SOTU: Bush and Energy for Dummies.

[skids]

Crosspost of a diary I just put up a dkos. Get your SOTU energy fix here. :-)

Rep. Slaughter did an excellent rundown of some of Bush's energy record today and while commenting on that I just couldn't stop typing and thinking. So I expanded a bit and here, for those of you who are not horribly technically minded, is the problem with Bush's energy plans on a higher level -- in terms every American can relate to.

...

Here they sit, waiting for their technical "silver bullet" which usually in their fantasy-land means a world full of "hydrogen filling stations" that are decades away, when our factories could be cranking out wind turbines, solar panels, and heat pumps. They throw money at building huge refineries and reactors and wells and mines and other things that are owned by large corporations. In an "ownership society" should not the people own some of the energy generation capacity? (No I'm not talking about nationalized energy, I'm talking about actual real product ownership -- small amounts of energy being generated or converted by appliances that home-owners or communities actually own.)

...

Americans need to save on energy costs now, not in a decade, and Bush isn't helping. America needs manufacturing jobs and Bush is instead tilting the energy playing field away from small business and manufacturing. America needs leadership, and Bush is delivering instead deception.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/31/132011/459

[hatrack]

1. K & R nt

:toast:

[Village Idiot]

2. Corporate USA's Nightmare!!!

In-DUH-viduals creating THEIR OWN energy? Then why would they need energy companies?

[skids]

4. Service.

There is a good portion of the industry that isn't afraid of this trend. The workers know that there will be just as many devices to service in a distributed energy network -- and the power distribution companies know that it isn't so much how many watts they pump through their wires, but the reliability of those watts that is in demand. Many would rather have stable demand levels, not rising demand, as every upgrade takes years to earn back its cost, and catches the company in an ongoing cycle of debt financing.

That's one of the reasons why you see power companies engaged in all sorts of activities to reduce waste on the consumer end, of their own free volition.

The people that are worried are the people that plan to monopolize and then gouge.

[jpak]

3. If the Chimp is really interested in an "Ownership Society"

He would put America's energy future into the hands of the American People - and not his fucking cronies.

An American home with a PV array, a solar hot water heater, Energy Star appliances, a pellet stove and adequate insulation is indeed a Castle.

and "a Prius in every garage"....