Perut Buncit emang susah dikempesin...The Conspiracy Against Renewable Energy
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_john_f___071201_the_conspiracy_again.htm
By John F. Miglio
I hate to use the "C" word, but there is no other way to say it.
There is a national conspiracy to prevent renewable energy from
becoming the primary energy source in the United States.
And who are the conspirators? The usual cast of characters: the
fossil fuels industry, which continues to rake in exorbitant profits
on oil and gas while it refuses to make any significant investment in
renewable energy, even in the face of global warming; the members of
the mainstream news media, too craven to cross their corporate
masters by doing any serious coverage on the viability of renewable
energy in today's market; and the members of Congress, too addicted
to the big bucks they receive from Big Oil and other traditional
energy sources to create any sweeping renewable energy legislation
for the good of the country.
The truth is, if it were not for this unholy trinity of greed,
cowardice, and bribery, all of us would already be living in solar or
wind powered homes and driving electric cars to and from work.
Here are the facts:
1) According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the amount of solar
energy that hits the surface of the earth every hour is greater than
the total amount of energy that the entire human population requires
in a year. Another way of looking at it is that roughly 100 square
miles of solar panels placed in the southwestern U.S. could power the
entire country.
2) The Department of Energy also states that all U.S. electrical
energy needs could be met by the wind in Texas and the Dakotas alone.
3) In 1977, the Office of Technology Assessment published a
nonpartisan report that concluded that if the federal government
offered substantial tax credits and incentives to speed up the mass
production of renewable energy technologies, these
technologies "could be made competitive in markets representing over
40% of U.S. energy demand by the mid-1980s." At that rate, they would
be competitive in almost all markets today.
4) The technology to produce photovoltaic panels and modern wind
turbines has been around for decades, and thousands of Americans
already have installed these renewable technologies on their homes
and businesses, cutting their energy bills by significant margins.
Recently, a New Jersey resident named Mike Mercurio installed both an
array of solar panels on his roof and a wind turbine in his back yard
and cut his energy bill from over $300 per month to about $10 per
month.
This immediately begs the question: If we have the renewable
technology at hand and we know it works, why don't we use it in place
of heavily polluting energy sources like oil, gas or coal? And why
have so few people installed solar panels or windmills on their homes
and in their backyards?
The primary reason is because the cost of renewable energy is still
relatively high compared to fossil fuels, although the gap is closing
as the cost of natural gas and oil continues to climb. For example,
the price to install an array of photovoltaic panels on the average
home-- notwithstanding some modest tax incentives and rebates from
the government-- is anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000. At this price,
only those who are well off can afford to have solar panels installed
on their homes.
Of course, anyone with half a brain knows that once a product is mass
produced, its price per unit plummets. But in order to facilitate
this process and make it happen over a period of years and not
decades, the federal government (with help from the states) needs to
institute a massive, full-scale national renewable energy program,
something equivalent to the Marshall Plan, something that would
transform our entire society within a decade.
It can begin this process with a four-point plan: 1) Mandate tight
pollution standards on the fossil fuels industry and stiff penalties
for not abiding by them. This will get the carbon-based boys to start
thinking about divesting some of their money into renewable energy.
2) Impose high CAFE standards on auto manufacturers and stiff
penalties if they don't implement them post haste. This will get the
bright boys at GM to start thinking about electric cars in a big
way. 3) Implement a windfall profits tax on oil companies and remove
tax incentives to the entire fossil fuels industry. This will create
billions of dollars that can be used to promote renewable energy. 4)
Offer generous tax credits and incentives to the renewable energy
industry to facilitate mass production of its technology and equally
generous tax credits and incentives for homeowners to buy it.
If Congress made this four-point plan a reality, it would literally
reverse the brain-dead energy policy that has been in effect for the
past 27 years, ever since Ronald Reagan, Big Oil's Bad Boy, strutted
into office, decimated Jimmy Carter's renewable energy program, and
created energy bills and tax policies that favored the fossil fuels
industry at the expense of renewable technology.
But how much money would it actually cost to institute a full-scale
national renewable energy program in the United States? Hundreds of
billions, no doubt, which is a lot of money, but not that much when
you consider that over the past seven years, the Bush regime has
already blown a half trillion dollars on Iraq and another trillion on
tax cuts for the rich.
If that $1.5 trillion had been used to fund renewable energy instead,
photovoltaic panels and wind turbines would already be in mass
production at affordable prices for most homeowners, and the electric
car industry would have been able to stage a major comeback.
For the last couple of decades, the electric car industry has
languished due to the introduction of the hybrid car, the "compromise
car," as I call it. Instead of going from gas-powered cars straight
to all-electric vehicles, which was the original plan, auto
manufacturers decided to take an in-between step in deference to the
fossil fuels industry and create the hybrid. (See the documentary
Who Killed the Electric Car? for more information on how auto
manufacturers deliberately sabotaged their own electric vehicles.)
As a result, three misperceptions about electric cars have persisted
to this day: 1) They're too slow. 2) Their batteries won't go far
enough on a single charge. 3) Their batteries take too long to
recharge. This was partially true 20 years ago, but no longer.
Recently, the Japanese built an electric car called the Ellica that
can out perform a gas-powered Porsche from zero to 100 by almost two
seconds! So much for being slow.
And as far as batteries being a problem, the technology has come a
long way in recent years, and if the money is there for more research
and development, the battery technology will be perfected, and the
electric car will become the ultimate driving machine, i.e., a
vehicle that is affordable, fast, pollution-free, economical, and
stylish-- all in one package. And the best part of all, American
drivers will never have to pay $3 a gallon for gas again. At the end
of the day, they will simply plug their electric vehicles into their
solar and wind-powered homes and recharge their batteries for nothing!
This has always been the dream of environmentalists: a non-polluting
energy source for their homes and a zero-emission vehicle for travel
at a cost that would be reasonable for everyone. Of course one
person's dream is another person's nightmare, and this green scenario
is anathema to the fossil fuels industry. It means they would lose
their economic and political stranglehold on not just America, but
the entire world. Which is why they've been bullying mainstream news
organizations for decades and paying off politicians at the beginning
of each election cycle.
Naturally, there are plenty of cynics around who say it will take 50
years for renewable energy to make a real difference in our energy
consumption, and we'll still need good old gas, oil, and coal as our
primary sources of energy in the meantime. Of course, this becomes a
self-fulfilling prophesy if we just sit back and do nothing, but if
we change our energy policy dramatically, we can transform our entire
society in a relatively short period of time.
As proof, consider this: In 1997, the Danish government began an
experimental project on the island of Samso to see if it was
practical to use various forms of renewable energy for all the
island's energy needs. Their goal was to accomplish this in ten
years.
Remarkably, they finished ahead of schedule, and today 100% of the
island's electricity is generated by 11 one-megawatt wind turbines,
while the rest of the island's energy needs are met by using solar
panels and other forms of renewable energy. True, it is easier to
convert a small island to renewable energy than a large country. But
the point is, the technology is available, and with the proper
financial incentives and a full-scale commitment from the federal and
state governments, the United States could break free from fossil
fuels and be well on its way to becoming a land where solar panels,
wind turbines, and electric cars would become the norm in ten years.
The only thing it takes is the political will to stand up to the
fossil fuels industry. I know that's asking a lot. But in view of
the perpetual wars for oil in the Middle East, the increased
awareness of global climate change, and the high cost of gasoline at
the pump, maybe, just maybe, enough Americans will get fed up living
under the greasy, smelly, polluted armpit of the fossil fuels
industry and look to the sun and the wind to guide them to a cleaner,
safer, brighter future.
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