Free Republic

~snip~ "Let there be light," said the Lord. And there was light and there was energy, and there was solar energy for all of us. You and I are born equal under the sun, with equal rights to the use of our sun's energy. Unless the path in the delivery of solar energy changes, some of us will be making rent payments to some of our neighbors for the use of solar electricity for the rest of our lives, making the wealth divide even more isolating. This article attempts to throw some light on this reality. The fossil fuels that...

“There’s nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it.” – William James “A lie told enough becomes the truth.” – Vladimir Lenin Perhaps the most frequently used logical fallacy in the world of politics and public policy today is the argument of assertion, or the idea that someone can legitimately argue a point by merely declaring that something is true, regardless of contradiction. Thus far in 2014, the solar lobby and environmental activists have together employed this strategy to attack ALEC as a legislative membership organization and our stance on the issue of net...

During my last bombshell blog post, I chronicled the Spanish conglomerate Abengoa that snagged billions of U.S. green energy stimulus funds, exposing how this foreign-owned entity screwed over American taxpayers, workers and vendors. This included a long wrap sheet of chilling, unethical and potentially criminal activity that only came to light due to the testimony, coupled with substantiated documentation, by a whistleblower, whom had worked for Abengoa for three years, from 2010 until 2013. In summary Abengoa: Violated at least the spirit of the 2009-stimulus law as well as the Department of Energy (DOE) loan stipulations Conspired and blatantly broke...

PRIMM, Nevada – As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above approach to energy, today Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar “flipped the switch” on the Enbridge Silver State North solar project, the first large-scale solar energy facility on U.S. public lands to deliver power to American consumers. This milestone is in line with the administration’s broad commitment to expanding production of all sources of American made energy, including from renewable sources, such as wind and solar, which has doubled in the President’s first term, as well as domestic production of oil and gas resources, which have increased each year the President...

The standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) deescalated on April 12, when the bureau announced that it will stop its operation to confiscate Bundy’s cattle.But another aspect to this ongoing story is jumping: The blogosphere is alive with allegations that Senator Harry Reid (pictured), and his son, Rory, have motivations of their own for wanting Bundy’s cattle off the disputed lands.Though the major media announced that a “deal” had been reached between Bundy and the BLM, Bundy explained what transpired differently in an interview with KLAS TV in Las Vegas: “There is...

During the final standoff at the Bundy Ranch on Saturday, we had a hundred or more militarized government agents and snipers aiming military grade weapons at hundreds of innocent American citizens. And they were being ordered through a public address system to move away or they would be "SHOT!" Their crime? Standing in defense of a Nevada citizen who was being ruthlessly tormented by rogue federal agencies over a twenty year period. The fact that the BLM seemed to be perfectly willing to slaughter innocent Americans using military grade weapons and tactics over “grazing fees” on public lands is a...

Don't get me wrong, Harry Reid is behind everything in Nevada, but I haven't seen evidence that the solar deal with ENN is even still being considered.  After The Blaze reported that ENN dumped the project, I still see links to this Reid/Chinese deal that isn't happening. "A Chinese-backed company is pulling the plug on a multibillion-dollar solar project near Laughlin after it was unable to find customers for the power that would have been generated there, a Clark County spokesman said Friday.In a letter dated Friday, an executive from ENN Mojave Energy LLC informed the county that the company...

BLM and Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone PDFs https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ke3ap5qfw101r71/5YXGPwqndA https://www.dropbox.com/sh/th7etvwuuk815o0/IPvUa6xBit

U.S. Senator Harry Reid recognized nine years ago that connections between his official duties and the lobbying activities of his relatives could lead to ethical questions. In 2003, the Nevada Democrat publicly banned relatives from lobbying him or his staff after newspaper reports showed that Nevada industries and institutions routinely turned to Reid's sons or son-in-law for representation. Now, questions surrounding family ties are flaring again in Nevada around the Senate majority leader. He and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by a Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm...

"......The California car firm yesterday revealed plans for the factory that would employ up to 6,500 people , cover 1,000 acres, and cost $5 billion, said the Wall Street Journal, Solar and wind farms would at least in part supply the huge power needs of the plant in either Nevada, New Mexico, or Arizona. Reno is thought to be a favorite. Tesla needs its own production to hit its cost target for a more affordable car. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk's idea is a "Gigafactory" that takes in raw materials and produces finished lithium-ion batteries. He has said he intends...

The Bureau of Land Management, whose Director was Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) former senior adviser, has purged documents from its web site stating that the agency wants Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle off of the land his family has worked for over 140 years in order to make way for solar panel power stations. Corrupt Democratic Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) working with the Chinese gov’t to take land from hard-working Americans. Deleted from BLM.gov but reposted for posterity by the Free Republic, the BLM document entitled “Cattle Trespass Impacts” directly states that Bundy’s cattle “impacts” solar development, more specifically the construction of...

The son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Rory Reid, is the primary representative for ENN Energy Group, a Chinese energy company seeking to build a $5 billion solar panel plant on a 9,000-acre Clark County desert plot in Laughlin, Nevada. ENN scored big when Clark County commissioners unanimously voted to sell the Chinese company the public land for just $4.5 million, despite the fact that it was appraised at $38.6 million. Sen. Reid has been one of ENN’s biggest supporters, having recruited the company during a 2011 trip to China. According to Reuters, last month Sen. Reid tried...

hey fellow freepers, I need some advice. I'm trying to set up a small solar panel system in case the grid goes down. I know I won't be able to power the whole house, but I want to be able to run a 750 watt deep well pump, a couple of 40 watt lights, a ceiling fan or box fan, cb base station and maybe a small freezer/refrigerator. I've got a 12v 100 watt solar panel, a 2000w 12v pure sine wave inverter and a 200 amp hour agm battery. Plus a 30 amp charge controller. Will this be enough?...

Airplane pilots cruising over southern California have been complaining about a “nearly blinding” glare emanating from a massive government-funded solar thermal facility. The Ivanpah solar energy plant in San Bernardino County is the world’s largest solar thermal plant and has 173,500 large mirrors that reflect sunlight onto boilers in three 459-foot towers. A feat of modern engineering — to green energy advocates, but a flying hazard to pilots. The Federal Aviation Administration’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) got two anonymous complaints in August that mentioned a “blinding glare” coming from the Ivanpah solar facility. One complaint came from a Los...

**SNIP** In 2011, BrightSource had several other proposed projects on the table in the California desert. All of them would be much larger than Ivanpah, with more intense solar flux. Environmental activists started asking tough questions during hearings on these projects. For example, what would happen to birds, bats and insects that fly into that flux? An answer came in late 2013 at Ivanpah. Mortalities from solar flux had been noted since testing began in March of last year. In October, a startling number of dead migrating birds on the site led federal wildlife biologists to a sad conclusion. The...

On Friday, Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology Co. failed to make an 89.8 million yuan ($14.7 million) interest payment, the first domestic corporate bond default in the history of the People’s Republic of China. The company, in the red for three straight years, narrowly avoided missing an interest payment on its five-year, billion yuan obligation in January 2013. Then, the Shanghai municipality leaned on banks to not press claims on overdue loans so that Chaori could pay bondholders. This time, Shanghai officials sat on their hands after the company issued a warning on Tuesday that it was able...

As you may know, this year is a Sabbatical Year in the Jewish Calendar. Starting next September 29, 2008, a new Sabbatical cycle will commence. It will run for seven years and conclude with another Sabbatical Year in 2014/15. Also, you may know that Daniel’s seventieth week will be a seven year Sabbatical cycle. Students of biblical prophecy have long compared Daniel’s seventieth week with the Tribulation Period as laid out in the book of Revelation. Intrigued with the Scriptures that repeat over and over again that our Savior’s Second Coming will be heralded with signs in the heavens, in...

Why electricity demand is falling, and what it means By Nathan Lim on 6 March 2014 It is a multi-generational truth that electricity consumption only increases. This is best seen in the US where, since 1949, electricity demand has marched upward in a nearly uninterrupted pattern with the country never experiencing two consecutive years of negative growth.Even here in Australia with data going back to 1961, we have never experienced two consecutive years of negative growth either.Figure 1 – US and Australia Electricity Consumption (Billion Kilowatt hours) Electricity demand falls in USA in four of last five yearsHowever, in the...

IBM and Your Changing Energy World BY Dana Blankenhorn | NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- If I had a technology that could cut the cost of solar energy production to as little as 10 cents per kilowatt-hour (KwH), I'd be dropping everything to get it to market. But I'm not IBM (IBM_). IBM announced last week it will spend a $2.4 million grant from Switzerland studying a solar energy technology called High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT). HCPVT combines the concentrated solar energy system used in the newly opened Ivanpah plant in California, where mirrors direct sunlight to a central point and...

We all get them — telemarketing callers pushing home solar-energy systems that will save us from rising electric bills. Most of us generally hang up. But in 2012, Jeff Leeds, who lives in the Northern California town of Half Moon Bay, listened. His 3,100-square-foot home features 91 incandescent bucket lights, a 180-gallon fish tank, three large refrigerator-freezers and a huge entertainment system. His electric bill was averaging $350 per month. The sales pitch Leeds was hearing on the phone sounded ideal: Lease a system from SolarCity, the nation’s second-largest solar electrical contractor, for a low monthly fee and reap the...