Great! I love the intentions! The thing is Solyndra went bankrupt and there where no green jobs.
Ah. So because one company in an entire industry goes bankrupt, there are no possibility of jobs in that industry. Never mind the hundreds of other solvent green companies; no, Solyndra went bankrupt, and that's the end of green tech. Here's some examples of some green companies that couldn't possibly create jobs because Solyndra went bankrupt:
25 Companies to Watch in Green Energy.
Reverend Rick said:
T boone Pickens tried windmills, but there was no infrastructure to deliver the power from where the winds blows to where the folks needed power.
That's exactly my point. We need to be investing in the infrastructure; we have the technology to do this. This would put people to work on the scale of building the railroads of old. And seeing as the old infrastructure is in great need of repair anyway, it seems like a remarkably great time to do it.
Reverend Rick said:
You can have an acre of solar panels and it will not run a factory. I won't even mention rainy days.
IIRC, that's more of a problem of storage-- again, infrastructure-- than lack of ability. Besides, even if your assertion is correct that solar energy could not power a factory, it can certainly power homes and other small energy consumers. Just because a Pontiac Sunbird can't tow a boat doesn't mean that we should only be driving F-250s.
Reverend Rick said:
We have spent Billions on the Chevy Volt and have sold less than 10,000 of them, you do the math.
Wasn't only 10,000 originally made? I don't know much about this, perhaps others can comment. But, in general, new technologies are expensive and usually only the rich can afford them at first. And then they become less expensive and everyone else can then jump in.
Reverend Rick said:
Going green is a wonderful idea, but it will not heat your home tonight or get you to work in the morning.
That's simply untrue. There are people who currently heat their house with green energy, like yourself, and who drive green cars, or choose to take public transportation, etc to get to work in the morning.
When Kennedy said he planned to put a man on the moon, wouldn't it have been strange to criticize such a plan by saying "Well, you can't do it tonight, so why bother?"
Reverend Rick said:
Yes, we can proceed with green technology, but we need jobs right now and the Keystone pipe line would cost the government nothing and put some folks to work.
Well, the manufacturing of the Chevy Volt put people to work too-- they built a new plant in Flint for it.
Reverend Rick said:
Right now we need to utilise all energy and not cherry pick just what we like.
Look here folks, we should be pursuing all energy sources so we as a nation can be energy independent.
I agree with that, but that seems to be precisely what conservatives are not doing. They are saying "We like oil" and refuse to look into anything else. I think natural gas would be a great bridge to wean us off oil and coal, but it needs to be a short-term bridge leading to an energy supply predominated by renewables.
Reverend Rick said:
As the green technology gets past it's infancy, we can then shift from fossil fuel to greener pastures. THAT IS GOING TO TAKE SOME TIME.
Why is it the younger generation thinks change can come so fast?
That's just it; we've been talking about this for 40 years. 40 years! I think that time has been given. What hasn't happened is action, due to greed, political pandering, and a stream of misinformation and fearmongering.
Reverend Rick said:
We should have a vision for the future, but we have to balance that with the needs of today as well.
Right now we need to get folks back to work and Keystone is one way of doing that.
A vision will always remain just that: A vision, unless we are willing to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. This complete apathy towards energy independence is astounding to me.
What's that famous quote? Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat every day. Sure, we can give a few thousand people a job for a couple of years with this pipeline. But then it's built and the job is gone. Why not invest that time and energy and money into building the infrastructure necessary to get our country, and the world, on track towards freedom from dirty energy?