Technologies that show promise but are not yet as economical as dominant commercial players are precisely the ones that need government backing. If they were as proven and cheap as existing commercial options, they wouldn't need any help (not that it doesn't prevent the government from handing out much largely subsidies to the petrochemical industry but that is another matter).
Government has a compelling interest in the end results of the adoption of these technologies (lower carbon emissions and less dependence on a resource with scarcity). By providing early subsidies for the adoption of the technologies, they help decrease the unit cost of the technologies while simultaneously enhancing economic prospects in their local area. As energy options like solar, wind, geothermal, etc become more mainstream, the unit cost will decrease to at or below that of oil and coal and eventually stabilize their places in the overall energy supply matrix. Judah On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 7:42 AM, Jerry Barnes <[email protected]> wrote: > > "It is just baffling to me why any form of energy that is not based > on petrochemicals gets a bad rap." > > Saying that wind power is not yet economically feasible is not giving it a > bad rap. It's just the way it is. Maybe one day the manufacturing and > maintenance costs will be low enough to justify mass use of wind power. > Until then, they are not economical. > > > "Does the Petrochemical industry have that good a propaganda machine?" > > I don't know who this is directed at. I have not endorsed, nor will I, the > petrochemical industry. > > Though, hindsight being 20-20, I wish I would have invested when W. was > elected and sold when O. was elected. I mean, hello. Bush, oil. Obvious > in hindsight. Same goes for gold when the US invaded Iraq. Since I am not > a professional investor, it is understandable that I missed these. That > doesn't explain why the people in charge of my portfolio missed it. They > are "professionals". > > J > > - > > Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. - > Henry Kissinger > > Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go > out and buy some more tunnel. - John Quinton > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:341644 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
