Posted on 03/13/2012 10:15:47 AM PDT by null and void
Wow. Just wow. Just when you thought Rush Limbaugh couldn’t possibly be any stupider (as most of you know, his vile, disgusting and misogynistic comments on Sandra Fluke have worked out so well for him), he decided to double down on the dumb.
On his March 5 program, Limbaugh said the following about the wind and solar energy markets (emphasis added):
The problem with the Chevy Volt [the reason Limbaugh started his alternative energy rant in the first place] is just like all of Obama’s green energy, there’s no business there yet. There’s no solar energy business yet. There’s no wind energy yet. It’s not there yet. But we can’t have more oil. We can’t have cheaper gasoline prices.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the actual clip of the remarks for your listening pleasure (it’s only 16 seconds, but you’ll be gobsmacked at the amount of stupid packed into such a short time):
Now those of us who have listened to Rush practically at the beginning know that he has made his living being mendacious, angry and crude, but the fictional Snerdley should have warned him how ridiculous the above statement was.
Let’s start with our personal passion, the solar energy industry.
1. There’s no solar energy business yet.
Really, Rush? Really? Did Snerdley not alert you to this study by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Greentech Media? Or this announcement by Rhone Resch? Or this report from The Solar Foundation, which reports that there were more than 100,000 jobs in the American solar industry as of August 2011? Is that enough evidence for you that not only does the solar industry exist, but that it’s one of the few bright spots in an otherwise painfully slow recovery?
How about these facts from our friends at SEIA:
• The U.S. solar market grew to a $6 billion industry in 2010, up 67% from $3.6 billion in 2009.I don’t know about you, but that sure as heck sounds like an industry (and a thriving one at that) to me.
• Solar electric capacity installations reached 956 MW in 2010, more than double the installations from 2009.
• At year end 2010, the U.S. had 2,593 megawatts (MW) of installed solar electric capacity. This included about 2,086 MW of photovoltaics (PV) and 507 MW of utility-scale concentrating solar power.
• Solar water heating capacity grew 5% in 2010, as 2.4 million square feet of solar water heating capacity was installed at homes and businesses throughout the country.
Rush, you should have done some homework so you didn’t sound like quite such an idiot.
2. There’s no wind energy yet.
My colleagues over at Windpower Engineering and Development could probably speak to this more effectively than I can, but here are some of the stats on Limbaugh’s “non-industry,” courtesy of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA):
• The fourth quarter of 2011 saw 3,444 MW of wind power capacity installed, bringing total installations in 2011 to 6,810 MW.
• The U.S. wind industry now totals 46,919 MW of cumulative wind capacity through the end of 2011. • There are over 8,300 MW currently under construction involving over 100 separate projects spanning 31 states plus Puerto Rico.
• The U.S. wind industry has added over 35% of all new generating capacity over the past 4 years, second only to natural gas, and more than nuclear and coal combined.
• Today, U.S. wind power capacity represents more than 20% of the world’s installed wind power.
• The U.S. wind industry represents not only a large market for wind power capacity installations, but also a growing market for American manufacturing.
• More than 400 manufacturing facilities across the United States. make components for wind turbines, and dedicated wind facilities that manufacture major components such as towers, blades and assembled nacelles can be found in every region.
Add to that the nearly 75,000 jobs currently in the wind industry, and you can see that Rush yet again proves to the world that he won’t let facts get in the way of a good lie.
3. But we can’t have more oil. We can’t have cheaper gasoline prices.
This is a common complaint amongst conservatives: If we just opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the U.S. coastline (which Obama has, in fact, done) or processed shale oil, we could rid ourselves of the scourge of being dependent of foreign nations for our energy supplies.
This, of course, is a straw man and ignores the central fact of oil production (and, by extension, gas prices). When the United States or any other country extracts oil and puts in on the market, it doesn’t stay in the country of origin. So no matter how much oil the United States produces (unless we happened to be sitting on oil reserves like Saudi Arabia or Venezuela — the evidence suggests we are not), it wouldn’t lower the price of gas one bit.
Our oil would be swept up into the international oil market, where the prices are still controlled (in large part) by OPEC and speculators on the commodities markets. Extracting more oil wouldn’t bring down gas prices, no matter how much Limbaugh and his friends want it to — and there would be significant environmental dangers instead (as we found out to our own detriment two years ago).
So what have we learned from this, apart from the fact that Senator Al Franken may have been right? We’ve learned that we need to be ever-vigilant as the solar industry, and when people lie about us, we need to fight back — and fight back hard.
I would request that all of you take a minute of your time to email Rush (his email address is the ever-so-modest ElRushbo@EIBnet.com) or post a comment on his Facebook page, letting him know (rationally and politely, please) that the solar industry not only exists, but is alive and well in this country — and we won’t take his lies lying down.
An advocate of solar with whom I had a discussion said that they can produce 1 kilowatt per hour per square foot. Not having anything to refute that, I asked “then why aren’t all the big businesses using it”? He told me that the oil/gas interests are “supressing” solar technology.
LOL. Well I was trying to be reserved with my comment. These folks are so far out of their mind I would have to go to the next galaxy to have any chance to find it.
Mind if I just call you DORK for short. Dork, listen up and listen good. Wind and solar amount to practically nothing in the overall picture of our needs. You socialist leftists idealogs can’t face the REALITY that your dream AGW/IPCC CO2 hoax has collasped and continue to try and make energy policy based on that wishful thinking while ignoring our real needs. It ain’t gonna happen for 50 to 100 years down the road. Mean while we suffer from bad energy policy from a bad president and his appointees.
I think we're actually getting over the hump on some of that," Martinez said. "We're cautiously optimistic. We think it's going to be great technology."
.....The Martin system, built to last 50 years, cost $398 million, or $75 million less than budgeted, according to the utility.
What? They spent $400M and are cautiously optimistic that this is GOING TO BE a great technology?
What the hell did the environmental disaster that this solar plant caused cost to clean up? What did it cost to be shut down for 3 months while the disaster was addressed?
Oddly enough, that's precisely what obama's blocking the Keystone XL pipeline is forcing Canada to do.
He is such an IDIOT, must be all that funny stuff Obama used to smoke.
Hey Frank, get back to me when I can fly from Houston to Chicago on a 100% solar jet plane the size of a 737.
Using an electric car is still the same as using gas because your electricity mostly comes from oil and gas; in addition, if you had more cars plugging in for recharge you’d have to ration the home use of energy to maybe 6 hours a day.
Lastly, the wind technology is a great idea, but the spinning blades have huge repair costs, the wind isn't consistent and it is a historic loser.
I think we are decades away from any real answer to non-oil energy. The answer is IMO getting some kind of storage battery that isn't toxic that charges from the sun quick.
We are blowing it in three areas we can now do something about.
More hydro plants. Water turns wheels that make electricity and they don't have to pollute.
Desalinization plants for water should be looked into. They are used now on ships for thousands of people daily and that works.
We should open up our oil capacity.
My 14-yr-old just did a Science Fair project: “Is [home-based] Solar Power Worth it?”. Short answer: No...
...Even with the subsidies.
...Even with assuming that the cost of the money to buy the system was zero.
...Even when assuming constant panel performance over at least 20 years.
...Even with assuming that you Build Your Own panels! (Okay, in that scenario you made about $2 a month over 20 years).
To buy enough power to zero your electric bill in my area, with an average family’s consumption would have required 63 high-density panels... and the roof space simply wasn’t there.
I prepped her for the questioning to expect... As predicted, she had one envirowhacko in the judge list. He wanted her to assume higher electricity costs than existed, to consider the coal plants offset (we actually run mostly off of a nuke plant here), and to evaluate areas around the world instead of just her home area... all which had nothing to do with the cost analysis that was her project.
Oh, and she managed an honorable mention award at Regionals after winning at her school.
Giving your source the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was looking at a sq meter which would still fall short of that KW figure.
The fact that the greenies HAVE to suppress (like they claim the oil companies do) it is damn hard to surpass the amount of energy stored in a gallon of gasoline.
They make all sorts of claims to ignorant journalists (who are never experts in any field) knowing fully well the journalist will not check the numbers.
From Solar Estimate.org
On average (as a general "rule of thumb") modern photovoltaics (PV) solar panels will produce 8 - 10 watts per square foot of solar panel area. For example, a roof area of 20 feet by 10 feet is 200 square-feet (20 ft x 10 ft). This would produce, roughly, 9 watts per sq-foot, or 200 sq-ft x 9 watts/sq-ft = 1,800 watts (1.8 kW) of electric power.
Don’t forget every power company in the Country is mandated to waste 20% of their money on solar/wind by law. So we subsidize these boondoggles and then force companies to buy these overpriced liberal windmills.
Pray for America
I didn't know "pole" could have that drastic and long lasting of an affect (when smoked).
In order for you to witness that technology, you might have to make the leap of faith into another technology, cryogenics.
I just read that if you add up the entire world production of wind energy and rounded it to the nearest whole number...it would be zero percent of the energy produced.
Solar exists at the levels it is today only because of subsidizing by the democrats. It is a false economy that will break down instantly if the taxpayer dollars supporting it go away.
Great thread.
I’ll still ask my great-great-great gandson for his ID and proof of geneaology!
Without the federal and state subsidies (working raxpayer money) there would be no solar jobs at all!
What did each existing solar industry employee cost the taxpayer?
I'm thinking about $400,000 each.
They might all as well be public employees.
Meanwhile, in the distant future, there will be an uptic in the honest employment sector keeping all those solar systems working, unless the morons who bought into the scam simply junk the damned things.
You think Prius batteries are toxic? Wait til you have millions of lead batteries to be recycled. No way to store power---- no "solar" industry!
Frank Andorka obviously lives someplace where there are huge solar and wind generating stations supplying entire cities and millions of vehicles with energy.
He lives where you can drive into the solar station and refill your vehicle with sunpower.
So, Frank, where do you live that this is all taking place.
I’m betting you drive a fossil fuel powered car and that your connected to the current grid. And....that you’re being intentionally obtuse.
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