- Big Dogs Weblog - https://www.onebigdog.net -

It’s Not Easy Being Green

Here’s where the rubber hits the road, policy- wise, for Barama. He has had a lot of fun screwing up our way of life, and pretty much having a blast living in the White House, but now we get down to the real hard stuff- this is the stuff that even Democrats are saying, ” Are you Freaking Nuts?” about- carbon taxes, and this ridiculous Cap and Trade bill that would, in essence, create another layer of thievery. Government- selected businesses could get rich off of the backs of the working people who would pay as much as double the amount for their energy. This would be ALL energy, from switching on a light to running a fax machine, from gassing up to setting your thermostat for your comfort.

Because of the “Smartgrid” technology that Barama’s new friend (and Energy Czar) Jeffery Immelt, the CEO of GE- General Electric (Who just happens to make the smartgrid ) has been pushing on the government, the government will be able to track your energy usage and will determine if you are an energy hog. If the government determines that you are using too much energy (in their opinion), they will tax you far and above the regular rate, causing you financial pain, and hopefully changing your mind about using energy, even if you are freezing to death. Just wonderful. Pavlovian behavior modification as regards your energy usage. Our government at work.

The trouble with this cap and trade gimmick, is that several western lawmakers who are Democrat, are objecting to the burden this bill would put on the citizens of their states, disproportionately.

You see, most of the western states have no mass transit, and a lot of space in between destinations- so just on gasoline used, the tax would be overly burdensome. In addition, many of the western states have temperature fluctuations that cause the use of energy in the wintertime to counter the cold temperatures. If these people want to be warm, they will have to pay extra- oh, and that wood burning fireplace? If you use that, you’ll get a carbon surcharge- a fine for burning wood that causes Co2 and soot to rise in the air. No chestnuts roasting over an open fire for you.

I see that the Democrats have passed a “cash for clunkers” program that will allegedly give cash for older cars, if you buy a new car that is more fuel efficient- this might be a good thing, except that a lot of these hybrids cost so much more than regular cars, and most of any alternative fuel tech cars have no place to fuel.

I mean, let’s face facts here- there is NO infrastructure for electric cars to refuel on the road, so their use is extremely limited to near home. As for ethanol, do you know where your E85 filling station is? I certainly do not, although I did hear of one 30 miles away, on the county line. Gee, I think (and I could be wrong, but i don’t think so) that if I have to travel 30 miles to fill up, that’s kind of inconvenient. No, we need the infrastructure before the demand for cars that are alternative will begin to pay off.

And as for the “alternatives” to coal fired power plants, and those that use natural gas, the only one that makes sense is nuclear energy. Wind turbines seem to be rather weak, they kill many, many birds, and you still have to lay transmission lines that disturb wildlife and deprive people of their property through the use of eminent domain, where the government pays you what they say your property is worth, but they DO take it.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S LESS!

Solar power- ahhh, sounds so easy, I mean, the sun will shine, and all we have to do is put up the panels, and we have instant energy, right? Not so fast.

First, the solar panels are unbelievably inefficient, you need acres and acres of them, they need a LOT of water to operate, and once again, you have that nasty problem of the transmission line route. All of this takes an unbelievable amount of money. Private enterprise would do this eagerly, because private enterprise loves to make money, but the inconvenient facts say that this alternative technology is so grossly inefficient that private enterprise wants to tinker with it some more before they try to make money with it. That seems reasonable to me, but Barama’s administration wants to cram inefficient technology down our throats, hoping it will improve on its way down- it will not.

So now the Sainted one and his posse are getting blowback from the Democrats in the western states, and this is shaping up to be a fight- there can be no super- majority if Democrats defect and join Republicans in resisting this bill, and they should, because this is the one bill that could be the one that actually breaks the back of the economy.

This opposition should take advantage of it’s power, and insist on drilling off of the east and west coasts, because until we do get this alternative energy right, we need a common sense approach to our energy needs, and drilling off of the coasts, plus nuclear home and business needs. Common sense should prevail here- we have coal, we have oil, and we have natural gas. Now, I know, because I am old enough to have lived through the 60s and 70s, that our air now is demonstrably cleaner than back then. This is due, in part, to aggressive enforcement of emissions, and our ability to buy newer cars that emit less.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against alternative energies, just alternative energies that do not work well. I believe that we can make existing technologies work better, and more efficiently, all while researching and perfecting the alternative energies that, when perfected, will give us the true independence we need.

Blake

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