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I agree. And when I have talked with union members/union activists - especially Steelworkers union and UAW officials, that same sentiment is very apparent. But they still haven't got the need to make these projects financially free of tax credits and tax deductions (which lower the price of electricity made by these by 5 to 7 c/kw-hr, and thus competitive with polluting old coal facilities  (3 to 5 c/kw-hr), ancient depleted nukes whose costs have been sloughed off to ratepayers ("stranded costs"), and for now, cheap natural gas.

This veers into what I call "Schumer's Conundrum", named after NY's Senator. He wants cheap electricity  (and there is only so much of the ultra-cheap Niagara Falls and St Lawrence River energy to go around), but wants it green, wants the jobs from green electricity (and probably the financing jobs for green energy, too). But by wanting everything, he essentially gets nothing, and every year, the waters of the Atlantic creep up ever higher (he lives in Brooklyn, which is mostly near sea-level).

Cheech & Chong had a great saying about "if you have the time, you have no money for stuff and that was when there was stuff available, and if you have money for stuff, there was a dearth of stuff available". Well, a bit paraphrased, but close enough for government work. For renewables, if you don't have a price for the product, it might raise the price of the electricity product a touch, which is deemed verbotten. On the other hand, if you don't raise the electricity price to pay off the renewable investments, you get no renewables. Of course, if American's got more efficient with electricity, the cost of electricity going up would be more than compensated by less money paid for less electricity needed. But, the sale of the incandescent bulb is still allowed, and not taxed at $5/100 watt incandescent bulb. And buying more than 42" TV screens to earth the superbowl was still all the rage this year.

Meanwhile, reality  slowly keeps intruding. The big question is whether the hordes of unemployed smarten up, or the waters of the Atlantic reach the strets of Brooklyn

Nb41

by nb41 on Sat Feb 21st, 2009 at 09:06:21 AM EST
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