Thread: Energy Myths

Energy Myths

In 2004, The Royal Academy of Engineering in Britain reported that fossil fuels, even after accounting for costs in mitigating carbon dioxide emissions to comply with the Kyoto Protocol, were the cheapest, most-efficient forms of energy at less than half the cost of renewable energy sources. Taxpayer subsidies and market manipulation for a desired outcome hides the true cost of electrical power generation from renewable sources.

The report also found that fluctuations in solar and wind energy sources limit the output of power generation available from these technologies, thus fast response, additional standby power generation and energy storage is needed to provide secure energy and that adds to the cost. Even with increased subsidies, extra investment in renewables is unlikely because they are not economically competitive.

Science Daily reported May 10, 2006 that researchers at Sandia National Laboratories who have been studying ways to provide hydrogen as a future fuel source have found that coal remains the most cost-effective way to produce hydrogen.

Not only do many alternative and renewable forms of energy require fossil fuels in their generation or storage, but these technologies create other problems. Analysts say that the ethanol mandate has led to a huge increase in the price of food and other commodities, hurting lower-income families also affected by rising fuel and home energy costs.

The rhetoric about energy is highly emotional because the issue has become tightly coupled to environmental concerns, according to analysts. Environmentalists think that conventional and some unconventional sources of energy, such as shale oil, pollute the environment and increase global warming. Thus, Americans are led to believe their only choice to save the planet is to accept major lifestyle changes and higher taxes.

In an article in Dailycamera on Sept. 28, 2007 Michael Brownlee, the head of Boulder Valley Relocalization in Colorado, advocated “a reduction of energy consumption of about 80 percentâ€

Originally Posted by zeezil

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In 2004, The Royal Academy of Engineering in Britain reported that fossil fuels, even after accounting for costs in mitigating carbon dioxide emissions to comply with the Kyoto Protocol, were the cheapest, most-efficient forms of energy at less than half the cost of renewable energy sources. Taxpayer subsidies and market manipulation for a desired outcome hides the true cost of electrical power generation from renewable sources.

The report also found that fluctuations in solar and wind energy sources limit the output of power generation available from these technologies, thus fast response, additional standby power generation and energy storage is needed to provide secure energy and that adds to the cost. Even with increased subsidies, extra investment in renewables is unlikely because they are not economically competitive.

Science Daily reported May 10, 2006 that researchers at Sandia National Laboratories who have been studying ways to provide hydrogen as a future fuel source have found that coal remains the most cost-effective way to produce hydrogen.

Not only do many alternative and renewable forms of energy require fossil fuels in their generation or storage, but these technologies create other problems. Analysts say that the ethanol mandate has led to a huge increase in the price of food and other commodities, hurting lower-income families also affected by rising fuel and home energy costs.

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Wow. The simple truth.

Any "environmentalist" who doesn't start by complaining about overpopulation is a fake.

Besides no refineries having been built in the past 25 years, this country is stuck on stupid with practically all of it's refineries and offshore drilling platforms located in Hurricane Alley...the Gulf of Mexico and the near inshore locations of Texas and Louisiana. DIVERSITY is needed. All the liberals scream about how great diversity and multi-culturalism is for our society yet they oppose diversity within our national energy policies. We need to diversify so that every time a hurricane comes ripping through the Gulf Coast, we don't have to shut down our drilling and refinery processes thereby creating even higher prices and more shortages.

We need to drill wherever we can identify extractable fields, and that includes the off shore locations of both the east and west coasts and ANWAR.

Unless we do this, our national oil production is held hostage every summer/fall to mother nature and her hurricane whims.