Green energy is like the mythical Flying Dutchman.

[AztecWilliam]

Remember the tale of the Flying Dutchman? Here's a brief synopsis from Wikipedia.

The legend of the Flying Dutchman concerns a ghost ship that can never make port, doomed to sail the oceans forever.


In other words, the Flying Dutchman is not real. It does not exist and never will exist. Okay, now on to Green Energy. Explain to me why anyone thinks that we will any time soon (i.e., within the next three or four decades) be able to dispense with fossil fuels. The environmental left keeps talking about it, but they never come right out and say, "Well, we will be able to replace fossil fuels with such-and-such a source of green energy and we will be able to do this by such-and-such a date if we have very high prices for gasoline, coal, etc."

My guess is that most of the environmental left is basically clueless about the basic facts of modern economies and/or doesn't care. But here's the bottom line; the myth of Green Energy is as unreal as the legend of the Flying Dutchman. Will we ever be able to replace fossil fuels as our basic sources of energy? I don't know, but I sincerely hope that some day such a transition will be practical.

What I do know is that we are not even close to doing away with fossil fuels. Attempts to "wean us off the fossil fuel habit" are almost certain to wreck havoc with our economy while at the same time not bring us a minute closer to the day when we will be able to power our vehicles, run our factories, and heat our homes with magic power source X.

A respondent to a recent piece about gasoline prices makes a good point which should be considered carefully. . .

MnFatts Collapse

If "green" energy was feasible, how come these countries that have been paying very high gas prices for years have not made significant strides in developing it? The myth that high gas prices in the U.S. will bring about huge breakthroughs in "green" energy developments means one of two things- A- Only the U.S. is capable of "green" energy technology breakthroughs, meaning European countries just don't have the mental capacity to achieve them. (Which, by the way, would then perpetuate the arrogance of America the liberals hold in such disdain when it comes to U.S. foreign policy.) B- The technology is not at all feasible to power nations, and all the money in the world won't change that fact.

Sometimes the best medicine is a dose of reality!

www.cnn.com/2012/02/28/opinion/opinion-european-gas-prices/index.html?hpt=op_t1

It would be nice to believe that Green Energy is right around the corner. Only the oil companies would not agree with that. I just want to know where the corner is and how soon we will be able to look around it. Not very soon is my guess.

AzWm

[AlwaysAnAztec]

Will we ever be able to replace fossil fuels as our basic sources of energy? I don't know, but I sincerely hope that some day such a transition will be practical.

You are kidding, right?

Fossil fuel is made over the course of thousands of years. It is still being made now. However, we are using it in a much greater volume that it is being made. At some point the cost to extract that fuel will be so overwhelming as to make it impractical.

We will always need oil and its byproducts. The issue is how we are currently using this limited resource. If we developed other means of powering our transportation vehicles then we probably would never run out of oil. THAT is what "Green Energy" is about.

[aztecwin]

Green Energy will make sense only when it is competitive with gas, coal, and oil in price. We should do R&D, but it should never be brought to market until no subsidies are needed.

[AztecWilliam]

Mar 2, 2012 15:40:24 GMT -8 aztecwin said:

Green Energy will make sense only when it is competitive with gas, coal, and oil in price. We should do R&D, but it should never be brought to market until no subsidies are needed.

Yes, that is exactly the point. As I stated, only the oil companies might well be upset by the arrival of really practical sources of non-fossil-fuel. But the Left (sorry, but that's what it is) has decided that fossil fuel must go and the way to do that is to pretty much make fossil fuel so expensive that Americans will... will. . . well, that's the problem. What the hell will we do if gasoline is 10 bucks a gallon? You see, it's not as if there were practical alternatives and Americans are just too stubborn to change their ways when they could do so if only they could get their collective heads on straight.

Americans would be quite happy to change to another source of energy, especially when we are talking about powering our vehicles, if such a source were plentiful (and therefore relatively inexpensive) and readily available. But there just is no such source at present and none seems to be just over the horizon.

I seriously doubt that the latte-drinking, NPR-listening, New Republic-reading Lefties have examined their assumptions about alternative energy. If they did so seriously they might have to admit (grudgingly) that we are going to need fossil fuel and plenty of it for decades. Consider the automobile and the electric light.

The first practical motor cars were first marketed in the last few years of the 19th Century (e.g., Oldsmobile, Winton, Packard), yet many people were still using horse drawn conveyances well into the 1920s.

The electric light was introduced even earlier, but some rural areas were without electricity until and 1930s and even beyond.

So when do the enviros think we will not need fossil fuels to power our cars and run our factories? In five years? In ten? In twenty? They never say, do they? Instead, there is always this vague idea that someday, somehow we will have clean renewable sources of power if only we drive the price of oil and coal so high that consumers will be forced to change. But there is nothing to change to. Solar power has its problems, not the least is that the sun does not shine all the time. And the wind doesn't blow all the time, either.

The bottom line is this. The enviros have a laudable goal, that of getting rid of dirty fossil fuel. But there is no practical alternative, at least not one that they approve of. They are indifferent to the fact that we are the Saudi Arabia of natural gas and coal, and nuclear is off the table.

Someday the average citizen is going to realize, if he hasn't already, that the "green energy" dream is a hoax. I hope everyone realizes that soon.

AzWm

[aztec70]

seekingalpha.com/article/275662-solar-power-in-germany-a-shining-future

Solar power seems to be doing well in Germany. Of course the link is to a commie, pinko, leftwing, tree hugging, hippie, envioronmental wacko website. Who knew they were into the stock market?

[aztecwin]

Mar 4, 2012 15:30:47 GMT -8 aztec70 said:

seekingalpha.com/article/275662-solar-power-in-germany-a-shining-future

Solar power seems to be doing well in Germany. Of course the link is to a commie, pinko, leftwing, tree hugging, hippie, envioronmental wacko website. Who knew they were into the stock market?

Not one mention of the cost per KWH vs other forms of energy. The solar business will do fine where it is supported either by government and with subsidies. Some day it will be viable, just not yet.