Solar development plan in Western states -- including Ariz. -- OK'd

8 comments:

• chatmandu002 posted at 10:26 am on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.

  Posts: 1005

  Spending more borrowed money on solar projects that will fail or cost us many times more than regular sources of energy. Over the fiscal cliff we go laughing all the way, ha ha ha.

  It's time to let the Obamanation go. We need some reality, common sense and honesty back in government.

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• Ben Goren posted at 11:06 am on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.

  Posts: 3

  chatmandu002, the thing is, we've basically run out of "regular" sources of energy.

  Long gone are the days when you had to be careful with your shovel in Texas lest you set off a gusher. We're now getting our oil from rigs like Deepwater Horizon...which was a well deeper than Everest is tall with a wellhead farther below the surface of the ocean than Denver is above it.

  We've used up about half the planet's petroleum -- and, of course, we've used up the cheap and easy-to-get-to half. Duh! What's left are the dregs, like the Canadian tar sands.

  And those dregs aren't cheap, themselves. Indeed, it's actually cheaper -- significantly cheaper -- to generate electricity from photovoltaics than from tar sand oil. That doesn't mean that photovoltaics aren't expensive...but we don't have much of a choice left.

  The days of cheap energy are over, whether we like it or not. It's time to switch to alternatives, whether we want to or not. And the clean alternatives are not only at least as affordable as the dirty ones, they're also far more plentiful. Cover every American residence with solar panels, and you could meet the total energy needs of everybody on the planet (not just the US).

  Cheers,

  b&

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• xyno posted at 2:04 pm on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.

  Posts: 35

  When America wanted to develop the Space program, many older Americans said it was a waste of money and time. We must not let the old pharts dictate ideas, because, the old pharts, are out of touch with reality.

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• Ron S posted at 5:56 pm on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.

  Posts: 4

  Well, I enjoyed the article and am a ardent supporter of alternative energy. However, the second to last sentence is not relevant to the article; in it Salazar voices a common misconception: He implies that the US generates electricity using oil, and that is not the case. Even if our oil imports did decline, which is certainly a good thing, it had nothing to do with the construction or operation of solar, wind, geothermal, or other alternative energy projects. Oil is used primarily for transportation, and secondarily for industry/manufacturing. There will be no correlation between alternative energy use and oil use until and if plug-in hybrids and electric cars become mainstream.

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• jimg17 posted at 8:10 pm on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.

  Posts: 9

  Ben Goren, the thing is...until your idyllic "alternative" can pull a train or propel a plane it is nothing but leftist hot air. You see, the thing is, we all use petroleum, all day, everywhere. Whether you like it or not. We have been FORCED to search for petroleum in increasingly remote areas. NOT because it's all that's left to explore, it is all we are allowed to. I spent 19 years in the offshore gas and oil industry and worked in nearly all the worlds oceans. I can say with confidence, with true alternatives like clean nuclear, new and modernized refineries, continued strides in efficiency, access to our public land and coastlines the USA can look forward to centuries of clean, abundant power. Tragically the left must endure many more decades of tough men and women wearing boots, Carhartt jackets and operating heavy diesel equipment. Whether you like it, or not.

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• k33j88 posted at 5:58 am on Sun, Oct 14, 2012.

  Posts: 607

  First and foremost, this is a AP(associated press) report, full of liberal, think-tank rhetoric. None of it can be realistically held as un-biased, factual, or un- tainted. As the intellectual, conservative among us can attest to, anything the "feds" control becomes a giant, burdensome, regulatory, tax-eating monster. Facts are skewed, projections altered, promises broken, all with the help of the positive spin brought to you by the liberal media establishment. Time to take our country back, re-establish State's Sovereignty rights, abolish the EPA, BLM, DHHS, DHS, and all other federal agencies not specifically allowed by our CONSTITUTION. Don't believe for a moment that our natural resources, oil, coal, gas, are limited to 100 years or less. Synthetic oil is here, the lifeblood of the world. Clean emitting coal-fired plants exist, and our safety record on nuclear power is second to none, The federal registry is well over 80,000 pages, effectively tying the hands of competitive capitalism-------not federal cronyism. Let us explore our own lands, reduce the hold on federal authority, and let the innovative, ingenuity of our most brilliant minds work their wonders.

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• k33j88 posted at 6:05 am on Sun, Oct 14, 2012.

  Posts: 607

  In keeping with the politics fervor filling our airwaves-----I'm a Tea Party Patriot and I approve this message-----in accordance with the 80,000 page-plus federal register (leviathan).[wink]

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• chuckles3 posted at 3:42 pm on Mon, Oct 15, 2012.

  Posts: 276

  BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT? THE DESERT CACTUS SLUG HAS A RIGHT TO ITS HABITAT. KILL GREEDY BIG SOLAR.

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