The end of cheap electricity.

[schmieg]

In fairness, I'm with an electrical supplier that produces electrictiy from windfarms and it seems to be working quite well, and my rates are lower than what Duke Power is charging. But, it has been a windy year. I'd like to see alternative energy technology develop, but we aren't anywhere near the point in that technology where we should be thinking of doing away with traditional power sources. The new technolgies (wind and solar and whatever else they can come up with) need to become much more dependable and efficient before we can rely upon them.

Ultimately one day when I build a house I plan on going solar on the roof and maybe some wind on the property too. I'll take anything else I can get, I just wish it was more efficient. Heck, in 2009 the government bailout gave half a billion to a solar company that went bankrupt. If half a billion couldn't keep a company alive and able to research quite a bit, not sure how much more will need to for them to be a worthy investment in the next 10, maybe 20 years. I figure half a billion could pay for some good research and some good marketing to at least get the current products out there. Instead, goodbye money.

We're starting to get pretty far afield here, especially considering the lottery hijack earlier, but if money can be made, private industry will develop and market it. Before anyone should advocate that the government should run businesses, they should consider Fannie and Freddie and the Post Office.

[Kgolf31]

Does no one realize that Ohio itself turned down a brand new coal-plant and replaced it with 91 2-MW wind turbines?

It's the age of clean energy...Disagree or not, it's the way society is moving towards

So when we have tornadoes and hurricanes we have electricity. Any other time I have to pull my hamsters out and get them running to nowhere.

And FYI...it's not the way society is moving, it's the way this government is moving. Obama himself said he'd like to see $8/gallon gas as it would force people to finally change to accept alternative sources. I don't recall seeing millions saying we need clean energy, I think overall most would support it IF it were efficient.

In fairness, I'm with an electrical supplier that produces electrictiy from windfarms and it seems to be working quite well, and my rates are lower than what Duke Power is charging. But, it has been a windy year. I'd like to see alternative energy technology develop, but we aren't anywhere near the point in that technology where we should be thinking of doing away with traditional power sources. The new technolgies (wind and solar and whatever else they can come up with) need to become much more dependable and efficient before we can rely upon them.

I'd like to see Nuclear still being developed and supported, it's sad though that it takes ~20 years to build one.

Solar and windfarms do need to become more efficient. IIRC, Solar is about 20% efficient. I completely agree where we cannot become depend off of this, but we can use it to take load off of coal plants. The old coal plants are grandfathered into their regulations, that's nothing we can do about that. More efficient technologies that can be developed though and reduce load from "old".

I'm still in college, and going through an energy efficiency program...which comes to my next point.

The future isn't about renewable energy, it's about energy efficiency.

[Mustang380gal]

I'd like to see Nuclear still being developed and supported, it's sad though that it takes ~20 years to build one.

Solar and windfarms do need to become more efficient. IIRC, Solar is about 20% efficient. I completely agree where we cannot become depend off of this, but we can use it to take load off of coal plants. The old coal plants are grandfathered into their regulations, that's nothing we can do about that. More efficient technologies that can be developed though and reduce load from "old".

I'm still in college, and going through an energy efficiency program...which comes to my next point.

The future isn't about renewable energy, it's about energy efficiency.

The City of Orrville has a power plant which supplies my electric. They are part of a consortium of small towns which have power plants. As a group, they have bought some coal plants on the Ohio River, some of which are kind of old.

One plant was recently purchased. Two owners ago, some equipment was put on, which was legal at the time. EPA came in, and levied a large fine against the consortium of small towns who own power plants. Even though they didn't own it when the equipment was put it, they were still supposed to pay the fine.

Maybe they are supposed to grandfather them in, but that doesn't seem to be happening in practice.

We have lots of coal, natural gas and oil. We should use what we have, and take the next 50 years to let the market develop workable technology. Nothing needs to be solved in the next two years. The UK did that, as I understand it, and with record cold, they were really hurting.

[Mrs. Daspirate]

We have lots of coal, natural gas and oil. We should use what we have, and take the next 50 years to let the market develop workable technology. Nothing needs to be solved in the next two years. The UK did that, as I understand it, and with record cold, they were really hurting.

I work for a company that has several EPA contracts, and that does environmental surveying, testing, and monitoring for companies and industries that must maintain EPA standards. We do have a lot of coal, natural gas, and oil in this country. My company does bio-remediation for the wetlands after mining companies have removed those energy sources from the areas they are found. Unfortunately, what's left is almost always found under, next to, or draining into, some very ecologically important lands and waterways. People can get fed up all they want about the wetlands restrictions (and I do somewhat agree the EPA is dropping a rather heavy hand), but they ARE just as important. Oil, despite it's importance to our economy, is actually less important in the final consideration than clean, pollution free, freshwater. The current ways of removing that coal, natural gas, and oil are at real risk of contaminating at least one resource that we can afford to squander even less than energy, much though we believe we have a never-ending supply of freshwater. Around Ohio, we are spoiled by having the Great Lakes so near - and even they are teetering dangerously near completely crashed ecosystems in some areas. I'm all about using what we have, if we can, but we need to look at the methods for finding and mining those just as closely as we need to look into new technology.