rssWhat environmentalists fear about Obama’s new climate strategy
Friday, November 05, 2010 at 3:44 pm
- 9 Comments
Environmentalists have never been too keen about President Obama’s support for nuclear power and natural gas. But those positions got less attention amid the cap-and-trade debate.
With cap-and-trade all but dead, President Obama has decided to focus on energy provisions that can garner Republican support. This includes some things that environmentalists love, like energy efficiency and electric vehicles legislation. But it also includes natural gas and nuclear power, which make environmentalists shudder.
Some environmentalists and clean energy advocates have been more open minded about natural gas. The Center for American Progress has called it a “bridge fuel.” But overall, expanding the country’s reliance on natural gas isn’t ideal for the environmental community. In order to access vast shale gas reserves, for example, the natural gas industry injects chemicals and huge quantities of water into the ground.
Obama’s comments about natural gas this week at his post-midterm press conference did not go unnoticed by the natural gas industry. The Hill noted today that an Exxon executive touted his remarks on the company’s website today. “I hope that lawmakers from both sides are listening to the president’s words, so that the U.S. can reap the benefits of natural gas for decades to come,” Ken Cohen, of Exxon, wrote.
On nuclear, it’s a similar story. Environmentalists and clean energy advocates have long blasted nuclear power as too expensive and they’ve pointed to long permitting delays at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. At the same time, they’ve raised the specter of the nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island to underscore the potential danger of the power source.
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9 Comments
Pingback posted November 5, 2010 @ 4:13 pm
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Comment posted November 8, 2010 @ 2:15 am
Thank you for your article, he wrote wonderful
Comment posted November 8, 2010 @ 12:11 pm
Thinking out of box :
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1. Americans exporting renewable energy resources to Saudi Arabia?
A Mountainview, Calif. company, SolFocus, announced a deal with a major construction company in Saudi Arabia.
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Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia believes renewable sources could account for up to 10 percent of its power output by 2020 with prices coming down and a regulatory framework in place
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According to a Saudi official, “We believe large scale power generation from solar can be achieved near the end of this decade, near 2020. Beyond 2020, the economics will be clearly in the favor of deployment of solar power,”
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Still viewed as an obstructionist by global sustainability advocates, Saudi Arabia began investing in renewable energy recently. Why would the OPEC leader warm up to solar? : The region gets a lot of sun.
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2. If renewable energy works against job growth, EU should be the poorest region by now.
I feel a nation with a modern infrastructure is not always successful, without which base any country is unable to make it.
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3. While some critics are counting cents on the utility bill, it is claimed that : ” the U.S. uses about 24 percent of the world's oil, this equates to 20.9 million barrels a day. If the U.S chooses to embrace renewable energy, the U.S could save $750 billion per year and create about 6 million jobs”.
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4. It's well known that fossil Fuel Subsidies are 12 Times Higher than Renewable Energy.
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5. The Dersertec-Initiative is reported to cost around 4 times higher in upfront cost than typical power plant, however, the blessing of abundant sunlight is ever-lasting.
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6. While the days of cheap oil is gone, thankfully, just as insightful Al Gore predicted, even if fewer people then agreed with his claim, recent findings show that tangible increase in the renewable energy capacity is economically and technically feasible.
Currently, the exciting fourth wave of smart grid & renewable energy with great job potential world-wide is upon us.
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And surprisingly, the EV world broke the most challenging barrier of limited range. DBM Energy's electric Audi A2 completed record setting 372 mile drive on a single charge.
For more details about DBM Energy battery, kindly search DBM Energy battery.
The recent bold drive for green energy in CA could shed lights on how best to meet the challenge of high unemployment.
Pingback posted November 9, 2010 @ 5:12 pm
[...] use them as bargaining chips for the comprehensive bill. Some activists are already concerned that President Obama has been too willing to compromise, although another school of thought within the movement argues that energy and warming issues are [...]
Pingback posted November 29, 2010 @ 11:17 pm
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