It's Not Cheap, Being Green

solar energy is subsidized to the tune of $24.34 per megawatt hour, wind $23.37 and "clean coal" $29.81. By contrast, normal coal receives 44 cents, natural gas a mere quarter, hydroelectric about 67 cents and nuclear power $1.59.
    Wall Street Journal

Subsidies cost money.  And they tend to be politically deployed.  Which makes this story troubling. 

One day, someone may come up with a plan for extracting all the ethanol that is currently captured in those California cabernets that are just sitting in cellars, doing no good for anyone, while the world is crying for alternative fuels.  We are already using food to fuel our automobiles -- and the government is prepared to mandate that we do more of this -- so how long before we start extracting ethanol from wine? You could make a program that applies only to the stuff that costs more than, say, twenty bucks a bottle.   Which only rich people drink.

Comments

[James Ehlers]

Friends,
Until more of the middle-class public takes an informed interest in their government, not much is likely to change.

Thank you, GN, for educating. The numbers are sobering, aren't they?

Sincerely,
James Ehlers

[Karen Kerin]

This Morning, Tuesday, I caught a few minutes of the Mark Johnson program with Peter Shumlin as the guest. His entire thesis concerning VY is what it will cost to return the site to pristine. I have seen no evidence related to a higher cost other than that being touted by Shumlin, et al. Where did the number come from? I suspect it is pure fiction, just as the nuclear scare is. Apart from two Hollywood horror movies, "The China Syndrome" and "Silkwood", we have only had a small release of very low level radioactive steam at Three Mile Island. So it seems to me that much of this nonsense about nuclear is domestic terrorism.