President Obama said today,
“We’ve seen enough. We can remain the world’s leading importer of foreign oil, or we can become the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy.”
Three points in response to Obama’s green-tinted America-bashing:
- Who around the world (except U.S. taxpayers) can afford to subsidize economically inefficient renewables like solar and wind technologies?
- Maybe we wouldn’t need to import so much oil if only the greens would let us drill.
- We may be the leading importer of foreign oil, but we do the most with that oil. We are the most productive country in history.
The Federal government has been investing in wind and solar for 30 years now. For how long and for how much must we continue? If it’s economically competitive anywhere, then by all means use it there.
Yes, the government invested heavily in the internet and computers. However, I don’t remember being taxed heavily to get me to buy into either.
Will someone please tell the pres that we won’t be exporting until we can replace all that petroleum what we import. We can’t do that when we don’t produce same from the vast proven reserves off California, in the Eastern Gulf and in now verboten oil shale.
Even if he could wave his “scrawny little arm*” and change all our cars to electric, he’d still have to produce about 50% more electricity which is half coal, ’bout 25% gas and 18% nukes and 4 % hydro. The last 3% is EVERYTHING ELSE, wood, biofuel, geothermal, solar, wind and tidal.
Give me the plan that leaves out oil for that future, then sit down and try to figure out how to make electric airplanes and ships.
*Arnold, 2008.
In select locales, wind technology can already be economically competitive, where there is sufficient wind and other sources of energy are costly.
Both internet and computers were first invented and nurtured via Federal government investment. Public investment in renewable technologies may lead to improvements in their economics.