Renewable Energy

[shaftman11]

So I sit here and watch the History Channel this evening and the show is on renewable energies. And I’m sure you, like myself have heard about these for years. But there is very little in the way of affecting our lives. And as I sit here and ponder filling my gas tank tomorrow on the way to the hospital at $3.25 a gallon, I wonder WTF is wrong with us?!?!

The first part of the show was dedicated to solar power. It claims that if we built a solar field 10,000 square miles (1/10th of Nevada) that would be enough to power the U.S. The next part of the show dealt with wind farms, they claimed that there is enough wind power in North and South Dakota to power the U.S. as well. So again, WTF are we doing and thinking.

I’m not saying that we should build a huge 10,000 mile mirror in the dessert in Nevada. All though the government does own an absurd amount of land in Nevada, upwards of over 90%. And I am not saying that we need to turn the Dakotas in to wind farms either.

But aren’t these viable options that we should be looking at seriously doing? I don’t think that there needs to be one BIG solar field, but a couple of hundred smaller fields would do wonders for our reliance on foreign oil. Same with the wind farms, it doesn’t need to be 100% of the U.S. need, but it could be a decent percentage.

I think another idea that we should be seriously considering is having every new house built, be built with solar panels on them. The show stated that it was expensive to put on houses right now, but it usually pays for itself in about 5 years! DAMN, just imagine never having to pay the electric company any more money after 5 years! Or even if you do live in an area that is not completely self efficient, you could be buying electricity from other solar users. You would not be reliant on some foreign oil tycoon for heating oil anymore.

Lastly I must say that I am not a “Green” person. I don’t go out of my way to recycle (I do my part with the city system), I don’t drive a hybrid car, and I don’t have that tree hugger mentality. The reason that I post this, and have this strange feeling about this topic is because I am tired of paying up the arse for a gallon of gas. Or hear about oil prices going up for another winter were there will be people who can’t even afford to hear their own homes. And the thing that pisses me off the most is paying $3.50 a gallon for gas, while Exxon/Mobile post record profits each month.

Cliff Notes:

Why doesn’t the government force us to make use of more renewable forms of energy?