President-elect Obama has a blind spot that will make economic recovery impossible until he overcomes this shortcoming.
He will spend $700 billion in taxpayer dollars, debt, or newly printed greenbacks to crate new jobs. Only a small part of that will be spent on energy and all of that on “soft” technology. That decision, regardless of how prudently he monitors the spending of those dollars, will insure we don’t recover from the deep economic depression we are entering.
California has been following the “soft” technology energy strategy espoused by one Amory Lovins, a crackpot darling of the environmental zealots for years. Obama is a fan of Lovins. Lovins has been saying since 1976 that the U.S. should never build another nuclear or coal power plant. He has gotten his way in California and all over the U.S. as far as the nuclear plants are concerned.
California has driven consumption down to the best of all 50 states in electricity per capita. They have only built new co gen plants. Still, they have an energy shortage. They rely on neighboring states for 20% of their power demand. This, despite over 100 windmill facilities , 43 geothermal sites, the world’s largest complement of solar-electric cells, and 56 more renewable-energy projects on the drawing boards. Lovins says the state is “freeloading” on the neighboring states.
The facts are, it didn’t work. Despite billions of dollars spent and all the ideas known tried, only small inroads have been made in the supply side. Meanwhile. old power plants go out of service or produce less. The “soft” energy technology doesn’t keep up.
So all the money Obama wants to spend from the $700 billion will go to “soft” technology despite the lessons learned in California.
Ultimately, it’s going to be coal or nuclear. And, clean coal, so clean it’s not a threat. That’s it. Make a choice. If the blind spot didn’t exist, we could pick one or both or proceed to use the money to build things we need and things that work. But, we will spend it on things that are helpful, but not producitive enough to offset lost production. Lovins wants us to live in a cave and with Obama’s help, he will get his crackpot wish. To my knowledge, no one voted for Lovins. Still he exerts far too much influence on all of us.
Without this energy, there will be no job growth. The government money will be spent by the states to cover the deficits they have run up by spending amounts they may never have again for years. They refuse to make cuts, and will keep their deficit spending going with the help of Obama.
Experts have tracked jobs with energy in America. Jobs go up when cheap energy is readily available. Jobs go down when energy gets tight and expensive. So we bet on something that didn’t work for the past 20 years in California. We lose time and money, Lot’s of it. And, we make the future worse than the past. We watch. We let it happen.
I think your govenor should have picked you over Burris!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m not sure that’s a complement.
Bill Robertson