Posted on 01/27/2011 4:06:25 PM PST by KeyLargo
* WONDER LAND * JANUARY 27, 2011
A Presidency to Nowhere
High-speed rail and solar shingles are not the answer to America's "Sputnik moment."
No president before Barack Obama has been so right and so wrong.
When in his State of the Union speech Mr. Obama said, "This is our generation's Sputnik moment," citing the emergence of global competition from the likes of China and India, he was right.
Minutes later he proposed to cover the country with high-speed rail and companies making solar shingles.
High-speed rail and solar shingles? If that's the president's idea of meeting our Sputnik moment, then Houston, we have a problem.
About halfway into the speech, I began to wonder: What is John Boehner thinking? Let's first welcome back the tradition of House Speakers who bring nothing but a poker face to the State of the Union. (The vice president re-tightening his tie in the middle of the speech was a minor Biden classic.)
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
So by investing in these dream wind & solar farms which will intrude on the native wildlife & destroy their native habitats, they will require additional massive power infrastructure developments and most damming of all is the (again) most obvious & painful fact that these green energy tech are heavily dependent of favorable weather conditions.
To generate 2400 MW of power a 3 reactor nuclear power plant consistently does that 24x7 within a land space of less of 1/2 square mile at a development & operating cost of $1-3 Billion.
To develop & generate a similar energy output by solar power will require a land space of 100 square miles and then again can operate only during the daylight hours (gasp!!) and the solar cell requirement will be in the order of approx >$90 Billion. Our beloved FPL tried this publicity stunt out in Tampa and very little has been heard of it since.
In the situation out in the ultra-liberal state MASS where for many years even the Godfather of the Dems TED KENNEDY fought tooth & nail against having those winds turbines in the ocean!! This was because they messed up his view of the ocean!! However, after much court battles and finally being installed they are now stuck with they fact that NOBODY wants to buy this 'green energy' from the wind ocean farms(shocker!!); simply because it cost up to 10X more than the locally produced land energy!!
Last and not least, since they 'green energy farms' are so large and will require many man-hours of maintenance, they are also highly vulnerable to vandalism or terrorist attacks.
February 2, 2010 Obama Calls for End to NASAs Moon Program
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.