Do you mean that these "Carbon Credit" certificates that are printed to look like stocks are really......worthless?
Posted on 11/15/2010 7:58:39 AM PST by WebFocus
Coordinating and executing a long term national industrial policy is a complicated challenge even under the best of circumstances. Doing so on top of a fractious and shifting political ecosystem riven by fundamental disagreements about the underlying problem, the urgency with which that problem must be addressed, and the cost and efficacy of proposed solutions can only happen in a nation enjoying rapid economic growth living under dictatorial one-party rule.
Does this sound like the United States?
But wait, it gets worse. Try sustaining an industrial policy when nearly all the early experiments have been fiascos whose costs have vastly exceeded expectations while producing results that actually make the underlying problem worse. Then compound this with the realization that even though these experiments have failed they have created powerful constituencies that make it politically impossible to turn them off.
Welcome to the Cleantech revolution.
Corn ethanol, bio-diesel, rooftop solar panels, windmills, battery powered cars - one could hardly cobble together a more marginal set of immature technologies to jam into the market using the blunt instruments of government subsidies, mandates, and rebates. While intended to nurture infant industries until they can thrive on their own, taking a technology to market prematurely inevitably creates a dependent class of investors, manufacturers, suppliers, and customers living on the brink of economic ruin. Joining together in a self-congratulatory community that consumes wealth while producing only virtue, these businesses remain shielded from the very market forces whose discipline is essential if their products are ever to achieve economic sustainability.
The signs of imminent collapse are everywhere. We are so awash in excess ethanol capacity that startup producers are going broke while Archer Daniels Midland - a case study in corporate welfare - clamors to raise the gasoline blending mandate to 15%
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
The ghost of Ayn Rand speaks...
Ping.
I drive past Solyndra every week. Currently laying off employees and in all likelyhood will default on $600 billion in DOE loans. California will continue to be stuck on stupid for decades.
The invention of the century..."The remote control". I can't even imagine getting up to change the channel...
I hear that!
I tend to agree with all this. I’m all for energy self-sufficiency any way we can do it, but it all has to stand on it’s own.
The only alternative tech that stands on it’s own right now is farm digesters, and they are a drop in the bucket to the entire natural gas market. There is no seriously viable large scale energy technology right now and I don’t see one coming for the near future.
Our city just got $2 mil...for a green roof and other cr** including new drainageto “balance” runoff...which makes no sense at all since the GENESEE RIVER runs through the center of of the city...
Sorry, should have read “$600 million”...
Oh I don't know. The weedwhacker is pretty high up there.
RE: I drive past Solyndra every week. Currently laying off employees and in all likelyhood will default on $600 billion in DOE loans. California will continue to be stuck on stupid for decades.
As a conservative, I have nothing against anyone trying to develop a clean, safe, reliable energy source that would be an alternative to oil, natural gas, coal or nuclear. Why would any conservative be against such innovation?
What we are against are MANDATES ( AKA FORCING PEOPLE TO USE PRODUCTS AGAINST THEIR WILL ).
If a company’s product ( e.g. Solyndra) is worth its salt LET IT COMPETE IN THE MARKETPLACE. In other words, SHOW US HOW IT IS VALUE FOR MONEY without jamming it down our throats via the power of government.
The reason why there’s so much backlash against green technology is because of all these MANDATES in the first place.
Using one’s food supply for fuel is insane.
End ethanol subsidies now.
Nuclear Power, Natural Gas, Drill Baby Drill, build more Refineries and Coal to Diesel.
All will stand on their own and the combination will easily make us Energy Independent.
The above list would cost the Tax Payers ZIP and would bring the price of Energy down....
On the downside doing away with all of those Regulations would put a big ding in Lobbyist Paychecks and diminish the power wielded by Politicians.
TT
Minor, but important, correction for accuracy ...
"consumes wealth while producing only virtue sanctimony"
Ethanol has no effect on the food supply, unless you consider soda pop food. 1/2 the corn already is fed to livestock, the DDG’s left over from the ethanol process are also fed to livestock and are more healthy without all the extra carbs.
Ethanol still needs to stand on it’s own though.
Do you mean that these "Carbon Credit" certificates that are printed to look like stocks are really......worthless?
To put it simply, there is no way to get something for nothing when it comes to energy production and use. Every form of energy we use has a cost associated with it, though sometimes this cost isn't always obvious to us.
I know...I know. Hey, no big thing! Don't mention it. Consider it an early Christmas gift.
The Germans discovered that during WWII.
They used the 1944 potato crop to make synthetic fuel.
The German people paid a terrible price for this in 1945 and into 1946.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.