Comments on: Wonkblog Footnotes the First Presidential Debate

By: Ranger Jay

Ranger Jay — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 11:45:28 +0000

Just imagine if a president would declare a program for clean energy similar to JFK’s famous “man on the moon before the end of the decade” declaration. A full, no holds barred national effort to become self sufficient by the end of the decade. Zero oil imports would be an ideal goal, but if not, then set a goal that IS reachable.

Imagine the amount of R&D that could be performed, and the benefits realized, if such an effort took place. We are STILL reaping benefits from the space program, and that was half a century ago. I mean, the iPhone success can be directly linked to R&D done to put a man on the moon.

It’s time for long-term planning and investment. It’s just stupid to let all the “free” energy available go to waste, while throwing away vast sums of money and polluting the planet with out-of-control petroleum consumption.

What most people in this country don’t realize is that they are driving “solar powered” vehicles. It’s just that all of the energy stored in petroleum originally began as solar energy, stored in plants and animals, that became buried and compressed over millions of years. We are using up in a couple hundred years what took millions to transform.

There is no reason why we can’t wean ourselves off of petroleum, other than refusal to do so. There is certainly no GOOD reason not to…

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 02:51:36 +0000

Government support does improve energy supplies. Overlooking for the moment the controversy over fracking, it is a technology that developed through government research funding starting in the 80′s. Recently, Berkshire Hathaway bought two large solar farms in California, and they own wind arms in Iowa that are profitable b/c of the government subsidy. Call it “trickle down government” if you want, but it does seem to be good for our economy.

By: mitakeet

mitakeet — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 00:52:22 +0000

The main complaint I have about all this alternative investment is that it seems _specifically_ targeted at a very few well-connected individuals and is not accessible to the general public. I have had several ideas for alternative biofuel approaches that I feel have strong potential to complete _without_ subsidies (once it has been proven and reached a certain scale, of course; it is experimental at this time), but there do not appear to be any resources available for people like me. Venture capitalists, of course, are allergic to research efforts, so I know not to look for help there and angel investors are all about personal relationships, which I appear to lack, so I seem to be in the no-man’s land when it comes to getting support.

I would be vastly more supportive of Obama’s alternatives program if there were a significant amount allocated for long shots like me, instead what I see is the typical crony capitalism.