Re: SB: alt.power

["Rey Arbolay" <TXH2344@mynra.com>]

Yes free market does have its limitations. Like forcing products 
in the market that actually work. Or allowing competition to lower 
prices naturally as demand increases. If the government would have 
been involved in the computer industrie we would all still be 
usimg comodore 64s. Dont believe me? I worked for 5 years in 
government research and development. The actually aquisition time 
and regulations for any new technology is 7 years. With Federal 
money comes federal regulations, oversight and barriers. Do you 
really want the people in charge of the DMV in charge of the alt. 
power industry? Maybe the IRS?

Well maybe government subsidies, you say? take a drive down the 
desert in southern california and admire government in action. 
dozens of non-operational windmills, built by the lowest bidder at 
the highest price they could muster.

And reflecting the "cost" (this is a subjective measurement based 
on whoever is spouting the psedo science, the globe is getting 
warmer!, but temperatures have dropped according to NASA, the 
poles are melting! but the ice cap is getting thicker according to 
NOA) only means higher taxes on the consumer. The current recesion 
can be traced directly to a 50 cent increase nationwide (average) 
on gasoline. Higher gasoline prices mean higher transportation 
costs means higher price on all products means job losses means 
less taxes raised by the government means less money available for 
clean energy. Amaizing how this macro economics stuff works is it 
not?

Germany is doing it now. The price of gasoline is about 6 dollars 
a gallon. Do peopel stop driving? no they cant, they just have 
less rake home pay to buy other products. I will admit, Germany 
does have the best public transportation system in the world. But 
it took the 50 years to get there. 50 years of an extremely 
efficient train system. And yes they have very clean air. Of 
course 80% of the power in Germany comes from nuclear power 
plants. surprise, surprise. I lived there for 9 years.

The only way I could see the government been helpfull would be by 
1) providing tax credits for any alt. energy purchase.
and 2) by the government buying alt energy systems for government 
buildings. That would create a surge on demand, production mass 
marketing ad ultimatelly a drop in prices.

BTW My deepest apologies to all in the list who are having to read 
my alt. power rants on the strawbale list.


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Jeff Anderson <au806@tcnet.org>
Date:  Thu, 21 Feb 2002 11:49:09 -0500

>It might be interesting to trace the support the government has 
given the
>computer industry over the years. You can't argue that schools 
have'nt been
>getting mucho bucks for years from the government to supply 
computers and
>training. I think supporting alt.power is a perfect place for the
>government to step in with a package of incentives. It's also 
time to
>factor in all the costs of fossil fuels and start making them 
reflect the
>costs of damage they do ( disincentives).Then the comparitve 
costs of
>different ways of generating power would look more favorable. 
Free market
>capitalism has it's limitations.
>Jeff
>
>
>
>>>All well and good. Try to sell that to John Q. That is the first
>>>problem of alternative systems. Any new inovation has to be
>>>accepted by the general public (read paying public) before it 
can
>>>be widelly marketed and the price brought dowm (or at the very
>>>least getting the banks ,yuck, to finance it). Lets take as a
>>>practical example the computer (fitting is it not?). The 
computer
>>>as we know it today was invented as a practical way for the Army
>>>artillery to calculate trajectories. It remained in the realm of
>>>the useless for decades until a college drop out (a couple of
>>>college drop outs actually) decided to improve on a XEROX
>>>invention and make it user friendly. Add to that the open code
>>>creation of practical things to do with the computer and voila',
>>>you have a machine capable of doing a myriad of things at a
>>>reasonable price.
>>>
>>>Until we can do the same for alternative power systems (and 
please
>>>do not say the Federal Government should do it, look at the 
space
>>>program today and show me were is the improvement) we will not 
be
>>>able to get off the oil fix.
>>>
>>>So any William Gates or Steven Jobs out there?
>>>(notice I used their full names, they deserve the respect)
>>>
>
>>
>
>
>
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