Lisa asks…
What do you think about Sarah Palin’s energy ‘expertise’?
A lot of conservatives are trying to portray Sarah Palin as some sort of energy expert. Here are some Palin quotes.
She thinks it’s God’s will that a natural gas pipeline be built through Alaska.
“I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palins-church-may-have-sh_n_123205.html
She seems to share McCain’s disdain for renewable energy.
“alternative–energy solutions are far from imminent and would require more than 10 years to develop.”
http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/aug/16/alaska_gov_wants_tap_oil_resources51051/
She thinks oil can solve our energy problems.
“I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can’t drill our way out of our problem”
http://www.omgili.com/newsgroups/talk/environment/C49F02AA10FDCleonard78spprimusca.html
Do you think the portrayal of Sarah Palin as an energy expert is justified?
http://climateprogress.org/2008/09/03/note-to-media-pork-queen-palin-is-earmark-expert-not-energy-expert/
regarding renewables being unproven, how about PG&E signing contracts for up to 900 MW of solar thermal:
http://www.pge.com/about/news/mediarelations/newsreleases/q2_2008/080401.shtml
800 MW of solar photovoltaic:
http://www.pge.com/about/news/mediarelations/newsreleases/q3_2008/080814.shtml
Not to mention all the wind energy already in use, particularly in Texas, just as a few examples to the contrary.
Plus Pickens believes that we can get 20% of our energy from wind power alone in 10 years, and the Bush Department of Energy believes 20% in 20 years (and that’s just wind!)
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/pdfs/41869.pdf
http://climateprogress.org/2008/05/12/must-read-bush-doe-says-wind-can-be-20-of-us-power-by-2030-with-no-breakthroughs/
gcnp – no, but I just read a plot summary. Interesting parallels indeed.
The Expert answers:
Not at all. We cannot keep relying on non renewable sources of energy to power our country. While I agree that natural gas is a better alternative than oil it is still not the answer, we only hold approx 3% of the total natural gas reserves in the world so it seems to reason that we should explore other avenues. I believe that she says what she says about Alaska because she is theGovernorr of that state and the primary roll of a governor is (arguably) to build up the economy of their given state. She has no background in science or domestic energy policy on a nation wide scale; she just knows that it will bring more money to her state. And the fact that she brings God into the equation is very insulting. Idon’tt recall God saying anything about supporting a capitalist society that helps make the rich richer and the poor poorer.Statisticallyy and historically speaking economies that rely on the extraction of natural resources are very fragile and don’t do very good jobs of sharing the wealth (ex. People that work in the oil/gas industry in Alaska make a lot of money but peopel working in unrelated fields do not). I dont think the portrayal of her as being an energy expert is, by any strech of the imagination, accurate. Her (as well as McCain) view on energy policy is to make more and drive prices down. I think these people have forgotten that oil/nat gas are both finite resources; the price of each increases as supply decreases (each will run out one day and prices will increse until that point is reached). We as americans must now demand the use and development of cleaner and more renewable sources of energy (it should have began years ago). The bottom line is this; people who have no real experience but call themselves experts usually have no idea what the hell they are talkin about. It is time for a change in our domestic energy policy, and the only person that will likely deliver this is Obama and Biden (I say this even though I have historically voted republican, but not this time)
Michael asks…
has President Bush gone completely energy nuts?
here President Bush goes again — pandering to the alternative energy crowd. [see story at link] has he gone completely off the deep end?
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/05/news/bush_ethanol/index.htm
or only partly off it?
***
my hypothesis:
America needs to drill in ANWR, drill offshore, mine that clean cloal in Utah [world’s largest deposits are just sitting there], AND build at least 15 nuclear reactors per decade.
Meanwhile President Bush makes nice noises at the alternative energy conference and acknowledges that ethanol is driving up food prices — BUT he doesn’t say beans about reversing the present policy that is hitting us all at the grocery store. NOR has he any quantifiable program.
Is he as bad as the Socialist Duo? [Sen. Pied Piper and Sen. Shrew].
comment for D Rocker: hydrogen makes a fine fuel for cars IF you can produce it at home. That’s fairly easily done by electrolysis of ordinary water. This allows you to move the energy production location to the power plant, which can burn uranium or coal or oil/gas.
While this visionary technology doesn’t yet exist, the fuel cells and electrolysis units to make it possible aren’t that far away — certainly less than 10 years if oil prices continue to soar.
but it can’t be done if America isn’t willing to produce significantly larger quantities of energy here at home … and that’ll take all available types of power plants, not just the greeen dreams of the eco-friendly.
The Expert answers:
Just as the president, D Rocker has also been drinking the ethanol Koolaid.
Just recently it was reported that the production of ethanol fuels (corn, sugar cane, ect) increases the greenhouse gas build up faster then crude oil does. As the price of these products increases, the farmland to grow them also becomes more valuable. This will then cause farmers to clear non-farm land for the growing of these products. These products are much less efficient at removing CO2. Combine this with the fact that ethanol fuels create more pollution to produce then crude oil, any argument about their benefit is ignorant.
As for ANWR. Between Alaska and Canada, we have enough oil for who knows how long. They have predicted that these reserves could produce larger quantities of oil then the middle east. We are stupid not to drill it. Every other country that has oil is drilling it. We unfortunately have people like D Rocker who have their heads to far up their green *sses to see the truth regarding global warming and oil production. Worse yet is that the nuetered republican party feels that need to side with these morons.
As for food. The simple increase in food prices could have DRASTIC effects on our economy. D Rocker seems to think that this is just fine. Well fine, then he can pay the difference in my grociery bill because he is not educated enough to understand how the fuel industry works.
This has me sooooooooooooooooooooooo p*ssed off!!!!
GO CRUDE!!!
Mark asks…
environmental issues in the news?
I need to find a current article/news in one of these categories
~alternative energies
(wind solar hydroelectric, etc.)
~living green
(examples of communities, people, etc. that are lessening impacts on the environment)
~human impacts
population impacts, pollutions, comsumption, etc.
~conservation efforts
The Expert answers:
In the “Human Impacts” category, you would be able to find information on how the contamination of groundwater has effected the health of certain communities. See the Erin Brokovich case and reference other similar events.
Steven asks…
Why are the Chinese so aggressively pursuing Alternative ENERGY such as wind and solar power?
Moving away from dependence on oil is a major priority for the Chinese.
Are they doing this because they are a bunch of Tree Hugging Hippies or do they understand what the United States does not, that we have a dwindling supply oil oil?
Don’t the Chinese believe Fox News when they assure us that we have hundreds of years worth of oil left?
The Expert answers:
They aren’t moving away from oil. They are just gearing up to sell the crap to us.
Do you think they don’t read the news and see that 0bama is forcing this down our throats?
The US is the biggest market in the world and China knows how to take advantage of it.
Sandra asks…
What do you think an Energy Catalyzer (Ecat) would mean to the climate issue?
I was just reading some interesting stuff on alternative energy sources. I came across a concept call Ecat which appears to be a spin off of cold fusion which is more accurately called “low level nuclear reaction”. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-10/06/e-cat-cold-fusion?page=all
It’s hard to tell just how credible any of this is. But it does put the possibility of a CO2 emission free source of energy on the market which would likely start as heating devices and possibly fuel-free cars before be adapted to mass energy sources.
What are your thoughts on this? (Other than I’ll wait and see. Please feel free to assume this is true and speculate on what it might mean).
The Expert answers:
For those that had a quick look but couldn’t find anything about how it works…. This is the closest I got.
“The E-Cat is a device in which hydrogen gas, powdered nickel metal, and an undisclosed catalyst are combined to produce a large amount of heat through a little understood low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) process inside a specially designed chamber. The inner workings of the reactor are covered by a trade secret which Rossi consistently refuses to discuss.
In this process, when an external heat source is applied (Electric or fossil) it is claimed that the nucleus of a hydrogen atom, a proton, penetrates a nickel nucleus and in doing so a nickel atom becomes a copper atom, and releases a large amount of thermal energy.”
Can he really change nickel to copper at room temperature? A great trick if if works… No nuclear waste, no hazzardous materials, no extreme temperatures or pressures, no exotic infrastructure, can be done at small and large scale etc etc.
It all sounds a bit too good to be true.
Edit:
We don’t have to wait long to find out…
“Andrea Rossi has announced that the first commercial E-Cat plant will be a 1 MW thermal power plant which is scheduled to be launched in an unannounced location on October 28th, 2011 with worldwide commercial rollout of the technology to follow in November”
I also found this…
“Its a typical cold fusion scam. They are just running 3% hydrogen peroxide solution like you have at home through the plumbing. The nickel catalyst causes it to break down into oxygen, which no one notices, water, and lots and lots of heat.
Ask them the drink the water that goes in it”
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