you take a shower, water your lawn, and so on.
All of this assault on our privacy is simply because they are unable to properly plan for the future. Demand Response has help make the nation more efficient, but now the regulators are taking the concept way beyond a reasonable limit. We need to fight this attack on our freedom now.
Wind power is 5 times more expensive than nuclear power. Nuclear power is 3 times cheaper than natural gas-fired generators. With 103 nuclear power plants in operation now, and no problems for 30 years, why are officials afraid of building more nuclear power plants? Wind power will not only invade your privacy, but you get to pay higher electric bills too. What a deal!
Want a job? Keep good jobs in the US by building new nuclear power plants.
Need government programs? Keep federal and state programs going by keeping our economy strong. Build more nuclear power.- petebot, on 05/13/2008, -0/+3There are 8 comments on this page, and two of them are yours, basically saying the same thing. You only needed to post once.
- joseday, on 05/15/2008, -0/+0Petebot,
Who made you the policeman of Digg?
If you were capable of understanding what I wrote, you might have understood the unusual nature of the information. I don't believe you will find out about the Smart Grid program anywhere else. If you have heard about it, I'd like to know.
Do you like the idea of the government or NGOs looking inside your home and deciding what devices you can use and when? I didn't make this up. See what you can find out about Smart Grid, HomePlug, Echelon, demand response, and so on. When you have dug into it enough, you might be as agitated about it as I am. You might even post twice, perish the thought.
It seemed to me that this issue was important enough that something needed to go up at the top too. I've read enough blogs to know when you are dealing with mostly BS. Did you detect BS here? If you don't like how I handled the posts, too bad. Don't read them. They were intended for people who could grasp the importance of the problem.
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