-----Original Message----- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Kevin O'Brien Sent: Friday, November 30, 2012 8:13 AM To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Re: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses
On 11/30/2012 8:49 AM, Dan Minette wrote: >> So, they were fired up when the windmills were down due to low wind. >> Now, with cheap natural gas, the building of windmills has slown down >> to a virtual halt. >Well, cheap currently. It is just one carbon tax away from being expensive. And to my mind the only >question is when that tax comes, not if. How is that going to happen. Are you arguing that the US will impose a carbon tax that is so high that we will be paying more in carbon taxes than fuel costs? Given the fact that we've been unable to raise the gas tax in decades, how will we impose a severe carbon tax. A modest carbon tax will benefit natural gas, because it will facilitate the switch from coal to natural gas. Nuclear power might benefit, but I'm guessing that real reform of nuclear regulations will not be popular. Taxes in the US are not popular....even going back to the tax levels of the Clinton era is too much for Obama to propose. Given the fact that Kyoto was rejected by the US Senate 95-0, I can't see carbon taxes at 5x the European level. At the present level of Europe's tax, it would cost an extra 0.6 cents/kwH for natural gas and 1.2 cents per kWh for coal. That's peanuts compared to the extra cost for wind/endergy storage which is by far the cheapest form of energy. And for gasoline, it's an extra 11 cents/gallon, well within the weekly variation in price. And, this is just the US. China will just use coal. But, windmills will not be effective until the total cost, with energy storage, becomes within a 2-3 cents/kwH of other sources. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
