The Fallacy of Renewables

Capitalism Magazine ^ | 7 July 2002 | Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

We ought to get this on the Calgov2002 list, since Davis and crew have signed up California to lead the way on renewables!

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for posting this! Good ammunition for us fighting the enviralists here in California!

[farmfriend]

As far as I am concerned, farmers are just rural mobsters.

Watch it!!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I take that back. The ones who aren't mobsters are welfare queens.

[farmfriend]

Our subsidies are nowhere near our foreign competitors, nor do they have to deal with the environmental laws that we do. But hey, if you prefer to get your food from China, Canada, New Zealand and South America then cut the farmers off; let them go out of business.

[snopercod]

Not true with wind.

The maintenance costs are what make wind-power uneconomical. That, and the unpredictablity of the output.

In reality, you have to have 100% fossil backup with wind power, since you can't count on it to be there when you need it.

Ever seen any hospitals run off of wind power?

[HardStarboard]

>>>Its called the second law of Thermodynamics.<<<

Careful the way you word things - you'll get some prominent enviromentalist calling for its repeal!!

[snopercod]

Would that be Tom Dung Heap Harkin?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

So how much government subsidies did you collect last year?

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[farmfriend]

One child received reduced bus far and both had reduced lunch fees. I am not a farmer, just poor.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

One child received reduced bus far and both had reduced lunch fees. I am not a farmer, just poor.

I live in a rural area myself. I love it. It's worth making less money to be able to chose who you associate with by putting a couple hundred acres between you and the rest of the world.

I have no issue with farmers, other than the ones who belong to powerful farm lobbies that are the equivalent of the NEA teachers union and the Teamsters. The subsidies on corn for ethanol and soybeans for diesel fuel production are pure robbery of taxpayers. A lot more energy goes into their production than comes out, and WE pay for it.

[farmfriend]

I have no issue with farmers, other than the ones who belong to powerful farm lobbies that are the equivalent of the NEA teachers union and the Teamsters. The subsidies on corn for ethanol and soybeans for diesel fuel production are pure robbery of taxpayers. A lot more energy goes into their production than comes out, and WE pay for it.

They lobby to make a living where they can because they can't make a living off of growing food. Here is some information on the farm bill. Pay attention to page 6.

[crypt2k]

Hi-tech enewable energy schemes simply sweep the dirt under someone else's rug.

If the econazis were serious they would go the way of the Amish.

[daviddennis]

Perhaps he's trying to make the energy contracts he locked us into look cheap.

D

[45Auto]

(It ain't going to happen, but we can snow the sheeple with Renewable)!

The problem is, the miscreants in Sacramento will make it happen, charge the cost of setting all this crap up to the taxpayer, and then pass the blame on to someone else when it fails, just like the Dufus governor did when the rolling blackouts "happened".

[Gophack]

Most of the proposed renewable energy resources take more energy and resources to produce than they supply. This fact is at the heart of the false notion of renewables as a sustainable form of energy that can provide for society energy needs essentially freely and indefinitely. Renewable sources of energy are greatly misunderstood in public debate.

The first paragraph is the most important ... people are so brainwashed, and we're letting our kids become brainwashed ... into believing that "renewable" energy is wonderful.

Didn't Davis just sign a bill like this? Woe to California ... wonder if Simon can by executive order suspend it?

[heleny]

non-hydro renewables are not "easily affordable."

I don't understand why hydroelectric power is not considered "renewable." Isn't the power created by gravity pulling naturally available water through turbine generators in a dam? Nature "renews" the system by bringing the water back up to the mountains through precipitation, just as nature redistributes air so it can blow through a windmill again.

[Grampa Dave]

Yes the Watermelon Eco Fascist Davis just signed this bill, (link)

[E. Pluribus Unum]

They lobby to make a living where they can because they can't make a living off of growing food. Here is some information on the farm bill. Pay attention to page 6.

I read page 6. Mostly it says that farm subsidies aren't encouraging overproduction. I don't see how that is supposed to comfort me. That's like saying welfare isn't encouraging unemployed people to work too much.

Two-thirds of all farm subsidies go to large farms and wealthy agri-businesses, most of which earn more than $250,000 a year. Among the landed gentry on the agriculture dole: 14 members of Congress, 15 Fortune 500 companies, and celebrities such as Sam Donaldson and Ted Turner. These mega-corporations and multi-millionaires will rake in as much as 160 times the median annual farm subsidy of $935.

Farm subsides grew from $6 billion in 1996 to $30 billion in 2000. Advocates of the current farm bill say they're just trying to help struggling family farmers. But they could do that far more cheaply. Congress could guarantee every full-time farmer a minimum income of 185 percent of the federal poverty line ($32,652 for a family of four) for "only" $4 billion per year -- one-fifth the cost of direct subsidies in the new bill.

Most House members have at least one major crop in their district grown by farmers who vote, and control of the Senate (which over-represents rural populations) will depend on several close races in farm-heavy states.

Farm subsidies represent little more than political payoffs, with both parties bidding for the "farmer's friend" label heading into the November elections.