NIMBY-RAT poster child...
Posted on 10/04/2011 2:28:58 PM PDT by Titus-Maximus
The United States faces a clear choice of pushing forward quickly to refine solar, wind and other renewable energy sources or continue to ignore the less obvious costs of reliance on oil, coal, and nuclear energy, Robert Kennedy Jr. told a group of environmentalists Sunday afternoon.
In discussing other costs that are often ignored, Kennedy cited the process of transporting coal from West Virginia. The government spends millions of dollars per mile to fill thousands of miles of road in the state with 22 inches of asphalt, Kennedy said.
"Coal claims to be cheap but is probably the most catastrophically expensive way to boil a pot of water that has ever been devised," said Kennedy, the son of slain U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. "The coal trucks weigh 90,000 pounds and will pulverize less robust roads."
Speaking at the Connecticut Fund for the Environment and Save the Sound's annual meeting, Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and chief prosecuting attorney for Hudson Riverkeeper, said renewable energy will ultimately be more efficient than traditional fuels.
"If you read a paper today you can't help but see most of our problems are caused by our use of energy," Kennedy said. "Whether it is Fukushima or Indian Point power plant the problems are linked to how we extract it, deploy it, or reuse it."
The recent rejection of President Barack Obama's job proposals by Republican legislators, who cast further investments into solar and green energy projects as cronyism, are disingenuous given the public subsidization of oil, nuclear, and coal electricity interests, Kennedy said.
What Kennedy cited costs that should be associated with those energy sources, including what he estimates is a $4.5 trillion price of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq over the next 20 years, and $750 billion in subsidies to oil companies.
"This hemorrhage annually of American wealth has beggared our nation that when I was a little boy, owned half the wealth on the face of the planet," Kennedy said.
Kennedy drew a historical parallel between Congress' struggle to pursue greener energy policy over the long term to the debate whether to abolish slavery in the English Parliament in the 19th century.
He said both debates included similar arguments about economic dislocations. Kennedy said emancipation triggered an opposite effect, because smart entrepreneurs saw the opportunity posed by the end of slavery to create industrial machinery that made up for the advantage lost by the end of free labor.
"Because slavery represented 25 percent of the gross national product for Britain, people argued that if you abolished slavery the economy would crater," Kennedy said. "Instead the British economy exploded as entrepreneurs rushed into that space and started the Industrial Revolution."
Now he preaches to us. Tell him to shut up!
Renewable energy and slavery - what a joke.
Now we have to deal with another generation of these Kennedy idiots. The only good thing to come from that family was President, the rest were leeches.
Otherwise, he's full of hot air and useful only for helping a balloon become airborn.
If there is one guaranteed thing about a Kennedy, it’s hypocrisy.
(That’s the relatives of the original felon of course, not the many honest Kennedys out there.)
Sounds like Kennedy is against... infrastructure!
RFK Jr is the biggest psycho-phony Euro-Socialist wannabe in Massachussets.
He makes Kerry, Frank, and Warren all look sane by comparison.
We have renewable energy. It’s called oil.
I have read that the RFK - Ethel line of Kennedys are running out of money. None of them have ever had a real job. The cost of drug rehab and attorney fees are high. They will have to marry into money like Maria Shriver did.
is he still yammering on and on about renewable energy but doesn’t want it in HIS BACK YARD? Same o, Same o. What a joke and a loser.
“The coal trucks weigh 90,000 pounds and will pulverize less robust roads”
Anyone ever see a coal truck? I’ve noticed power companies have a habit of building rail lines to their plants.
And something tells me they will succeed at it -- in fact, they'll probably excel. There's nothing that liberal old-money likes better than Kennedys.
NIMBY-RAT poster child...
If you are referring to JFK as a “good” President, I disagree.
JFK completely abandoned the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba after promising air & other support. His weakness encouraged the USSR to station ballistic missiles in Cuba, causing the Cuban Missile Crisis & almost starting WWIII. Beyond that, he was a serial cheater in his marriage.
JFK was a pretty face & that is about all there was positive about him. Had he lived to an old age, I am sure we would detest him as much as his drunken brother Ted.
I saw this idiot on TV several years ago. He said we should all change to ‘renewable’ energy, based on the Iceland example. At that time, it had alot of geothermal energy, and a strong economy. He declared a causal relationship; ergo, we should all be using geothermal.
(BTW, we do and we have for around 80 years, where viable - he is too stupid to understand that it doesn’t work everywhere).
I have not heard him explain why Iceland is now bankrupt.
Have another drink, shut up and sit down. Your uncle caused enough problems we’re still tryng to get out of. I say we turn the entire Kennedy compound into a wind farm.
But even so, roads are maintained by fuel taxes and railroads are maintained by private owners. In Indiana, coal trucks are limited by law to 80,000# gross weight, while grain trucks are allowed 88,000# on state roads. Maybe we should not only outlaw coal, but agriculture as well. Then nobody would have to work for a living.
Ethels family is a mess, as well as the whole Hennedy clan. Mary Jo Kopechne, Will Smith rape charges, Martha Moxley, drug abuse, alcoholism and a host of other rotten things abound in this family.
If women are smart, thay will run like hexk away from these people.
How many 60 in TVs and limo (or SUV) rides have you taken lately Robert?
And another thing, Did you use a magnifying glass to cook your heroin?
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.