Posted on 08/18/2008 9:34:52 AM PDT by djsherin
In this year's great energy debate, Democrats describe a future when the U.S. finally embraces the anything-but-carbon avant-garde. It turns out, however, that when wind and solar power do start to come on line, they face a familiar obstacle: environmentalists and many Democrats.
To wit, the greens are blocking the very transmission network needed for renewable electricity to move throughout the economy. The best sites for wind and solar energy happen to be in the sticks -- in the desert Southwest where sunlight is most intense for longest, or the plains where the wind blows most often. To exploit this energy, utilities need to build transmission lines to connect their electricity to the places where consumers actually live. In addition to other technical problems, the transmission gap is a big reason wind only provides two-thirds of 1% of electricity generated in the U.S., and solar one-tenth of 1%.
Only last week, Duke Energy and American Electric Power announced a $1 billion joint venture to build a mere 240 miles of transmission line in Indiana necessary to accommodate new wind farms. Yet the utilities don't expect to be able to complete the lines for six long years -- until 2014, at the earliest, because of the time necessary to obtain regulatory approval and rights-of-way, plus the obligatory lawsuits.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The greens want to destroy the American way of life, just like the Dems in Congress.
The author forgot to mention another site; in the ocean where certain senators might see them from their sailboats.
Six years? Oh, my. That means the energy from these systems won't be available until sometime in the next decade, and in the meantime it will do nothing to bring down today's cost of electricity. That's reason enough right there not to do it.
/s
In my state, a transmission company just threw in the towel on building an HV line from the southern part of the state to the northern (something that would have come in handy in the Northeast blackout a few years ago). The environmentalist wackos filed lawsuit after lawsuit to stop it, and the company finally said to hell with it, just go freeze in the dark.
This is the thing that these windies and solies don't understand. Sure, you can put solar panels out in the middle of the desert, you can put windmills out in the boonies where the wind blows unobstructed, but you're going to have to build millions of miles of transmission infrastructure to move that energy, and for every mile there will be environmentalist wacko lawyers filing a lawsuit to stop it.
I forgot to add that the company trying to build the line had tried for seven years to get it built, and finally gave up. In this country, you can’t even get transport infrastructure built, much less the generating capacity.
Of course they are opposing it. They don’t want the US to have energy and prosperity, they want to bring the country down and rebuild it as communist.
The left pushes for more wind and solar, then can’t get them past their own stifling regulations...I love it!!!
I've been harping on this regulatory BS for years. I think regulatory approvals should be granted in a maximum of six months. If it means hiring a few more bureaucrats, so be it. However, once the agency rules, there is no appeal process...that case is final. If the agency rules against the new power source, those seeking the permits need to refile, perhaps addressing those issues that caused them to lose. If the company wins, they can start construction immediately without fear of subsequent lawsuits.
Much of the "7-10 year delay" in getting new oil to market is because of these very regulatory issues. Congress needs to start pointing the finger at itself for these delays and do something NOW to end it. Somebody tell Queen Nancy to stop trying to sell that POS she calls a book and get back to DC and start doing the work we're paying her for.
Or where they are swimming away after driving their date into the drink....
No drilling for oil.
No drilling for gas.
No hydro power.
No nuclear power.
No Geo thermal power.
No solar power.
No wind power.
No ___(fill in the blank)___ power.........
The only non-carbon source capable of making a significant contribution is nuclear.
No energy whatsoever. Back to the Dark Ages!
Maybe Dark Energy, then?..............
Isn’t already obvious that the environmentalist movement is not evironmentalist at all. They use the environment as cover to foward a socialist agenda that involves dragging the US in chains, humiliated and subdued, into a world government.
Yeah, but Ted Kennedy and J F’n K are NIMBY on the idea of Cape Wind, the offshore Cape Cod windfarm project.
The “environmentalists” are like watermelons, green on the outside, red in the middle.
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