Forum Post: Congressman Sanders on Energy.
Posted 11 years ago on Oct. 16, 2012, 3:57 p.m. EST by shoozTroll
(17632)
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Please read this and stop complaining about government attempts to fund renewable energy sources.
http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/16/mitt-romneys-winners-losers/
Just 2 items I loved:
wind accounts for as much energy generation as 50 nuclear plants!!!
Wall st banksters won't insure nuclear plants, so the American people are on the hook.
That should be enough to replace nuclear and ramp up wind energy generation.
They won't insure them, but they sure do back their construction.
Do you think maybe they have stretched the profit model to it's limits?
Sounds about right. They love it when the govt provides loans and guarantees (low risk/low liability) for the things they invest in.
But they squeal whenever anyone else gets govt money.
Greedy, selfish, corp 1% plutocrats.
it's always been about WallStreet entitlements.
So this big energy corp welfare also serves as welfare for big finance.
It's just disgusting.
They fuck us coming and going!
In the last 12 months US wind powered generators accounted 3% of the total electricity production. Nukes accounted for 20%.
There are currently 65 operational nuclear power plants in the US.
That means 10 nuclear power plants generate as much as all of the wind turbines in the US. Plus nuke output can be varied on demand. Wind power is unpredictable and today the US taxpayer is forced to pay some wind utilities not to produce electricity.
BTW nukes use 1/700 of the land area including additional transmission lines needed for vast wind farms. 60,000 acres of wind farm are required to produce the same power output as a large, 1.2 gigawatt, conventional power plant which occupies less than 200 acres of land. Wind farms must be located hundreds of miles from the cities and suburbs where the electricity is needed. Additional land (greater area than the land needed for the farm) is required for new transmission lines which cost ~ $1,000,000 per mile to install. Up to 50% of the electricity generated can be lost in long transmission lines due to radiation and I2R losses.
Nukes just need water adjacent to the generation site which is also a frequent commodity near large population areas.
Nukes are also a lot cheaper than wind farms ($ 1.7 B / GWe vs $ 6.9 B / GWe).
http://bravenewclimate.com/2012/08/16/talking-turkey-on-nuclear-costs/
http://washingtonstatewire.com/blog/too-much-windpower-rivers-surged-this-summer-and-oversupply-cost-2-7-million/
Yes Nukes use adjacent water and turn it into massive amounts of poison waste water. But that isn't it is it? What about plutonium? Wind need only........ WIND!!
Wind IS far from cities and require new superconducting transmission lines, but so what? improvements exist. We just have to install them as part of our new infrastructure bank jobs investment.
Nukes use less land and are closer to cities. ??? Wind farms do not "melt down" and have the potential to destroy hundreds of square miles and millions of lives.
no problem getting private insurance for wind farms, Not possible for nuke plants.
I trust Bernie Sanders numbers on how much wind power we currently generate. You've been obviously anti green tech, & you're numbers are not sourced. Wind power generation = 50 nuclear plants!
Sorry. Wind is better than nukes. We disagree.
Peace, Good luck in all your good efforts.
Data sources for the above info (these are pretty easy to find):
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=207&t=3
http://www.earth-policy.org/data_highlights/2012/highlights27
http://www.nei.org/resourcesandstats/nuclear_statistics/usnuclearpowerplants/
I have no truck with green tech: it is just that nukes are a lot greener than either wind or solar. The most efficient solution to a problem is usually the most environmentally sound. Solar and wind are just so inefficient compared to nukes it is hard for them to compete. And nukes could be much more efficient and reliable if a standard design was adopted and built out on a large scale. Nuke efficiency is currently hurt by the use of a myriad of designs each requiring separate, expensive approval and regulation.
All of the issues that you cite above have had minimal impact in the US. A quick look at the actual electricity generation over the last 12 months shows that 10 nukes = entire US wind generation. The fact that Sanders misleads you by using capacity numbers instead of generation data (which is really all we should care about) should make you suspicious of the rest of his story.
No I ain't suspicious of Sen Sanders. I agree with him.
I cannot support nuclear power because of Chernobyl, & Fukushima.
Sorry I can't risk the millions of lives for nuclear energy.
Peace. Good luck in your good efforts.
What about these lives:
Number of people killed by wind turbines: 86
Number of people killed in US nukes (ever): zero
I don't believe either number!
This info is not hard to find:
http://www.wind-works.org/articles/ASummaryofFatalAccidentsinWindEnergy.html
http://notrickszone.com/2011/03/14/even-candles-kill-many-more-than-nuclear-power/
Irrelevant.
Wind & Solar power generation is the future.
The risk of Nuclear energy is too great! (that's why private insurers won't insure them)
How many people died from Chernobyl & Fukushima? Do those people not count.?
How many have yet to die from those catastrophes?
Apples and oranges. They are not US facilities.
US Nukes are the safer and cheaper than wind.
Nuclear plants are too dangerous.
The millions dead from nuclear accidents absolutely matter. We are not so exceptional that we can avoid the inevitable disaster.
Hubris to think we can. The risk is too great.
Sorry. We disagree.
Peace, Good luck in all you good efforts.
It is callous for those in rich countries to spend $ billions more on things like wind instead of nukes to save lives that might be lost (although none have been lost after 60 years of US production) while we starve 4 million people every year world wide.
If you took the difference in development and production costs between wind vs nuke electrical generation you could end starvation world wide, forever. Over 60 years of US nuke history that equates to 240 million people. Is that what you really want?
It is the difference between being environmentally conscious and and eco-maniacal. There is a good treatment of this problem here. It is worth a few minutes of study:
http://www.lomborg.com/cool_it
Lomberg's work was investigated in his native country and found to be scientifically dishonest.
The DCSD cited The Skeptical Environmentalist for:
Ridiculous!
Wind & Solar power generation is far & away cheaper, safer & more efficient.
To suggest that using nuclear energy equates to feeding 240 million people is laughable.
We disagree.
Peace, Good luck in all your good efforts.
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LFTRs are are the way for centralized production and hopefully Ecat will work on smaller, decentralized scales.
The thing is to actually do something.
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Of course not.
This complaint is very much on topic..........................:)
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All in all, it's very good site.............................:)
Smart enough to quote Bernie too and that's always a plus.
Don't tell Betsy about it......LOL
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She's not over the edge already?
I thought she was........................LOL
In that case, the only thing stopping her from falling, is all that sticky, messy GOP goop.
Come on, you are going to ask Bernie Sanders to make those decisions? What is his background to something like that. He doesn't even comment that the reason solar energy prices have come down is due to Chinese manufacturing. Our government subsidies are worthless.
And of course we should eliminate the oil and nuclear subsidies. These are wrong.
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I am not comparing to me but to the market. Bernie Sanders is a career politician and has not made accountable decisions in his whole life. Why would we want him making he decisin between solar and wind.
Sanders, the son of Polish Jewish immigrants, was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn, and later attended the University of Chicago, graduating with an Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1964.[5] After graduating from college, Sanders spent time on an Israeli kibbutz, an experience that shaped his political views.[6] In 1964, Sanders moved to Vermont, where he worked as a carpenter, filmmaker, writer and researcher, among other jobs.[5]
Sanders's political career began in 1971, when he joined the anti-Vietnam War Liberty Union Party (LU) in Vermont. In the special U.S. Senate election of January 1972, recently appointed incumbent Republican Robert Theodore Stafford defeated Democratic nominee Randolph Mayor and LU nominee Sanders 64%-33%-2%.[7] In the November 1972 gubernatorial election, Democrat Thomas Salmon defeated Republican Luther Fred Hackett and Sanders 55%-44%-1%.[8] In the 1974 U.S. Senate election, Democrat Patrick Leahy defeated Republican Richard Mallary and Sanders 49%-46%-4%.[9] In the 1976 gubernatorial election, Republican Richard Snelling defeated Democrat Stella Hackel and Sanders 53%-40%-6%.[10] In 1979, Sanders resigned from Liberty Union and worked as a writer and the director of the nonprofit American People's Historical Society.
That you have decided to personally attack Sen Sanders indicates you don't really have very convincing arguments against his assertions.
I'm glad you agree we should end the corp welfare fossil fuel/nuclear corps get, now let's agree to take that almost $15b a year and put it into wind and solar.
Yes?
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Cutting oil subsidies is a no-brainer. Just don't let the anti-nuclear hysteria stop research on the next generation of nuclear technology.
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Last I heard was thorium reactors cut the half life to hundreds of years and some plants can recycle waste. I agree the plants we have now are out of date and badly placed. I have no problem with decommisioning the plants but the benefits of nuclear energy are real. The outer system probe launched decades ago (voyager I think) is still sending data back to us. What other technology could keep a vessel powered this long with no refu#ling or maintanence.
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There are ways around that if we invest in the infrastructure needed. In 1967 a nuclear engine was created for use solely in space. For something like that you need to assemble the ship in space. Then you simply package the radioactive materials in a crate that could survive a nuclear blast.
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So instead of giving criticism you just want to be a smart ass. Let me spell it out.
Shuttle crashes. Crate keeps radiation contained. We recover crate. Your fears have been dealt with.
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The same way we test spacecraft. Modeling of the stresses involved. Modeling of the materials used then overbuild.
Not that I know. But testing it would be worthwhile. Or if not that then we test something else. We need nuclear if we want to explore the solar system.
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Plus thorium waste can not be used to create nuclear bombs.
DU munitions is the disposal process.
Isn't it? I admit I haven't looked into all the waste from reactors.
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Thanks. The shit is everywhere on the battlefields then.
Major Doug Rokke was onto this a long time ago. Way back in 2003
http://www.ecotecture.com/library_eco/interviews/rokke_du_1a.html
The interview with DU expert US Army Major Doug Rokke was conducted by Dennis Bernstein, the producer of the program Flash Points on KPFA (Pacifica) radio in Berkeley, California, and broadcast on April 17, 2003. I heard it while driving my car, and was so upset that I had to pull over. I had heard of DU munitions, of course, but I thought they were used occasionally to attack tanks and had no idea of how widespread, deadly and permanent their damage was. ECOTECTURE obtained the tapes of the interview and republishes it with Mr. Bernstein's permission.
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Agreed, I would only add that most of big oils political support is Republican!
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Repelicans will be defeated. It is the only way forward.
Then we will fight the remaining pols to get control back from big energy & all corp 1% plutocrats.
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depressing but not surprising.
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If they do. They will overreach and more will be voted out.
Repelicans will probably retain the House but will lose seats I believe so they will be weaker and less able to mount a real impeachment effort.
Or they may lose control of the House and impeachment will be out of the question.
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drawn & quartered!
Definitely a bad trend.
Probably fairly accurate, however it's kinda tougher to measure House races and there is an outside chance we can take it.
Outside chance.
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I support criminal charges.
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I am not attacking Sanders personally. I said nothing about his personal attributes. I am questioning his business acumen. He wants the authority to make investment decisions with our money. What is his experience in doing this?
Just like I don't think oil should receive subsidies I don't think, nuclear or wind or solar should receive subsidies. All this does is create corruption. Just look at what is happening in solar. And the same think happened in the 70's the last time we did this.
We MUST as a society invest in future technology in order to assure our people benefit from the jobs and exports that come with it.
Or we could do nothing in future tech and watch the Chinese and Germans dominate these industries.
Are you working for them, or do you prefer the US develop these strategically critical tech/industries.?
Our society is not government as every dollar that they take away from the society is used inefficiently.
Let there be a level playing field and the best technology will come forward. Right now, oil is being subsidized so the alternatives can't be pushed forward.
I am not that worried about the Russians and Chinese as they are not free societies and cannot dictate technology. This was proven ultimately by the Germans and the US in WWII. The former had a huge advantage on the US in technology and lost it as government control took over. FDR loosened his controls in '42 when he realized that he wasn't producing. The Russians and Chinese have the same problem.
I meant Germans. & I mentioned those 2 countries 'cause they ARE investing heavily on the national level in these industries because they recognize the future.
And China may not be free, but the govt is free to invest 10's of billions (&they are) because they don't have to worry about a congress obstructing them like we do.
We gotta invest in new greentech or we will al be buying chines solar panels w/ our food stamps.
LOL
Yes, Germany is investing heavily but so far, none of that has payed off. Hopefully it does, so they can spend the money and we can get the benefit.
China has way to much corruption and does not have an efficient market. You can only push the labor cost advantage so far.
They are jumping ahead of us while you are rationalizing why we should save our tax dollars.
They very well could be jumping ahead of us but that still doesn't mean that their decision to subsidize solar is the correct one. We don't know what is going to be feasible and viable but if we unleash the power of the people we will find out. Oil has been subsidized for a long time and this had made it a market share leader. How much farther along would we be if it wasn't.
Solar & Wind tech is the future. It is the right decision to invest in those industries. I don't need to wait for big oil subsidies to end.
The Chinese & Germand know. You are the only one who don't know.
C'mon get in the know.
i don't know and there is alot of smart money that is betting against it. I do know that if we subsidize it all it does is drive the price lower and move the rewards to governmental cronies. I don' t think this type of corruption is efficient.
Well we should certainly watch for corruption whenever our govt spends our money.
But
We MUST invest in these new green techs because they ARE the future and we must dominate these fields so that Americans get the jobs & American corps export the products around the world.
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What does the support from Veterans have to do with making asset allocation decisions. I didn't say he was a mean guy. He wants to make investment decisions with a large cash of money, what experience does he have in doing that?
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I edited a mispelling. My eyes are going.
That may or may not be well and good.
I have yet to see an explanations of why the costs are falling.
In the mean time other avenues still need to be explored and leaving it all up to corporations as we know them, will only result in a guarantee of higher consumer costs.
Thanks for posting this. Gotta love Bernie Sanders, and he does a great job in that article of laying all of the issues out.
Thanks, just trying to bring back a little focus as the site is being harassed by foreign policy "experts"...........On the day of the foreign policy debates.
Coincidence?
Not a chance, but do take note of those who are perpetuating that, to the exclusion of every other topic available..
On a day like this we can all use a little Bernie sensibility...........:)