You've summed it up in a nutshell, or in the words of a "Talking Head," "Same As It Ever Was."
The entrenched energy interests which dominate technical civilization have stymied the development of renewables from the first instances of their appearance. The list is so long i won't go in deeper, except for one example amongst hundreds: Florida Power & Light (the parent company of amurka's largest wind developer), fighting solar power for decades... in Florida for chrissake.
That renewables have made such a strong global impact already is but testament to the diligent pugnaciousness of those involved. Such opposition to strong global growth points out that the spread of renewable energy technologies has nothing to do with cost, nothing to do with performance, nothing to do with the ability to scale up.
The fight against renewable energy (and its big sister demand reduction) is, and always was, about social control. Decentralized, local bad, centralized oligarchy good. It doesn't matter if you're Tony Bliar or Tony Soprano or Toni Greenpeace, if you want toast in the morning you have to plug in your toaster, and if we control those electrons you're shit outta luck.
Rational argument never seemed to carry the day. Which is why it will take the global disruptions already occurring to begin to bring sanity to the debate.
What part of cheapest, sanest, most rational energy choices don't these criminals understand? All, apparently. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
So I would say it is more like decentralization control... the energy pie is too big and too fudnamental to society to not control the cahnge process to the milimeter (and they know they need to change).
So, soemtimes it also seems that they also want, as always, get some small group of people very reach in the process (biofuels of first generation anybody?).
The big nightmare of the economist is truning energy into antoher "computer" world where the first appearanceds of a combiantion of gift and meritocracy economy (contrary to capitalsim fundamentals) are beginning to develop.... they want to control that no wacko crazy starts inventing something relaly angerous for their world.
A pleasure I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude
