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Alternative Energy |
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Nick, 2/19/08 12:38:54 pm |
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"Alternative energy is the wave of the future," they say. "Fossil fuels destroy the environment," they say. "Fossil fuels force us into wars to secure our national interest," chimes the politician chorus. Are they right? Maybe, maybe not. I say, "Who cares?" With that said, I fully support some alternate forms of energy, just not with government involvement, of course.
Here are the alternate energy sources I like and why these forms are drastically more important than those promoted by most politicians: Geothermal heating/cooling, solar panels and small, personal wind turbines. "Why limit it to just these sources?" you may ask. While I don't oppose other sources of energy, solar, geothermal, and wind are among the few available alternate energy sources that can break local utility monopolies and promote competition in a market drastically needing it. Ethanol, industrial hemp, cleaner coal, nuclear, etc. may be good and useful in traditional methods of energy delivery. However, they do not help solve the problem of high energy costs due to "natural monopolies" that break down competition due to the cost of running redundant systems of energy delivery in a municipality.
Let’s start with solar panels, because they are my favorite. Currently, there are numerous companies with solar panel technologies and who produce somewhat inexpensive consumer solar panels. The technology is available, but it needs investment to refine the production process so they can be cheaper. But imagine a world where you don’t have to petition your city council against a rate increase whenever the local monopolistic company wants to raise its rarely-decreasing energy rates. Imagine a world where you don't get a bill for your energy, or if you do, you get to choose which company delivers that energy to you and at what price. Imagine a world where you can go to Wal*Mart (or a non-subsidized retail store) to purchase your energy. Solar panels do just this. They allow choice and competition on an individual level in electricity production, with no government involvement necessary. One can buy one brand of solar panels and someone else down the block can choose a different brand. Or one can choose to use several different brands to generate electricity for their house, apartment or business. Another glaring benefit of personal energy sources like solar is that the power grid cannot be shut down if a power line goes down somewhere because there need not be a grid at all. Also, terrorists cannot shut down the American energy supply by destroying a major power station. They would have to destroy every individual property to shut down US energy capacity.
Small-scale wind turbines also hold some promise of breaking monopolies, but to my knowledge, there unfortunately isn't much work being done in private industry on these. Most innovation and competition is coming in the form of large windmills for wind farms, as one small windmill tends not to generate enough consistent electricity to be cheap and efficient and also tends to be an eye-sore for property owners. Although, I'm sure with the proper market motivations, small windmills could be produced and made to be more aesthetically pleasing.
Geo-thermal heating is another source I like, but it only helps get a property "off the grid," whereas solar and wind electricity could completely remove a home or business from needing to work with a local monopoly. Geo-thermal heating and cooling systems also are much more difficult to install after a building is constructed. Still, geo-thermal can be individualized and is therefore worthy of investment.
So, how should these energy sources be promoted? Should the government subsidize them? No, of course not. Government helping business is one of the problems in the first place. Individuals should invest in companies with good financials who produce inexpensive solar panels or in companies that are doing research in small windmills. Buy stock in such companies. Buy solar panels as soon as you can afford them. But don’t ask the government to promote alternative energy, because you'll end up with ethanol subsidies, which results in as much pollution as oil-based fuels and which take land resources away from food crops, thereby increasing the price of corn syrup and every food that uses corn (and you will find it hard to locate many products that don’t use corn syrup). Don't ask the government to promote alternative energy, because you'll end up with the same power grid, the same delivery systems, the same blackouts, the same local monopolies, and the same high energy prices.
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