Molly Ivins: Wake up and smell the clean energy

[Dudley_DUright]

When in the midst of a Blame Typhoon, with charges and counter-charges being hurled in all directions, I find it most useful to consult those two polar stars of utter wrongheadedness, Tom DeLay and The Wall Street Journal's editorial page.

Both good for a chuckle, and both perfect weathervanes for the wrong direction. When in doubt: Disagree with DeLay, and you'll be OK.

The Journal, in addition to meretricious arguments, vast leaps over relevant stretches of fact and history, and an awesome ability to bend any reality to its preconceived ideological ends, also offers that touch of je ne sais quoi, that ludicrous dogmatism that never fails to charm.

A column about energy politics by George Mellon in Tuesday's Journal contained just the right mix of irrelevant argument (he's very upset that a bunch of nervous nellies want to shut down the Indian Point nuclear plant, as though this has anything to do with the frail, undercapitalized transmission grid that caused the blackout last week), expedient forgetfulness (uh, actually, OPEC had quite a bit to do with the gasoline crunch of the 1970s) and perfectly delightful nuttiness. "Millions of Naderites are trying to peddle windmill farms, even though these inefficient H.G. Wells monsters are already destroying the scenic beauty of places like Palm Springs and the Dutch coast." (Scenic beauties of the Dutch coast?)

more...

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=15487&CFID=9173567&CFTOKEN=8121808

[BansheeBarbie]

1. Are Windmills Uglier Than Power Lines

Scarring the roadside scenery of our nation?

Are they any more horrific than the Hummers that litter our streets?

Anyway, what's uglier- a windfarm or future generations of our children hacking up lung because of air pollution?

[Champion Jack]

2. You can expect more of this

from the right. They're scared to death of sustainable energy, because they can't figure out how to monopolize it.










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[Vitruvius]

6. Reminds me of an old Jules Feiffer cartoon:

a Rethugnican plutocrat big-business type is talking: "You want oil? We own the oil! You want nuclear? We own the uranium! You want coal? We own the coal! You want solar power? We own the -- UHH -- solar power is not practical!"



P.S: Now that solar and wind power are practical, watch Bu$h-Cheney try to award ownership of the sun and the wind to Halliburton et al. They'll stall it, stall it, stall it as long as they can, then grab for it to take it over for themselves.

[demigoddess]

3. this is the part i like best

"Guys, better, cleaner, cheaper sources of power are now available. Get your heads out of the sand and your asses in gear -- join the 21st century. This is not "Naderite" romanticism, you dumb schmucks -- it's already making money. "

In other countries they get 20 or 40 % of their energy from wind and they seem to have cleaner air , but then they don't have all of those SUVs. Is there any real reason they can't put hybrid engines in trucks and SUVs????? probably not but it will take years to get around to doing it.

[Martin Eden]

4. I like it when Molly gets feisty

She rhetorically grabs these fools by the lapels and tries to shake some sense into them.

Unfortunately, if anything is done in response to the blackout, it will probably be to sink $billions into the grid that epitomozes wasteful, expensive, and environmentally destructive energy production and transmission.

Every current of air and ray from the sun is a sustianable, widely available and pollution-free energy source. Let's subsidize wind farms, architecture that incorporates solar collection, and localized power sources that won't cascade failures hundreds of miles away.

And there's money to be made manufacturing and selling these things.

[FreeperSlayer]

5. molly rules

eom