For quite a while, mcCain has been the gadfly of the Republican party on climate change. As they have gotten more and more entrenched in their position that it does not matter, does not exist, or is unrelated to human activities, he has prodded and slapped them repeatedly. And yet recently we have seen him say:
- american consumers need a break from that 18 cents per gallon federal gasoline tax
- we need to drill offshore to bring in more oil
Who will pay for repair of the interstate highway system without that tax revenue? Why focus on offshore oil when it would take 8 to 14 years to even start bringing in appreciable amounts(source: NPR), and even then the price would be unaffected.
Then this week McCain steers a zag to counter his zig. he proposes a $300 million reward for someone to come up with the perfect battery for a plug in car (never mind that it probably would take someone $300 million to do the research, and he aint offering to pay for that). This is more in tune with the earlier mcCain who believed in climate change being caused by human combustion of fossil fuels- plug ins are a scheme to sharply reduce the amount of fossil fuels used in transportation.
There is a pattern to McCain's energy policy suggestions- and the pattern is unrelated to climate change. The pattern is to lean heavily on private enterprise as the best source of solutions to energy needs. McCain figures, give $300 mill to some lucky joker, hand out some rebate checks to people buying plug ins for a year or two, and let the marketplace take it from there. We can claim that climate change is solved if we reduce the rate of increase for our carbon emissions. Obama says no, not enough, we have to redo our entire economy around renewable energy if it takes us 150 billion to get there.
150 billion is about one sixth the money we have spent in iraq so far, for a bit or perspective. For a bit more perspective, we are not going to ever meet our domestic oil needs with 3% of the planetary oil supply- not when we insist on burning around 25% of the worldwide oil production.
I believe I will take obama so far on this one. I am unhappy with some of the things he has said about ethanol and coal- but I am figuring that for electioneering. In other words, American voters are stupid, and you have to tell them a few white lies to get the job. There has been a sharp increase in the expansion of wind energy in the last two years, and there are stirrings of growth in solar, but we need to make the curve steeper for both. We need to reach grid parity in solar in a few years, then never look back. it is finally time for renewables to have their day, instead of saying for twentieth time, renewables are the future, but right now lets drill a bit deeper for coal and oil.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 7
A battery was invented in the 70s that used aluminium and distilled water and was the size of an attache case. It produced 12v and six of them would run an electric car. A B&G gas generator could recharge it on the road and the car would have unlimited milage as in that mode, range of about 60 miles on a single charge. went 60 mph and with the generator running got 100 mpg. I had the plans to build one out of any small car with a transaxle. Cost to build one? 2-3 K. Used a 10hp electric motor.
Obama's idea of being in the woods is some posh country club with a few nice trees.. I don't think he even knows what a tick is and obviously has no love of the outdoors except for on TV as a political bribe for the religious fold..
Me and my friends are hard-core conservatives that have done far more the green movement than all the city boy Prius snobs.
If you want to be green, you need to talk to me for advice..
Certified Organic Farmer, Inspector, and consultant for poor farmers without the use of Oil products or fertilizers and owner of a 100 acre tree farm that does nothing but lose money, it just gives me an awesome feeling being in the woods at the mercy of nature, where I can quietely see God's perfect handiwork every single of day.
HAS AMERICA SLIPPED SO FAR THAT WE REALLY WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO GET OIL OUT OF THE GROUND IN FEWER THAN 8-12 YEARS?!?!? Give me a break.
We could do that and more! We could, AT THE SAME TIME, spin up a Solar, Wind, non-food based Ethanol, and a viable Hydrogen alternative, so that within 10 years we could be energy independent.
Heck, that's Paris Hilton's idea, isn't it? A Hybrid Energy Policy! Scary when a twit like Paris Hilton makes more sense and looks smarter than the Democratic nominee!
But the left would rather us get to energy independence by inflating our tires.......