sapphi_snake said:
mrstickball said:
Pretty much this.
Most renewables have strategic problems that will prohibit them from replacing non-renewables. Hydro is great, but its very limited in capacity. Geothermal has significant environmental problems (see Germany's fracking issues), PV is insanely expensive and may take generations to be reasonable, and only works during the daytime, and wind is limited as to where it can be used.
I'm not against renewables. However, I am against the government forcing businesses into certain energy production methods. We have seen in Spain, who has adopted significant usage of solar, that it doesn't benefit the country nearly as much as billed - they've lost jobs due to it, it can be very expensive, and the government has invested billions into it with very little return on investment.
The free market must be the one to come up with the right solutions - regardless if it is MSR thorium breeders, PV, wind, or something else. Germany is making a huge mistake by banning nuclear by 2022.
I'm surprised that Salon is the source of your citation, Kasz. CATO had a much better presentation on green energy:
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Relying on the "free market"... I can't help but cringe.
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If we relied entirely on government, we'd have no electricity whatsoever. You should know this. Your own country has heavily intervened in markets for decades, while ours has not. Look at the average income and living standards of a Romanian citizen and an American. Vastly different.
Remember the thread where we discussed food? I pay the same amount for most any type of food you do - flour, rice, beef, chicken, potatoes, but the average person makes 3 times as much money in my country as yours. Likewise, for energy, I pay about 33% less per killowatt hour as you do (about 11 cents per KWH vs. 15 cents per KWH based on the current exchange rate). That is why free markets can work very well. If you let them work over a long period of time, people become more productive, do more things, and items become cheaper. Likewise, when you restrict and prevent people from engaging in activities at their own will, then less production occurs.
