Lots of tabs on the browser: let's clear the green power queue!
Fossil-fuel frontman Mike McDowell says wind power advocates are full of hot air. He waves his hand at vague, unnamed, unhyperlinked "greens" and environmental groups, then proves them all wrong by pointing out that wind power can't produce power as reliably as his preferred sources. One word, Mike: batteries. Batteries, batteries, batteries.
My friend Kelly Fuller doesn't want to kill wind power. But she would like wind power to kill fewer birds. Her organization, the American Bird Conservancy, is petitioning the U.S. Department of the Interior to create a mandatory permitting system for wind power facilities to protect habitat and migration paths for birds (and bats!).
But who knows: we might not need any wind turbines if solar takes off. A Texas researcher is working on technology that may double the power a typical solar panel can produce.
Of course, we don't need fancy technological breakthroughs to reduce fossil-fuel consumption. We just need more bikes! 70% of Americans' car trips are less than two miles, well within bicycling range for mere mortals. Only 0.6% of Americans (including me!) ride their bikes to work. If Americans rode bikes for just one half of their errands for just four months out of the year (I'm not asking you to join me for a December ride in the snow), we'd prevent 1100 deaths, save $3.8 billion in fitness and fewer fender benders, and improve air quality. Your first year of bike commuting will also help you shed thirteen pounds of fat. (Of course, you'll gain some of that back in monster thigh muscles! Hoo-yah!) Get on your bikes and ride!
I would not say that bikes are safer. I took pictures for a magazine a couple of years ago featuring a local man working on bikes. He had been in several really bad accidents. Our roads are not designed for bike riding making things dangerous.
Queen! Perfect song for biking. Agree that roads are dangerous for biking. But--it's fantastic for "green" power and exercise! I usually slow way down and pull to the other lane when I see a bike Mike but sometimes you don't get much warning. Keep on biking Cory!
Newell Lake is laden with mercury; another local boy is diagnosed with cancer. EPA announces new standards for coal-fired plants:
http://www.epa.gov/mats/
Is it too late for the chemical toilet?
Cory, thanks for the shout out. The neat thing about what we're proposing is that the wind industry would benefit as well as the birds. Right now the industry is in regulatory limbo and we'd like to see that cleared up.
Wait a minute, Kelly: are you telling us that regulations can provide certainty and help businesses?!
Cory, of course regulations, properly conceived and administered, can provide certainty and help businesses!
Take the Countrywide debacle, the shell companies ripping off Medicare, the goings-on with Wall Street investors blackmailing companies to "unlock shareholder value" (translation: shed jobs) ... Doggone right regulation plays a legitimate role!
Just gotta stick the needles in the right butts, that's all.
In the renewable energy department, I read the following piece with a good deal of fascination and my share of "I-told-you-so" satisfaction in regards to Edison-bashers ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/21/us-power-acdc-idUSTRE7BJ0PW20111221
From Stan's link: "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy," [Edison] reportedly told his associates Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone in the 1930s. "What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."
Fascinating, Stan!