Senate Approves Renewable Fuels Provision

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-cong/2005/...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Utilities would have to generate at least 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources under a measure the Senate approved Thursday.

Separately, a package of environmentally friendly tax incentives was advanced by a committee as senators made clear their intention to fashion a sharply different energy bill from one passed by the House.

Electric utilities would have to rely more heavily on wind turbines, solar energy, biomass from garbage or plants and other non-fossil fuels to generate electricity under the provision approved by a 52-48 vote.

Opponents argued the mandate, which would begin in 2020, would force higher electricity prices in regions of the country where such renewable fuels are not widely available. But Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., the measure's chief sponsor, said any modest price increase would be offset by lower natural gas prices as utilities shift from gas to other energy sources.

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[phantom power]

1. Yes, much too radical.

10% renewables. In 15 years. In other words, 15 years from now, 90% would still be the same old crap we're already burning.

If guys like Kunstler are even close to right, any bill watered down enough to get passed in the current political climate will be obsolete by the time it takes effect.

[pstans]

2. Too little to late

I watched some of the debates on this today on CSPAN. The Democrats rhetoric was right on, but when they threw the numbers in all I could think was it would be too little to late. Dick Durbin and Harry Reid both had good speeches on the topic. If Democrats get control of the Senate in 2006 things could change. If they have control of the Congress and the White House in 2008, I bet they enact stricter standards and start up a Manahattan Project-type investment into renewables. Check out the Apollo Alliance http://www.apolloalliance.org/

[NNadir]

3. It's nice to hear that our Repuke Senate is composed of "scientists."

Incredibly, there are actually people who are stupid enough to believe that this is meaningful.

This reminds me of the time that the Indiana house produced a bill to legislate the value of pi.

http://www.inwit.com/inwit/writings/indianapilaw.html

Now all we need is for our dumbbell Senators to actually produce some energy.

They can't?

I didn't think so.

The doomed American people may however put enough stock in this window dressing to be further lulled into their orgy of ignorance, denial, and wishful thinking. These are, after all, a people who also believe that hydrogen is a form of energy (which is why they so loudly approve of Hydrogen Hummer Steroid Boy.) These are a people who think that the war for Halliburton can be called "The War on Terror."

Oh, and these are people who think nuclear power is dangerous even though they can't, when you ask them, produce one dead body produced by the storage of so called "nuclear waste."

What a nation of losers.

Pathetic. Losers.

Make no mistake. The United States deserves exactly what it is going to get. It took just one generation of drunken baby boomers to undo a glorious intellectual and technical history.

[thegreatwildebeest]

5. The same America?

Make no mistake. The United States deserves exactly what it is going to get. It took just one generation of drunken baby boomers to undo a glorious intellectual and technical history.

A glorious technical and intellectual history? Are we talking about the same America? I was unaware that we didn't wipe out whole entire indiginous populations, kept slavery and segregation for way too long, and generally galivanted around the world for the past 60 years raping and pillaging resources and countries under the guise of multinationals and various covert wars and foreign affair piddling.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[thegreatwildebeest]

8. I guess you have...

I guess you have a different definition of "intellectual" a term that comprises generally all academic fields. This would include "historical issues, social issues, moral issues"

Also, our great "technical" history isn't much better. Most of it is comprised of weapon development (Nuclear weapons anyone? A trillion dollars of investment there), wasteful vehicles (cars? planes?), chemicals that are now shooting us in the foot (pesticides, insecticides, industrial chemicals), and other neat doo dad's and whatnots that tend to be a double edged sword.

I guess you also forget the "glorious" industrial revolution whose excesses poisoned thousands of people with soot, dirty water, and toxins.


Of course, this post validates, rather than disproves my comments. My point was that American minds are now almost completely worthless.

QED

Americans can't even recognize what the topic is. They are, to repeat, a bunch of losers and they do indeed deserve what they are going to get: Economic poverty worthy of their new intellectual poverty.


Hilarious. I am well acquainted with primitive methods of making a living. I don't need your "glorious technical" history to feed myself if the time arrives. So, yes, I guess I am a "technical" idiot because I neither generally care for nor need the amazing technological wondertools other people do.


For those who remember: One need not think that every event in US history is pristine to believe that our history has been glorious. The fault for the fact that we are falling so short of our forbearers, that we are entering a new dark age does not lie with other people. It is the fault of every one of us. (I am not exempt.)

Our forebearers? You mean the slave-owners and land-holders who started this "Democracy"? I don't think I "fall short" of anyone on that list.


That's what I was speaking about, not Jefferson Davis, the war in Nicaragua, Fidel Castro, Vietnam, Iraq or a whole bunch of other extraneous crap.

Extraneous "crap" that often was done in order to fuel a "glorious" society based on wasteful technology. From wars over oil, to covert operations to keep up corporate agribusiness, to a period of history defined by a great "technological" innovation of nuclear weapons.


Even though we recognize that the American right sets a new benchmark for stupidity, distraction and self delusion, comments like those we see right here on Democratic Underground point up that pathetic stupidity is not the sole provence of the right. One sees stuff almost as bad from Americans on the putative left.

Calling people "twits", denigrating whole organizations, movements, and people with broad sweeping generalizations. Yes, clear, concise arguments.

[jpak]

4. More details - first federal homeowner solar tax credits since 1982!!!!

Senate Energy Bill Proposes Strongest National Policy for Solar Energy in Two Decades

http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsNAGO253.htm

The Senate Finance Committee today took the first major step in more than 20 years toward a national solar energy policy, recommending an energy tax package that would make solar power more affordable for American homeowners and businesses.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), representing over 700 companies and 20,000 employees in the US solar energy industry, applauded the inclusion of tax credits for solar power as the industry’s top legislative priority in the Energy Bill. SEIA credited the entire Senate Finance Committee, notably senators Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Michael Crapo (R-ID), for showing bipartisan leadership in support of solar power.

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The legislation reported by the Senate Finance Committee would enable businesses that purchase solar electric systems (either photovoltaics or concentrating solar power) or water heating systems to claim a 30% tax credit on the cost of the system.

And for the first time since 1982, homeowners that choose to “go solar” would be eligible for a federal tax credit, worth up to $2000. The credit would be available to businesses and homeowners through the end of 2009.

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[phantom power]

6. They "propose" stuff like this all the time.

Hope springs eternal, I suppose. But I'm weary of hearing about "proposed" legislation that never actually gets passed.