Opinion writer Donna Crawford, writing in today’s Albuquerque Journal, makes several salient points about “green” energy. Her basic point is that the push for “renewable” power is being made with little heed for what actually works in providing steady, cost-effective power.
Enviros don’t seem to want to acknowledge that the US is actually reducing its carbon emissions, largely through the free market adoption of fracking for natural gas. China, on the other hand, is rapidly increasing carbon emissions:
In fact, the US is getting cleaner, not dirtier, year after year. Sure, government regulations have prodded things in this direction, but individual choices and the free market have been moving faster than government. Unfortunately, many on the left like Doug Morris, an apparent Marxist from Eastern New Mexico University who wrote a recent article in the Journal, seem to think that the world is getting worse every day. Except that it just ain’t so…
Poverty is being reduced globally and in the USA;
If anyone thinks racism is worse today than it was 50 years ago when MLK led the March on Washington, you are just nuts;
And, of course, the environment is cleaner.
Presenting facts to these folks is a losing battle. “Feeling”, not “Thinking” is their forte.
First, “an apparent Marxist”? For shame. Are you “an apparent Fascist”? Your corporate statism would suggest as much. If you are an educational, not a propagandist, institution, you should avoid personal smears.
Second, government regulations are the spur, and companies then discover the advantages of those regulations. No regulations, no market exploitation of those advantages.
Third, all nascent technologies are initially uneconomical. Only when assisted to achieve economies of scale can they compete. The fossil suel industries, despite their enormous success, still receive market-distorting subsidies, deductions (oil depletion, etc.), and credits. Tell me again about the “free market”?
Ha! Wind and solar “nascent technologies.” Very funny. Both of them have been around for longer than any fossil fuel usage. People have traditionally gone with fossil fuels for the usual reasons: reliability, they work where you need them, and, especially when you have an interconnected electricity grid, they are cheaper.
Not to say that passive solar (water heating, home heating) are not viable, they very much are, but they are not the preferred technologies of the green elites and government bureaucrats.
Michael is always good for a laugh. I love reading his “1960’s Coffee House” philosophy. His use of terms like “Fascist” indicate he does not understand the meaning of the word. He suggests that “corporate statism” (whatever that is) is Fascist and therefore bad. Fascism, according to my Webster’s New World College Dictionary; Fourth Edition, is ” a system of government characterized by rigid one-party dictatorship, forcible suppression of opposition, private economic enterprise under centralized governmental control. etc.” Sounds like that is just what this administration is trying to do with the whole-hearted approval of Michael. His second point, “government regulations are the spur”! Give me a break, government regulations suppress innovation and competition! Most regulations are the work of lobbyist and have their roots in political agenda. Nuff said about “nascent technologies” he does’t understand that either.
Yes, we are living under a soft form of fascism. Unfortunately, Republicans have not been as consistent in opposing it as they should be, but the philosophy has come directly from Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and on down to the modern “progressives.” Just read Jonah Goldbert’s “Liberal Fascism.”