Wasn't the US supposed to stimulate its way out of this via a HUGE green energy program?

[MovingTarget]

Originally posted by: winnar111

Originally posted by: JohnOfSheffield

Originally posted by: winnar111

Originally posted by: JohnOfSheffield

Originally posted by: winnar111

Originally posted by: Xellos2099
Have you forget that you still have to pay for the maintiance of the solar panel, right? Also, another people tend to forget is that sun is not up 24/7.

Solar power is so incredible it needs massive government subsidies to be economical.

For an initial investment, sure, in the long run, what would you rather do, kiss the arse of Ayatollahs or produce your own energy?

I know that's a dumb question, we all know you love ayatollah arse.

Most Americans love the ayatollah arse rather than putting up these ugly expensive panels.

Just look at Al Gore's house.

In reality, the ONLY way to break free from ME influence is to become self-sufficient and that is a goal every nation should have even IF it is costly and puts the overstrained industry (i hope you appreciate the joke here) into doing business that eventually benefits the country in every possible way, jobs, wages, profit, taxes, you know how that ... oh wait, of course you don't, you want to give more money to the ME instead.

I had no idea you loved them so much, you sure have hidden it well.

Drilling helps us become more self sufficient, and creates more jobs, wages, profits, and taxes. And its proven and cheap. Next.

Solar is a relatively new industry on that kind of scale and there are significant startup costs. Coal didn't start all that cheaply, either, but you must realize that the current laws/systems on the books are biased against those that use fossil fuels.

The 24/7 thing isn't as big of a deal as it is made out to be as 1) storage technology has progressed quite a bit - either by using molten salt, oil, compressed gas, steam, etc. as a storage medium. We also have these things we've been working on for a while called batteries....or capacitors.....novel, huh? Besides, when to most brownouts today occur? I'll give you a hint: Air conditioning. Yes, when people start using a lot of AC, it is usually hot outside. This is usually relative to the amount of sunshine in a given area over a lengthy period of time. Convenient? Yup.

Ugly, expensive panels? Well, expensive may be the case at the moment for photovoltaics, but this will change. Solar thermal is actually pretty cheap. I wouldn't consider them ugly as they can look pretty sleek if installed correctly. Besides, have you seen the average asphault shingle used in most roofs today? I'd take the panels anyday...

Drilling makes us more self-sufficient? No, it doesn't. You cannot be self-sufficient for very long when you consume a finite, unrenewable resource. If anything, it sets up the exact opposite - dependency on others once our shit runs out.

 

[Xellos2099]

Well, why shouldn't we drill ourself so we won't have to relay on middle east for their oil? As of now, solar power can not replace oil as a power source and it is not a sure thing would improve even if we throw billions and billions of dollar in it. I am not saying we should invest into an alternative energy source but all we have seen, like ethanol has cause us nothing but trouble,

We got perfectly good nuclear energy and the technology has much improve since the last accident. Hell, Even Europe use the design based on the america's reactor and they got to enjoy cheap electric while we want to deal with solar energy. Another thing, politicians are not scientist, so why should they have the right to made policy that they are not expert on?