Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid announced today that Washington Senator Maria Cantwell will lead the Senate Democrats’ efforts to achieve energy independence by 2020.
“I am thrilled that Senator Cantwell has agreed to lead the Democratic caucus in this crucial effort to make America energy independent by 2020,” said Reid. “Her experience fighting for consumers during the Enron scandal and Western energy crisis make her the right choice to continue our effort to break our dependence on foreign oil and put working families ahead of the special interests.”
Sen. Cantwell was an early champion and national co-chair of the Apollo Alliance, whose mission is to build towards a sustainable and clean energy economy that will create millions of jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. She has led congressional efforts to seek consumer relief in the wake of Enron’s fraudulent market manipulation schemes, and sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
“I look forward to tackling the task of making our country energy independent by 2020,” Cantwell said. “When the likes of Enron are allowed to gouge prices and manipulate markets, the only way to truly protect consumers from sky rocketing gas prices and jolting home heating bills is to diversify our energy sources.”
Sen. Cantwell has never been one of the most visible members of the Senate (hell… she’s not even the most visible Senator in WA state), but she has quietly earned a reputation amongst her peers as a leader on technical issues such as energy and the environment that have an enormous impact on the quality of life of the Northwest and the entire nation. The more voters know about Cantwell’s accomplishments in the Senate, the larger the margin they’ll give her in reelecting her for a second term.
Do you think she can pull it off? It’d be nice if we could tell the oil producing countries that we no longer need their raw materials, but I don’t see a good replacement for oil yet.
I can’t wait for the endless posts making fun of her last name –Maria Can’t ___ Well (fill in the blank) etc etc. So witty, and original too! Throw in a couple “Queen Christines” and the party’s just beginning.
I thought you were moving to SCOOP, Goldy?! What’s the hold-up?
Mumble, mumble; you mean in 15 years we won’t import oil?
Wow, either
Walk to work
Drill more in alaska, santa barbara
fire up some nukes
She’s the same old rabble rouser; promising crap she knows she can’t deliver
She’s doing good. One of the few good Democrats I can vote for… w/o holding my nose or blinking.
Speaking of elections… HERE is a provocative comment worthy of reply to, eh? On a thread about to hit 200…
In the words of Josh Lyman, ‘Let’s get some MO!‘
The oil companies are so evil that they must not be allowed to do business in WASH state. They must be taxed hard until they leave!!! [hehe]
Jesse Jackson on the board of Apollo Alliance?
Wow, they must pay well, for him to spend his time on this gig.
Good job Maria…
Uh-Oh!!
The Democrats are “coming” up with IDEAS and policies that will resonate with the voters in November.
Now all the nay sayers will come out of the woodwork from the right saying how American “can’t” move ahead. Too bad the conservatives couldn’t get the clue about energy independence when President Carter, or Vice President Gore proposed it.
Now that we’re faced with staggering energy costs that are effecting the right’s comfort zone, we’ll finally move across the bridge into the 21st century that President Clinton built.
Say good-bye to your run at the top your right wing KNUCKLE HEADS. You days of cronyism, corruption and crime are coming to and end.
The wording that the dems and Goldy always use is so clever. Note the goals to “reduce our dependence on foreign oil”. Yet there is no way any of the options are likely to be increasing domestic oil production. The goal is really to reduce dependence on oil totally, which is a lofty and very expensive goal. (read higher taxes) The commonfolk know that oil will be with us for quite a while despite the pie-in-the-sky hopes of the lefties. If the emphasis in the campaign was to get rid of petroleum power everyone would know right away how practical Cantwell is.
It is admittadly hard for the dems in Congress to get attention for the last 10 years. The Enron thing was good, as Cantwell stood by in the late 90’s when the bad things happened, and then grandstands when the Bushies finally cracked down.
Cantwell will probably win as there does not seem to be much competition. If some repub really starts to look good, however, Cantwell’s lefty votes on issues such as SCOTUS will bite her bad.
If you’ve never heard of them, ‘Changing World Technologies’ is doing some really amazing stuff.
I read this in Discover a while back:
http://www.discover.com/issues.....-into-oil/
http://www.changingworldtech.com
It simultaneously solves the landfill problem and the oil dependancy in one fell swoop, and *unlike* the fringies with their ‘it’ll be someday’ conspiracy technologies (scalar/tesla/tinfoil hat power) and the granola crunchers with the wind/solar/geothermal only set of fixes, CWT is actually producing a product *today*. A product (oil) that when this article came out, was only worth 1/3rd of the current price.
A product where we don’t have to retrofit all of the functional, operating devices that use RIGHT NOW. I want a hydrogen car, but I can’t get one from my local dealer, nor can I fuel it at my local service station. We need to leverage what can do now and look to the future for new technologies.
Constructing new U.S. based oil refineries or drilling for oil in the Arctic Refuge would no sooner solve our energy problems than a serious and substantial investment in developing alternative and renewable forms of energy.
I applaud Senator Cantwell for continuing to lead the effort to develop cleaner, safer and more secure forms of energy.
7-
The party of the Dino-Sore.
Yeah. Right.
Ken Bailey-9 ‘Constructing new U.S. based oil refineries or drilling for oil in the Arctic Refuge would no sooner solve our energy problems’
Sure. But it could sure go along way to helping when international supplies tighten up. (Like now.) And there is no reason both paths could not be taken in parallel. The just-say-NO to new drilling and refining for 30 years has the lefties on the defensive, and all the lofty goals will not change that.
Here come all the nay sayers. I told ya so.
Can’t do it, won’t solve the problems, blah, blah, blah.
They’ll be thanking us (secretly) later for saving America and doing what Bush can’t, create millions of new high paying, high tech jobs exporting new energy technologies across the country and around the world. Instead of the Wal-Martizaion we’ve been experiencing for the last 5 years.
Great, I can’t wait for her to flex her leadership skills all over Kennedy and get his support on this project.
http://www.capecodonline.com/s.....arm18a.htm
The Dem leadership realized they have a totally invisible Senator up for election, and they better do something to beef up her resume. Why does she have to wait until Harry Reid assigns her a task? Why can’t she take some initiative and do something other than write press releases of how evil the oil comopanies are?
Cantwell is an empty suit. She lied about taking special interest money. Her purpose in the Senate is to vote as she is told.
And, of course, she will get reelected, because that is what good Washingtonians do – they keep themselves marginalized in national politics.
Want to take over my former Go-Cantwell-Go blog?
Over there’s a link to my e-mail.
Comment by Josef of IBlog4SenatorCantwell — 10/14/05 @ 4:55 pm
Just have to view my profile. Back to being for Honest Elections.
Here’s an idea that makes too much sense for any Republican to understand it. The world will run out of oil. When it does, we’ll have to use other energy. The only question is whether we make the transition as soon as possible, or wait until we’ve sold our country to its enemies in exchange for the world’s last drop of oil. (The Bush administration favors the latter.)
Reply to 13
It’s great fun to reply to righty trolls who have no fucking clue what they’re talking about.
Fact — U.S. domestic refining capacity has been rising since the early 1990s.
Fact — ANWR contains only enough oil (at the most optimistic estimates) to satisfy U.S. consumption for slightly over 1 year.
Fact — It will take ANWR production at least 10 years to reach the market, and when it does, it will do little more than replace declining production from Prudhoe.
Fact — The world’s known oil reserves are about 900 billion bbls, and at current consumption of 84 million bpd, those reserves will be used up in less than 30 years.
Fact — Most oil industry geologists believe all the large oilfields have been found and there’s no major discoveries left to bail out the oil-thirsty world economy.
Fact — A recent National Geographic article quoted a prominent scientist as saying the world will run out of atmosphere before it runs out of oil.
Any way you slice it, the Oil Economy is doomed.
So, the question is, we do take action NOW to transition to the energy of the future or wait until we’ve sold our country to our enemies in exchange for the world’s last drops of oil?
Bush administration policies make no fucking sense — unless you’re an oilman trying to milk the suckers for every penny they’ve got.
Nuclear Power.
But it won’t happen, because the only thing scarier than oil to the left environmentalists is nuclear energy.
Oh Roger Rabbit @ 20 there you go again.
I presume you believe the world is “round?”
Perhaps, you should see the doctor and have good blood letting to get the evil blood out of your system.
Facts, sch-macts. Besides, 30 years from now, who cares? We’ll let the next generation worry about that. Like, you know, paying for the debt we’re leaving them. After all, didn’t Regan prove that a deficit isn’t a “bad” thing?
OK, hop along now.
GBS and Roger
Seems that you have a lot of faith in Cantwell’s planning ability. Let’s hope her plan works out better than the state GMA, which she is crediuted with.
Wouldn’t want to explore ANWR, just in case Cantwell’s plan doesn’t work, would we?
yearight @ 9 — She “stood by in the late 90’s when the bad things happened”? Y’mean the late 90’s, when she was not a member of Congress?
… and Janet S @ 16 trots out the rusty GOP canard that she “lied about taking special interest money”. ConservativeFirst did his best to defend that Republican LIE, and came out seccond best.
What does nuclear power, oil, and coal have in common?
Yeah, I knew you knew the answer, too. That’s why inventing renewable, clean energy sources is the key to a successful future. As John Kerry said in the Presidential “Debates”, “We can’t drill our way out of this problem, we have to invent our way out of it.”
Much like inventing the technology to take a man to the moon. Dividends which are still paying off hugely today. Thank you, President Kennedy, for being a Progressive thinker.
Either you’re thinking is either:
A) Progressive
or
B) Retarded
Which one are you?
GBS @ 27
Does Ted Kennedy fall into your Retarded Category over his opposition to clean wind power for Nantucket?
re 10: The “commonfolk”… That is just so precious! So the “commonfolk” in their wisdom realize that there is just no substitute for oil! Kinde of like when the “commonfolk” were yelling “Get A Horse!”
zip @ 25
“Seems that you have a lot of faith in Cantwell’s planning ability.”
Could be, but I think many (including, increasingly, Righties) lack any kind of expectation or trust that the Bush administration will plan, think about, or do anything about this future crisis. Any postive development on this issue form the R or D column is welcomed at this point.
Putting fucking idiots like Maria Cantwell in charge of this is exactly the wrong thing to do. She simply doesn’t have the background to take on a task like this. This is a technical problem that needs to be solved by technical people. If the engineers need political help, then maybe they can tell her what to do. But if any of you HAs think a dimwit like Maria Cantwell can accomplish anything you’re out of your fucking minds.
So here’s some questions:
1) Will Maria Cantwell relax environmental regulations so that oil companies can develop additional refining capacity and build new state of the art refineries. Answer: No.
2) Will Maria Cantwell lead the charge to allow environmentally responsible drilling methods in ANWR? Answer: No.
3) Will Maria Cantwell lead the charge to provide incentives in the form of direct subsides and tax breaks to the energy industry to develop new sources of petroleum? Answer: No.
4) Will Maria Cantwell lead the charge to create scholarships for promising mostly white men to enter the field of Petroleum Engineering so that we can have another generation who can find and develop oil sources? Answer: No.
So tell me HAs… can any of you fucking idiots tell me anything concrete that she can do that will actually increase the supply of energy? Answer: No. Yeah, I thought so.
re 31: Did Ronald Reagan decades ago rescind tax breaks for installing solar energy devices on homes thereby killing the newly burgeoning solar industry? Answer–Yes! Did he then spitefully and with negative symbology have the solar panels on the White House that Carter had installed torn off? Answer–Yes! Have Republicans, like the good lap dogs of big oil that they are, done everything in thier power to discourage development of alternative energy sources? Answer–Yes!
Go to hell MTR, you incompetent Republican HACK!
MTR
MTR
1 and 3- With Oil companies making record profits, what happened to your freemarket ideas? Why should the gov’t pay them to make more?
2- See comments above about the amount of oil available in ANWR. So we taxpayers get to subsidize development so they can make a short term killing.
4- “White men” give me a break. I support an education system based on science not faith based foolishness (intelligent design) which will help develop scientists and engineers of all races and both genders.
Reply to 23
Nuclear power is not a long-term solution because the world has only a 50-year supply of uranium. It would be a different story if fusion technology works, but so far it’s unproven.
Reply to 25
I have more faith in Cantwell’s planning ability than Bush’s planning ability.
It’s all relative, you know.
I.e., the only reason Bush is president is because he’s George H.W. Bush’s relative.
@30
Actually, dj, much of the right seems to be buying into the “abiotic oil theory” (originally hatched by some Russians) that oil is a renewable resource and oilfields will last forever because they refill themselves from vast underground reservoirs buried deep in the earth’s mantle.
Typical head-in-sand bunk from the anti-science party.
Reply to 31
1) Why should we give oil companies legal immunity to poison drinking water? So Roger Rabbit’s oil stock will go up?
2) How does drilling ANWR solve the problem of future energy supplies when ANWR’s reserves would supply U.S. oil needs only for somewhere between 6 months and 15 months?
3) Why does the most profitable industry in the history of the world need direct subsidies and tax breaks?
4) Why should taxpayers fund scholarships for petroleum engineers? Why not oil companies? I thought you were for private enterprise and against government doing everything Mark? Are you a closet commie, Mark?
@20 Fact – ANWR contains only enough oil (at the most optimistic estimates) to satisfy U.S. consumption for slightly over 1 year.
Fact (at least that’s what the environmentalists told us at the time) – The Prudhoe Bay oilfield (the other end of the Alaska pipeline) contains only a few month’s supply of oil. Since 1977 it has pumped 13 billion barrels of oil. The ANWR area is estimated to have between 6 billion and 16 billion barrels of oil using today’s technology. Of course by that time new technology will create new efficiencies and chances are we will get much more than that.
Why do petroleum engineering students need scholarships, anyway? Why can’t they take out student loans like everyone else? Can’t the oil industry pay them enough to repay student loans?
Get our hand out of my pocket Mark — you fucking commie!
@42
“6 billion and 16 billion barrels of oil using today’s technology”
Actually the correct numbers are 6 billion to 13 billion, but let’s use your 16 billion … the U.S. consumes roughly 21 million bpd or 7.666 billion bbls per year … the entire world is currently consuming 84 million bpd or 30.66 bbls per year … you do the math — how much longer will 16 billion bbls keep the Oil Economy going?
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying don’t drill ANWR. It’s one of the 5 largest oilfields in North America, and if it can be developed in a way that avoids serious environmental damage, then I think we should drill it.
But don’t kid yourself that ANWR solves our long-term energy needs. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if much of ANWR’s oil was exported — it’s certainly more economically efficient to sell it to Japan than ship it to the midwest or east coast.
@41
“Of course by that time new technology will create new efficiencies and chances are we will get much more than that.”
What’s your source for this? Did you peel it off the bathroom wall? I’ve read extensively on energy subjects and I’ve never seen anyone, even the most ardent proponents of oil drilling, argue that petroleum recovery rates can be dramatically boosted through technology. There are physical limits to the volume of liquid you can get from the pores in a given volume of oil-bearing rock.
The comments I’ve read from people who work in the industry and know what the hell they’re talking about are to the effect that technological innovation MIGHT over the long haul boost oil recovery rates by something like 5%.
Any way you slice it, the Oil Economy is doomed.
Comment by Roger Rabbit— 10/14/05 @ 5:09 pm
[Er……RR, It seems the stock market thinks otherwise. Democrats: domestic idiots!]
re 31: Did Ronald Reagan decades ago rescind tax breaks for installing solar energy devices on homes thereby killing the newly burgeoning solar industry? Answer–Yes! Did he then spitefully and with negative symbology have the solar panels on the White House that Carter had installed torn off? Answer–Yes! Have Republicans, like the good lap dogs of big oil that they are, done everything in thier power to discourage development of alternative energy sources? Answer–Yes!
Go to hell MTR, you incompetent Republican HACK!
Comment by headless lucy— 10/14/05 @ 6:33 pm
[No oil companies should be allowed in WASH state because Headless Lucy hates them!!! hehe…what a Democrat idiot!!]
More drilling……less “guvment” hacks like Headless Lucy and RR!!!
WHY “TORT REFORM” SUCKS
Here’s a tidbit brought to you by the same insurance industry that wants you to vote for restricting the right of consumers to hire trial lawyers to sue insurance companies:
A woman was driving on Aurora Avenue minding her own business when a road-raging stranger rammed his girlfriend’s car and pushed it across the center line head-on into the woman’s car.
The woman spent 9 days in a coma and a month in the hospital, can’t work, and is facing extensive rehabilitation and enormous medical bills.
The road-raging driver had no insurance, but not to worry, the victim had uninsured motorist coverage. Wait … screeeech … hold the phone … her insurance company REFUSES TO PAY A CENT because they say she wasn’t in an “accident” because what the road-rager did was intentional!
So guess who’s paying the woman’s medical bills? L & I, that’s who. (Because she was working for employer when she got hit.)
http://www.komotv.com/stories/39748.htm
Hey you employers and small business owners out there — do you ENJOY paying higher L & I taxes? Then vote for “tort reform” so insurance companies can collect premiums from their customers and not pay any benefits but instead dump policy claims on taxpayers like you!!!
Tort reform sucks, doesn’t it? Especially if you’re an employer or small business owner.
dj 30
Many (including I) have doubts that a Repub or Democrat admininistration or congress will provide a solution. Workable solutions will have to come from private enterprise.
Hey kiddies, it’s time to play our favorite game — Sucky Politics!
As many of you already know, Stefan Sharansky (a fucking idiot who can’t even spell his own name right), not only runs the Sucky Politics blog, but thinks Roger Rabbit is Dean Logan blogging on a King County computer. This is bullshit, but Stefan is impervious to all known facts, so I have no choice but to string him along in this gag.
Since Stefan also is a $9-an-hour pollworker (apparently his blog isn’t doing too well financially, if he has to take a $9-an-hour temp job to help make the payments on his $800,000 Greenlake mansion), that means Dean Logan, er, me, is his supervisor. And Stefan needs a LOT of supervising, take it from me! He’s not only a lazy shit, but he won’t follow instructions. Despite 3 hours of pollworker training, for which he was paid, by the way, he thinks he has the right to refuse a provisional ballot to anyone who uses a Green Card for ID — contrary to the explicit instructions Logan’s, er, my, training gives to pollworkers that they are NOT to refuse ANYONE a provisional ballot! (Because that happens to be federal and state law. It’s not for lowly $9-an-hour pollworkers to decide which provisional votes to count or not, Logan, er, I, hire professionals for that.)
But I digress … enough of Stefan’s stupidity and insubordination, already. Let’s see what Sucky Politics is up to tonight.
(to be continued)
Roger 45
Seattle Times provides a lot more background. Read the article, tort reform has nothing to do with her plight (of course you already knew that).
How many years have the Democrats been running this state and had a chance to change the stupid policy exclusion the company is relying on?
It’s Time to Play “Sucky Politics” Again (continued)
Hmmm … here’s an item.
Stefan brags “my favorite subject” is “promotion of democracy through blogging.” Really? Then how come you ban posters from your web site if you disagree with their opinion?
It’s Time to Play “Sucky Politics” Again (continued)
Here’s another item.
Stefan takes the role of an elitist snob by dissing Seattleites as people with “a sneering and dismissive view of the suburbs and suburbanities, straight out of the 1960s counter-culture.”
Where have I heard something like this before? Oh, yeah, that’s right — hatred of 1960s counter-culture is a standard neocon mantra, mainly because most of today’s neocons were zonked-out hippie-commies back in the ’60s, and what they really hate is themselves. Well, I hate them too — they were obnoxious 40 years ago, and today they’re even more obnoxious.
Stefan rants on:
“Split-level homes, strivers, drivers, highways, malls? A package deal of bland conformity and greenhouse gases destroying the planet; mindless lackeys of the imperial warmonger Bush (never mind all those Ds in Bellevue, Redmond, Mercer Island and Issaquah). Seattle’s self-proclaimed intellectual elites, nattering to each other as they walk around crowded Green Lake, compound their ignorance with membership in The Church Of Open Space.”
yeah, you’d like to run all the Ds (and other Seattleites) out of Green Lake so you can have all that taxpayer-funded space to yourself, wouldn’t you? Fucking elitist. Selfish prick. I’ll bet you’d even like to run Roger Rabbit out of Green Lake Park!
Then, he urges high-rise apartment developments in West Seattle upon us, which is not surprising, since Stefan doesn’t live in West Seattle, he lives near Green Lake. That’s right, go into somebody else’s neighborhood and pig it up with apartment towers and traffic congestion so his GOP developer buddies can make fatter profits. What a prick!
Betcha Stefan would be the first NIMBY in line signing up at a public hearing to bitch about a rezone to allow apartment high-rises in HIS neighborhood that will adversely affect HIS property values! Fucking Republican hypocrite.
It’s Time to Play “Sucky Politics” Again (continued)
Finally, Stefan attempts to pull the No. 1 dirty trick from the GOP Dirty Tricks Playbook — guilt by association. Right-wing liars have been using this dirty trick ever since Nixon smeared Helen Gahagan Douglas with his infamous “pink sheet” (i.e., calling her a commie) in 1950.
Stefan contends, “And so, at the far end of the spectrum, you occasionally even get ‘environmental activists’ trying to torch new homes in the ‘burbs.”
WTF?? “Environmental activists?” Torching homes?
Hey Stefan – fyi – people who torch homes are “arsonists,” “criminals,” and — under the Patriot Act — “terrorists,” ya know?
“Environmentalists” are scientists who study interactions between people and the natural environment, and their consequences for the economy and our health and ecoystems and the planet’s productivity and so on; “environmental activists” are concerned citizens who advocate science-based policies to protect public health, require wealthy corporations to clean up their pollution at their own expense instead of shifting these costs to taxpayers, and promote sustainable use of resources so we won’t, you know, fucking starve.
And you, Stefan, are a lying low-life cheap-shot fucking slanderer. Fucking prick. Do humanity a favor — go hang yourself. And when you go to Green Lake Park for God’s sake don’t step on my kids, you fucking bunny-killer!
That’s why they call it “Sucky Politics” — because Stefan sucks, and so does his blog!
Wabbit, Zip, Looocy, K, et al. – So in other words, you agree with me. Nothing of any substance will come out of Maria Cantwell’s fertile mind. Nothing. Not a goddam thing. Typical democrat politics. Hot air. No solutions.
This is why you continue to get your asses kicked.
So guess who’s paying the woman’s medical bills? L & I, that’s who. (Because she was working for employer when she got hit.)
http://www.komotv.com/stories/39748.htm
Hey you employers and small business owners out there – do you ENJOY paying higher L & I taxes? Then vote for “tort reform” so insurance companies can collect premiums from their customers and not pay any benefits but instead dump policy claims on taxpayers like you!!!
You donks run the current L&I system! L&I rate going down with you blood sucking leaches running it…..
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA
When businesses try to get a little mosquito repellent after the blood leaching you donks complain about that too. (BIAW)
53& 54 continued
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RonK-26
Right. It was Murray and Clinton that could have helped in the late 90’s. Cantwell was cashing in on other aspects of that “boom period”. Sorry for the misstatement.
Roger, Roger, don’t you have anything better to do than fill this blog with nonsense…just put all your “messages” into one and get it over with.
The Reid assignment for Cantwell is nothing more than an election ploy…all of a sudden Maria gets busy and can say “I’m the designated driver to reach energy independance by 2020″…I say designated driver cuz whoever things that the US will be engergy independent in just 14 years is drunk, drugged or severly lacking cognitive complexity.
As Rabbit is so good with “fact”, I’ll let him look up the pertinent answers and figures, but in short, we all know that the current engery needs for the US population and economy are enormous and no alternate method of energy can solve the need in such a short time.
No don’t stop reading here and say that this is not true or whatever you’d like to “throw out”…but think about it for a moment.
1. Neither Solar nor Wind nor any other alternative energy is currently or most likely ever enough to fill the need for the current and future population. This does not even include the protests I can see by all sorts of people who don’t want the windfarm in their neighborhood, don’t want to give up space for this or that, etc. But it does include the fact that most of the energy is needed when the collection isn’t working. We need heat in the winter when sunshine is less, we need light in the night, when..sunshine isn’t there. So aside from the very small amount of energy being collected, the storage needs to be solved. Wind Energy (just take the examples in Europe) is nice, but currently way to expensive and only creates a very very little amount. It;s nice for local projects (wind mills at farms, etc), but not feasible for towns or city. A city of LA for example would require approx. 1 Million Windmill towers to sustain the engery needs.
2. Energy needs to be available as a constant stream, not off and on (unless we assume that we all are perfectly happy with just 2 hours per day). No alternate energy will be able to deliver this in a short timeframe of 14 years.
3. How long does it take to get any project through design and approval phase ? There’s your 14 years already, assuming that the technology is already available.
4. Hydrogen Energy: Yes, Hydrogen Cars etc are nice and the pollution by the cars is nil…what comes out of the the exhaust is water (now if it would be beer, you guys might be happier with it for the drinking liberally or whatever it is called, but it’s water). But where does Hydrogen come from. I assume you all were awake during chemistry class and you know that hydrogen either is a product out of water by separating O and H with electricity or it is produced out of natural gas.
Roger Rabbit might come up with a fact that natural gas will run out in 48 years or so, so that leave hydrogen manufacturing with electric energy. And where does that come from ? Hmmm, Oil ? Coal ? or nuclear energy ?
Currently the production of hydrogen for hydrogen cars creates more polution than the car, using hydrogen vs. gas, saves.
5. Nuclear Power. The only way for now to create any form of energy independence in the short and longer term. But even this will take longer than 14 years due to the government regulation, protests by people on this board and the left overall. What’s wrong with nuclear energy ? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Yes, you might put up Three mile Island or Chernobyl, but those were old technologies or even bad technologies. France, for example (and I’m using this as a hopefully credible example for you guys), produces 70 percent of their electricy with nuclear power. Yes, 70 percent. Why couldn’t we do this ? Because of the unreasonable fear of nuclear power.
Ok, Roger states the fact that Uranium runs out in 50 years. Besides the fact that this is wrong and there is much more available, the fact is that nuclear power can be produced for hundreds of years by utilizing the uranium and plutonium already available. Some of the russian nuclear warheads are re-manufactured into rods for powerplants…would that be nice to do this with all of them (theirs, ours, North Koreas, Iran, etc).
So in short, energy independance only happens when
a) politicians get off their butt and think about the future, not just about the next re-election.
b) our elected leaders put politics aside and do what’s right
c) we educate ourselves better on what is out there.
As long as we have people just complaining about big oil, but refuse to do anything else (aka looking at other forms of energy to replace that same amount) nothing will happen. The only thing will be that we have people like Maria promise the moon and hope that by 2020 voters will have forgotten the fact that she and others have just mooned us.
57
“The Reid assignment for Cantwell is nothing more than an election ploy”
BFD. Why do you have a problem with politicians trying to get re-elected only when Democrats are doing it?
Question: When a deranged asshole like RUFUS posts a mile long “HAHAHAH” diatribe (or an insanely long URL) it fucks up the whole blog, requiring sidescrolling.
Can anything be done about these asshole induced problems?
BTW I have tried both Firefox and IE.
57 (continued)
“we all know that the current engery needs for the US population and economy are enormous and no alternate method of energy can solve the need in such a short time.”
I never said otherwise. Don’t imply I said things I didn’t say. It’s obvious oil (imported or otherwise) can’t be replaced overnight — which is exactly why we need to elect Democrats instead of Republicans, because Democrats have enough foresight to start working on next-generation energy technology NOW while GOP policy is to suppress energy alternatives and foster more oil usage. Until suddenly one day the oil is gone and we’re up shit creek because the Republican politicians running our government didn’t do squat-shit about developing non-oil energy.
P.S. IF the only solution is banning asholes like RUFUS and his ilk, I am OK with that.
57 (continued)
I posted on HA some time ago that hydrogen technology isn’t viable because it consumes more energy than it produces, but you apparently were absent or not paying attention.
57 (continued)
“Because of the unreasonable fear of nuclear power.”
No, because the nuclear industry insists on legal immunity from personal injury and property damage resulting from nuclear accidents. Repeal the immunity and I’ll support nuclear power. But not until then.
The current situation with nuclear power in the USA is like you coming into my neighborhood and saying you want to set up a dynamite manufacturing plant and don’t want to pay for insurance so I can’t sue you if you negligently blow up my house. Screw you, I oppose your dynamite plant!
“Ok, Roger states the fact that Uranium runs out in 50 years. Besides the fact that this is wrong and there is much more available,”
I didn’t state that, National Geographic did, and I just reiterated what they stated. 50-year supply of uranium, says so in the article, see the cover story in the August 2005 issue of NG. ” … along with its familiar woes—the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chornobyl, poor economics compared with fossil fuel plants, and the challenge of radioactive waste disposal—nuclear power is far from renewable. The readily available uranium fuel won’t last much more than 50 years.” See? Don’t take my word for it, read it for yourself at http://www7.nationalgeographic.....ltext.html
The incognito poster @57 seems to think I’m advocating existing alternative energy technologies. That’s both wrong and illogical — why would I argue for government programs to develop new energy technologies if we already had an energy technology capable of replacing exhaustible oil? As Kerry rightly said, we need to “invent” our way out of the threatened collapse of civilization that will occur when the oil runs out if we lack the foresight to develop next-generation energy technologies while there’s still time. The Bush administration’s oil-dependent, anti-science, bury-head-in-sand approach is a prescription for disaster.
Roger Rabbit at various replies:
Testy Testy Testy…:-)
1. # 58. I have a problem with any politician, left or right, green or purple who is more interested in re-election than to do what is right. Unfortunately , there aren’t many of the latter.
2. #61. That’s funny. Pls name some with forsight on either side of the spectrum and pls explain why you think so.
3. #63. Great, we agree. But…my post was not directed to you, so…get of your hurt ego that I missed your post a while back…geeze, :-)
4. #64: Yes you did…now you say it was National Geographic…but you didn’t say it above…so, pls quote correctly next time so I won’t have to say it was “your” fact.
And while we are at it, let’s vote for some people who
a) would work in creating a reasonable model for nuclear energy and
b) would actually implement it.
Now if someone in the current dem leadership would stand up and say: I’m for nuclear energy, the building of 10-20-50 nuclear powerplants in the near future and I will work to make it happen by getting all people involved on the table…:
I’d vote for him/her in a heartbeat. but…the demograts with the incredible forsight don;t have the guts to do this…cuz half their base would scream bloody murder.
I can see that sooner or later the next nuclear powerplant or any other power plant will be build on indian reservations. It it makes money, they’ll built it.
Rabbitwho @ 65 “so, pls quote correctly next time so I won’t have to say it was “your†fact.”
Uh… have you met Puddybud?
@42 So do you consider the Alaskan Pipeline, which has pumped 13 billion barrels over the last 28 years, a big failure?
Ok, personally Maria Cantwell strikes me as less than likeable, and I actually think rather highly of the man she replaced. I also harbor no delusions that the United States is going eliminate its dependence on foreign oil in 15 years, or even in 100. Nonetheless, at least she’s involved in an effort to reverse our present course, which is guaranteed to make the present situation even worse.
To start with, there’s not going to be any instand gratification for anyone, except for those who are so stiking rich that they don’t have to care. Some rube who’s been duped by Madison Avenue into committing to a 7-year lease on the biggest SUV he can fit in his garage is basically screwed–the price of gas may level off for a while, but it ain’t gonna drop by much. Even Bush’s idea of facilitating the construction of some additional refineries (perhaps one of the few things the man has proposed in five years that make any sense) is going to take at least a decade. Hell, after 30 years they’ll have to raid the nursing homes to find people who know how to design and build the things. Developing new sources will also take a long, long time. However, that’s a lousy excuse not to do anything. Spending the next 30 years trying to annhilate every last Muslim so we can take their oil doesn’t seem a very cost effective approach either, withough even getting into the moral considerations.
Roger @ wherever,
1) Sharansky is being a dick for bringing up a hypothetical problem of people using green cards as ID. I just wanted to get that out there.
2) To the best of my knowledge, you cannot be a US citizen and simultaneously hold a green card. Valid, expired, whatever. It’s a no-go. When you go down to INS for the loyalty oath and the blah blah, you are asked to bring your green card. Once you’ve done the swearing-in, you cough up the card. No card, no citizenship papers. There may be some way around this, but I am not aware of it. This is from someone who has had four of my friends or spouses become US citizens in the last year. A voter who did identify her or himself with a green card would be a problematic case almost from the word go. However, if you have a green card, you probably have a driver’s license, social security card, or other form of ID.
@75 How then do you explain the ballot at http://soundpolitics.com/GreenCardVoter.jpg which was marked “Green Card Voter” by KCE, then they decided to count it anyway?
Voter fraud: It a Democrat way of life!!!!
re76: “Human Error”. As a righty I think you’d be VERY familiar with it!
Rupert Wabbet: Your facts are like those you wrong ones spouted regarding the cost of doctors malpractice insurance. Or the ones you spouted about inflation at annualized rate of 12-18% I don’t trust your facts.
Fact – Refining capacity is up because of new technology and efficiencies, not new contruction of refining capacity. “As domestic oil production continued its decline, the U.S. imported 58% of its petroleum needs in 2004. These oil imports cost more than $150 billion and robbed tens of thousands of steady, high-paying jobs from American workers. Golly Mr. Wabbet, those are donko-cratic issues since you all are against exploration and research.” – From my Internet search
Did you all know: Through shortsighted actions, Congress and federal agencies have banned oil activity from more than 300 million acres of federal land onshore and more than 460 million acres offshore in the past 20 years. An estimated 67% of oil reserves and 40% of natural gas reserves are on federal lands in America’s western states.” – From more of my Internet search
Amazing Filter Goldy
And her mission is to, what, “lead the pursuit of energy independence?” As opposed to actually getting us there?
Not the highest bar, but given her consistent level of vision, effectiveness, and charm, turns out she’s the perfect fit for a do nothing initiative.
Good Job, Maria… See you in November!
FYI:
As of Sat. Oct. 15th at 10:32AM;
Roger Rodent posts: 24
total posts: 80
That is 30% of total posts.
He’s loosing it I think, that is less than normal. Maybe it’s government-cheese check delivery day or something.
Reply to 71
#1 – Like it or not, politicians seeking re-election try to get press, it’s a fact of life, like warts and potholes.
#2 – Democrats are publicizing the need for developing new energy technologies and proposing federal funding for a crash research program; Republicans are shoveling truckloads of taxpayer-paid subsidies to oil companies. Speaks for itself.
#4 – You won’t have this problem in future if you realize that EVERYTHING I post comes from reliable sources. Your problem is that because wingers make shit up, you assume liberals do, too. Wrong.
@74
Just to set the record straight, U.S. domestic refinery capacity has been expanding for the last 10 years, so there are indeed people out there who know how to design and build refineries.
What has happened in the U.S. refining industry is that oil companies have closed smaller, older, less efficient refineries (no surprise; this happens in every industry) while adding capacity to the newest, largest, and most efficient refineries in order to boost their profits. Consequently, while the total number of refineries has gone down, refining capacity and output have gone up, and so have oil company profits.
It doesn’t make sense to build more refineries scattered all over the map. You lose economies of scale that way. Also, you can’t get the product to market unless your refinery is tied into the pipeline network. Concentrating refining capacity in a smaller number of larger refineries is a no-brainer. The oil companies didn’t need a lot of petroleum engineers to figure that out.
Mark1 is confusing me with Mickey Mouse. Mice eat cheese; rabbits eat green vegetative matter, especially lettuce!!! But what can you expect from Mark1? Everything he posts is mickey mouse.
@75
Well, you know more about Green Cards than I do, it seems. But in any case, the question on the table is what does a pollworker do if a prospective voter offers a GC as ID. The pollworker follows his/her instructions, gives the person a provisional ballot, and lets KCRE staff downtown or the canvassing board figure out whether that vote should count — that’s what. Instead of advocating anarchy and insubordination, like Stefan does. Stefan shouldn’t be a pollworker if he can’t follow the instructions he was given in the 3-hour training he was paid to attend with our tax dollars.
@76
How do you know KCRE counted that ballot? Because Stefan says so? Do you believe everything Stefan says, just because Stefan says it? Do you believe everything Bush says, just because Bush says it? Do you believe Iraq had WMDs? Do you believe Rove had nothing to do with leaking a CIA agent’s identity just because Rove and Bush denied it? Do you believe Bush knows what the fuck he’s doing?
Reply to 79
Putty fer Brains, do you think I give a rat’s ass whether you believe my facts? I don’t care what you think. Got that? I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK.
My information about U.S. refineries comes from the Energy Information Agency of the U.S. Energy Department, which is run by a Bush appointee. Even a Bush cabinet agency admits U.S. domestic refining capacity is going up, not down, and that economics, not environmental regulation, is responsible for refinery closures.
How am I wrong about the annualized rate of inflation? The U.S. government announced yesterday that the September inflation report was 1.2%. It was all over the news media — but you don’t read, do you? 11.2% multiplied by 12 months gives you an annualized inflation rate of 14.4%. But you don’t know what the fuck “annualized rate” means, do you?
Doctors, insurance companies, and others who want a free ride on doctor negligence because it puts more profit in the pockets of two professions that are already exceedingly well paid are lying when they blame high insurance premiums on legal settlements. They have tried to peddle a falsehood to the public that lawsuits are out of control. The actual number of malpractice suits against doctors is stable or declining. The typical or average settlement in cases where a jury finds the doctor negligent is well below the “cap” that would exist under any version of proposed “tort reform.”
If you want to see how giving insurance companies legal immunity works, just click on this link http://www.komotv.com/stories/39748.htm and read the story of the Seattle woman who was nearly killed by a road-raging driver (who had no insurance, of course) and her own insurance company is refusing to pay a dime of her medical costs under the uninsured motorists coverage she paid premiums for, with the result the state L & I agency is paying for her medical care at taxpayer expense. THAT’S WHY we need trial lawyers and legal liability for corporate misconduct.
“As domestic oil production continued its decline, the U.S. imported 58% of its petroleum needs in 2004. These oil imports cost more than $150 billion and robbed tens of thousands of steady, high-paying jobs from American workers. … Through shortsighted actions, Congress and federal agencies have banned oil activity from more than 300 million acres of federal land onshore and more than 460 million acres offshore in the past 20 years. An estimated 67% of oil reserves and 40% of natural gas reserves are on federal lands in America’s western states.”
U.S. domestic oil production has been declining for decades because America was the first country to exploit its oil resources on a large scale and America is an oil glutton, using 25% of the world’s oil output event thought it has only 5% of the world’s population, so OF COURSE we’ve been using up our domestic reserves!
Is that an excuse for allowing drilling for marginal resources that risks causing irreparable damage to irreplaceable environmental treasures? A lot of Americans don’t think so. That’s why both Republican and Democratic Congresses have enacted environmental laws and put certain areas off limits to oil drilling.
That, and the fact that no amount of domestic drilling can ever satisfy America’s energy appetite, because the U.S. simply does not have sufficient oil reserves to meet our consumption demand. Anyone who knows a damn thing about oil resources is aware that nearly all new domestic discoveries and production are concentrated in two places: The north slope of Alaska, and the Gulf of Mexico offshore area. The U.S. is the most explored land mass on the planet and every inch of it has been evaluated for possible oil and gas reserves. It’s disingenuous to say the remaining reserves are on “federal land” because Alaska and the Gulf offshore blocks, where virtually all of the new domestic oil is located, are 100% federal land.
@81
Mark1 has nothing better to do than count my posts. You need to get a job, Mark.
More “guvment” workers like Roger Rabbit………less oil!!! Democrats: economic idiots!
Hey Roger Rabbit, don’t you have a job or anything productive to do? I figure you are actually Goldy, masquerading as a commenter, so his site looks more popular than it really is.
The rants about SP just confirms my suspicions.
@80
Quit bitching, you fucking whiner! My posts get stuck in the filter too.
Roger at 86
Naw, people should take the gov’t back. We don’t want illegals voting, or illegal votes. If deano won’t screen em on the back end, its up to the people to police it at the front end.
That is, unless we had a trustworthy elections department.
None of us would trust Dean with an extra provisional ballot. Man, you are full of Demo vote stuffing techniques…let all the illegals vote, and Dean will close the door and sort it all out..
Wrong Again @ 89
Who the fuck elected you to speak for “the people?” There’s an awful lot of us who don’t trust any election department run by any Republican any farther than we can throw them.
They picked well. Her mission is to pursue independence. To spend energy, money, and time attempting it.
Not to actually get us to independence.
Wow. Given her record, charm, and effectiveness, I can see why she was picked to head up that mission.
Now, if someone actually got serious to the point of stopping the pursuit and putting a reality in place, well, we’d have to have someone different.
Roger at 90
We the people…..would …. love…to have more initiatives..
Then you, the party aparatchiks, would see what the people want…
Less taxes
Fewer socialized stadiums
Honest elections
87
How do you know KCRE counted that ballot?
Of course they did…. they KCRE are a bunch of corrupt donks. The whole lot of them shoot be fired.
UPDATE:
As of 11:13AM, Monday Oct. 17th:
Total posts on this thread: 98
Total Roger Rodent spewings/comments/bashings: 33
Total Roger Rodent’s BS: 33.67%
=still has no life and is a Government cheese recipient.
Cool stuff. Keep up the good work. Coolblooded Grass Loose or not: http://www.amctv.com/ , Forecast Percieve Win – that is all that Table is capable of right Cosmos will Steal Tournament without any questions , Opponents can Play Table Bad Boy is always Collective Player