Posted on 06/07/2009 7:10:43 PM PDT by Born Conservative
Thomas Alva Edison, meet the Internet.
More than a century after Edison invented a reliable light bulb, the nation's electricity-distribution system, an aging spider web of power lines, is poised to move into the digital age.
The "smart grid" has become the buzz of the electric-power industry, at the White House and among members of Congress. President Obama says it's essential to boost development of wind and solar power, get people to use less energy and tackle climate change.
What smart-grid visionaries see coming are home thermostats and individual appliances that adjust automatically based on the cost of power, and water heaters that can draw power from a neighbor's rooftop solar panel. They see a time when, on a scorching-hot day, a plug-in hybrid electric car charges one minute and a few moments later sends electricity back into the grid to help avert a brownout.
Also coming are utilities that get instant feedback on a transformer outage or shift easily among energy sources from wind turbines to coal-burning power plants and back to the turbines when the wind begins to blow again.
And, from miles away, power companies will peer into homes and businesses, then automatically lower thermostats or adjust power use, depending on demand and prearranged agreements.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Yes, boys and girls, it takes a global village to power Mother Earth....
Editorial: Alexander’s advocacy framing energy debate
Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 6/7/9 | Editor
Posted on Sunday, June 07, 2009 6:33:12 PM by SmithL
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2266800/posts
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander is emerging as the spokesman for the Republican Party’s message on energy - and he is thinking big on the subject.
Alexander late last month said he will call on the federal government to permit the construction of 100 nuclear power plants over the next 20 years. The project presents a tremendous challenge, but the Tennessee Republican believes the nation is up to the task. Alexander’s advocacy certainly should gear the nation to dealing with the energy issues facing it.
In politics, Alexander’s request is defining the difference between the GOP’s energy goals and those of the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama. The president and the Democrats, Alexander believes, place too much emphasis on renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, while giving only lip service to nuclear power.
Nuclear power is the only course right now to provide energy independence, good jobs and clean energy, he said. No doubt with an eye to former vice president Al Gore’s award-winning “An Inconvenient Truth” about global climate change, Alexander said, “Climate change may be the inconvenient problem, but nuclear power is the inconvenient answer.”
Alexander has not made a secret of his skepticism of wind and solar power. Earlier this month, he suggested to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that developers of these “enormous renewable energy projects” post a bond to remove them if they go unused “so that 20 years from now we don’t have to come up with ‘abandoned windmill’ legislation.”
His support of nuclear power also takes a page from Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. McCain called for building 45 new nuclear reactors in the U.S. by 2030, with a long-term goal of 100, doubling the current number of U.S. reactors. Alexander’s plan is more ambitious, but he noted that two dozen applications already are pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and could be on board by 2016 or 2018.
This month, Senate Republicans are to begin a series of hearings on specific issues concerning nuclear power plants: loan financing to assist in construction, safely recycling used nuclear fuel, and ensuring enough skilled workers are available to build and operate the new plants.
Alexander is not a recent convert to nuclear energy. With his Maryville home in view of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Alexander has been a strong advocate of clean air and clean energy. As a member of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, he recently pushed for legislation that would impose stiffer controls on sulfur, nitrogen and mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. A year ago, he proposed a Manhattan Project equivalent to develop energy independence.
His emphasis on nuclear power frames his party’s role in the debate over the nation’s energy future. And it does not necessarily have to be nuclear power versus renewables. There should be a meeting of the minds on the topic, something bipartisan that Congress for too many years has avoided but cannot continue to do without putting many years of progress and the nation’s reputation in jeopardy.
Land of the Free? Or George Orwell’s Big Brother?
This is total bullshit. Electrical power has to be generated somewhere. Thermodynamics is probably the most efficient way of generating it.
Now am I the only one who has a problem with this? What happens if the "rationing board" decides your house is too warm or your A/C has been running too long, but maybe your elderly grandmother is visiting and she needs it a little warmer when its 15 degrees outside, or 95 degrees with 97% humidity is just a tad too hot? Is Barry's smart grid going to say "too bad so sad we need to cut energy usage in your sector." . Maybe I'm wearing my tinfoil hat here, but I don't trust anything that comes out of this Mau Mau's administration.
They will have control of your income through taxation and wage mandates, the information you receive thanks to the internet czar and some new form of the fairness doctrine, what kind of car you may drive, your health care and thus how you eat, drink and be merry, and now your home's energy. And most of it has happened or will be happening since obama, Reid and Pelosi have taken over the government.
Weren't most of these people in government or their voters the radicals of the 60s?? They sang and protested about wanting a revolution back then, but if they continue down this road they'll get their wish.
The smart grid is about the government controlling your thermostat. The local utility had a voluntary program where they would give you $150 and a nominal amount off your monthly bill in exchange for a remote operated thermostat that would cycle on and off during “peak usage” to save energy. Won’t be long till the voluntary part is not.
Good question: EVERY one of these “smart” grid products measures, controls, and limits power. And relies on the government checking (monitoring) your every watt consumed.
none produce more power. They sound good, some will help.
None promote freedom.
"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK"
- Candidate ObaMessiah
Did you really think he was kidding? Really now?
I support reducing or eliminating actual pollutants from stack emissions, including toxic metals and acid-forming oxides of nitrogen and sulfur.
BUT CARBON DIOXIDE IS NOT A POLLUTANT, AND THE EPA NEEDS TO HAVE THAT TRUTH TATOOED ON THEIR BACKSIDES!
And if you are deemed an Enemy of the State, or if you don't pay your Green Tax, they will just shut your power off until you get your head right and comply with Big Sister.
“BUT CARBON DIOXIDE IS NOT A POLLUTANT, AND THE EPA NEEDS TO HAVE THAT TRUTH TATOOED ON THEIR BACKSIDES!” ~ MainFrame65
Save your breath, they have an agenda.
“..At this moment, the EPA is hopelessly politicized. In the wake of Carol Browner, it is probably better to shut it down and start over. What we need is a new organization much closer to the FDA. We need an organization that will be ruthless about acquiring verifiable results, that will fund identical research projects to more than one group, and that will make everybody in this field get honest fast.” ~ Michael Crichton, September 15, 2003 Environmentalism as Religion http://www.michaelcrichton.com/speeches.html
APRIL 18, 2009
U.S. in Historic Shift on CO2
Businesses Brace for Costly New Rules as EPA Declares Warming Gases a Threat
By JONATHAN WEISMAN and SIOBHAN HUGHES
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123997738881429275.html
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