Can Anybody Find Anything But Hot Air In The Climate Bill?
This question is asked sincerely by a lifelong enviro. A supporter of Al Gore. But this bill appears to have been written by the coal companies based on 25 year old ideas, many of which were accepted by G.W. Bush the Moron President.
The whole idea of the market based solution — the cap and trade solution — making a market in pollution permits — maybe having them brokered through a firm like Enron — which I think did actually broker some of these permits for a while — that idea is 25 years old. It is not change. It’s just slapdash legislation based on making the old dregs by bygone ideas look like a new bill by updating the year and putting a new cover on it. It’s like the old news that CBS, NBC, and ABC purvey — stuff from a few weeks ago — offered today as your “news”.
Nobody in America is willing to do any part of their job anymore. It’s a nation of AWOL officials and AWOL staffers and AWOL employees.
If they wanted a real climate bill, they would have included funding for the hydrogen technology. Ways to electrolytically dissociate water efficiently. Ways to store hydrogen efficiently. Ways to burn hydrogen in fuel cells, or in turbines (possibly combined with methane to make hythane (R).
There would have been a huge push for the sorts of thing T. Boone Pickens is recommending. Natural gas powered trains would have been in the mix — and transcontinental tracks for same on the median strips of East West Highways.
Geothermal would have played a huge role. It is a very rich power source in some places, always on, not like solar or wind. Hawaii could power all seaborne freight in the Pacific with Geothermal based Hydrogen Fuel Cell Gas.
Tidal Hydro would have been in the bill.
Micro-scale wind generators (egg-beater style) would have beeb there.
The National Energy Spine (super efficient cable from coast to coast) would have been there. This creates conservation by allowing energy to be wheeled from coast to coast so peak loads can be met with cheap energy on both coasts.
Instead we get the ancient mantra “Let’s find a market based solution (that way G.W. Bush The Moron President, and the Republicans can be happy). No breakthroughs please! No movement away from fossil fuels, and certainly no less coal or oil! We’ll just do this with financial manipulations, sort of Enron style, with pollution permits, create a playground for the K Street lobbyists, make it look like we are doing something because what we do is so complicated administratively.That way we can do nothing — and nobody will know.
With or without cap and trade the carbon footprint of the energy plants was bound to be legislatively reduced in future years. Cap and trade just bring Federal Pre-emption and knocks out the states ability to legislate on this matter. It’s a form of state legal dis-ablement. It’s a form of permission to just keep on keeping on — more of the same.
The climate bill looks like a 100% perfect fraud, from the gitgo. Mr. Axelrod thinks it has a fairly good chance in the Senate because of the writing changes that were made at the last minute in the House, and on this he’s probably right. Coal can see when it has a good deal. The whole issue now will be off the table for the next 10 or 15 years, and there are 10,000 ways that the “caps” can be removed or made more lenient, triggered by all sorts of extremely complex micro-pico-nano regulations that only the coal companies have time to figure out and understand and know how to lobby with. They can get out of the caps. They get a vacation for 15 years. They get out from under state laws. Whee ! … this pollution stuff is easy!
All politicians are politicians. Nature is always Nature. So the Canute story is always apt. The vanity and the lies and the fraud never actually trumps nature, so you can count of on the climate to keep warming up and the CO2 levels to keep going up and the sea level and storm damage to keep going up. If we truly wish to stop being a hypocrite nation, we’ve got to get rid of all politicians. Put a truly independent agency in charge of climate change mitigation — something like the Federal Reserve or the FCC or the NRC — it’s got to be able to make and implement rules smoothly and quickly. It’s got to be run by Chairmen with long terms of office, at least 10 years, 15 would be better. The Chairman has to be mission focused, not politics focused. If can’t get around the Canute Problem (The problem that wise King Canute taught his ministers about based upon knowing that Politics never trumps Nature)., we can’t deal with the climate change issue. This new bill, is just more hot air. Maybe you can find something in it and tell me about what you think is there. Anyhow that’s my question, asked by a true blue enviro, an AlGorista (with rhythm, hence an algorhythm, I’m a poet, I know it, float like a butterfly effect, sting like a karma-effect).
Yes. For example, it will help increase fuel efficiency by 25% by 2020.http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/paltma…
It requires that utilities produce 20% of their energy from renewable sources and increased efficiency by 2020.
It invests $90 billion in energy efficiency and renewable energy by 2025.
It establishes new standards for building efficiency, requiring new buildings to be 30% more efficient in 2012 and 50% more efficient in 2016.
It directs EPA and the State Department to use 5% of the allowances to secure agreements from developing nations to prevent tropical deforestation.
It’s certainly not a perfect bill, but it’s pretty good, and it’s the best we’re going to get in the forseeable future. Plus it’s much better to have a framework in place which we can improve upon in the future than to have nothing at all.
See the link below for a useful summary.
first off H2 is not a fuel and never ever will be, so get over it. You can do all the research you want but the laws of thermodynamics say no.
Next, the grid is not in bad shape, so get over that one. too. We have tight spots on it because people switched to electricity without warning and overloaded parts. If you do all you say on conservation, then the grid would be oversized.
Nuke is the only answer along with more coal plants. YOU CANNOT have more than 20% of your grid on solar or wind because there must be back ups for when the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow. What’s your answer to that? built 90% solar and keep all the coal plants handy or double the energy input into the grid, then waste 50% making H2 gas?, That’s a losing proposition.
This is what happens when Democrats try to please everyone. Republicans would say FU and pass what they wanted. I wish Democrats would grow a spine and stop trying to appease everyone.
BTW, I’m a new type of Democrat. I’m not out to appease anyone. I’m out to do what I think is right. Scientifically speaking, reducing CO2 emissions is the right thing to do. Efficiency is good for America.