Needlenose » Energy

The real issue with Solyndra Debacle

greenboy — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:56:53 +0000

For the record, I don’t favor having the Government at any level act as a VC for technology companies. If for one reason or another we have a strategic interest in having something happen – like decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels while increasing our usage of renewable energy – then I’d rather the Government take some specific steps around reducing demand through taxes on the undesirable and reduced taxes or mandates on usage to promote the desirable – with every intervention specifically time-bombed and diminished over time.

So I also look askance on Obama’s loan guarantees to Solyndra (and the socializing the failure thereof).

However, the real issue here is that the Chinese massively subsidize their solar industry and are dumping their panels below cost in the U.S. market. How could Solyndra (or other non-Obama VC’d manufacturers) compete? This is yet another industry that the heavy guns of the state-controlled Chinese companies have chosen to wipe out (and are in the process of doing so).

The Reactionaries, of course, who would normally love to take an opportunity to criticize China, seem rather pleased to watch Solyndra fail as it makes their nemesis Obama look bad. Same thinking that makes them delight in the still-crappy economy – they’d rather watch a failed America run by fellow Reactionaries than a successful one run by Liberals – positively Miltonian!

Another oil rig explosion?

greenboy — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:11:07 +0000

Tell me this ain’t so…another rig in the Gulf of Mexico just exploded.

Chernobyl, the gift that keeps on giving

greenboy — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:00:13 +0000

Just in case you forgot why nuclear energy is so bad, here is an unpleasant reminder from Chernobyl – the wildfires are near the contaminated area – a burn in the region could release radioactive ash.

Another gusher?

greenboy — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:55:22 +0000

Just as BP shuts down the undersea gusher, some drunken redneck smashes his boat into a small wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico. What are the odds that this could happen? Well they have a lot of boat-driving drunken rednecks down there in the Gulf, and a lot of wells and pipelines…

We’re number two! Yay!

greenboy — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:43:46 +0000

The People’s Republic of China has surpassed the U.S. in energy usage. Seems like only yesterday when CMike was berating me for negatively comparing Chinese output of CO2 to that of the U.S. That’s a first-place we really didn’t need

Relative costs of energy production

greenboy — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:11:34 +0000

The cost of oil. The cost of coal. The cost of wind power.

*Update* Tip of the ’Nose to MIT Buddy: On Faux News they are saying that Obama and the Liberals sabotaged the oil rig. DrudgeIdiot is calling the spill Obama’s Katrina. Those fuckers are evil and stupid:

Just how stoopid are Fox viewers?

Silver lining to Teddy’s demise

greenboy — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:57:37 +0000

There is one silver lining to Teddy Kennedy’s demise – the Cape Cod Wind Farm project will now go forward. The Kennedy family, if you remember, were opposed on the ground that the distant rotors might spoil their privileged view.

Falling behind

greenboy — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:54:08 +0000

We may have invented the solar cell, but China has taken the lead in manufacturing solar panels – and wind turbines as well, to add a little salt into the wound.

President Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the United States was falling behind other countries, especially China, on energy. “I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders — and I know you don’t either,” he told Congress.

That’s just rhetoric, Mr. President, Congress wants whatever their corporate masters tell them to want. And in spite of what Justice Alito may have been muttering during your speech, that’s regardless of where those corporate masters may live. Multinationals just follow the money.

Dimpled cars?

greenboy — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:16:34 +0000

Mythbusters use golfball effect to boost fuel efficiency

Every time Congress considers boosting vehicle fuel efficiency via CAFE standards, the auto industry lobbyists descend on the Capitol to bleat about how higher mileage targets will bankrupt the industry.

I was watching a recent episode of Mythbusters where they ‘dimpled’ a car to see if the dimples would improve the laminar flow and reduce drag like they do on a golfball.

In spite of adding 800 lbs to the weight of the pictured sedan (car was coated in clay rather than denting the metal to get dimples), they were able to increase cruising fuel efficiency 11% !! Could you imagine what the auto industry could achieve by throwing some skilled engineers and designers on this? Hell, if they’d just produce cars with an actual streamlined design (rather than what people think is streamlined), they’d greatly increase fuel efficiency.

I still want my plug-in!

greenboy — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:37:06 +0000

I’ve whined before about the lack of an affordable plug-in hybrid car on the market in the US. I’m feeling the first twinges of hope now, though – Giant Blue Locust Buddy sent me a link to a comprehensive list of electric vehicles and their current status.

Of course there is nothing this year, but in 2010 at some point there may be a couple of choices that aren’t the $100K Tesla. Now if my cheesy old car can just hold out until then…