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Jerome, The Market(TM) is always right. You should now that by now.

The private sector will research, develop and deliver the biofuels that make commercial and environmental sense.

Cellulosic ethanol, this kind of stuff. Not really there. The great issue is how to avoid competition against food production in terms of products (the corn abomination) or land use without regulation? How do you avoid destroying primary forests in 3rd world countries? But who cares? The Market(TM) will provide as it always does.

The same goes for new nuclear power. Press the nuclear industry to compete and deliver even safer plants, built more quickly and with less toxic waste, and it will do so - maybe with a bit of planning help but without levies on the already overlevied consumer.

This one is fairly easy. Merchant plants. That's the worst way of developing nuclear power and the only model that gives an incentive to the owner to take undue risks with the plant as it cannot average unplanned outages over multiple plants. Tory efficiency at its best. The Market(TM) will provide as it always does.

That being said, the notion that nuclear plants require or deserve special subsidies is a canard and the Tories are correct in that sense.

Step three - probably the least popular in some circles - is to face the fact that the multiple opportunities for innovation and development in low and clean energy are going to come from private sector technology and privately financed research. Government-funded research will make the wrong choices and crowd out the market winners.

The Market(TM) will provide as it always does. The Market(TM) doesn't care about the realities of R&D and engineering. The Market(TM) creates its own reality.

The Market(TM) is always right.

by Francois in Paris on Sun Mar 2nd, 2008 at 05:17:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
... its The MarketTM


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sun Mar 2nd, 2008 at 06:32:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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