Keystone Pipeline

Jekyll wrote:

residenttroll wrote:
Edit: Remember railroads BUILT this nation, they will be here till the end. :thumbsup:

White men with guns built this nation, right or wrong.

Chinese men built the railroad

yes I used to watch Kung Fu.

White men with guns built this nation.....and white men with guns will bring it down.

Soon

That downward slide has picked up real steam during this administration. No guns involved, but will be needed soon.

Communist Chinese now own the country.

according to this article, Japan is not far behind China in amount of US debt owned

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog ... -debt#data

Frankly I, too, was hoping that alternative energy sources would be more successful. Mind you, I don't expect us to stop using oil tomorrow....I just don't think that's realistic, but I was hoping that investments in a portfolio of alternatives as appropriate in various parts of the nation (wind, sun, hydro, tidal) would begin to get a toe hold. I was also hoping for an increased effort to use more nuclear.

Articles like the ones below tell me that something just isn't right yet.

Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/us/19 ... wanted=all

“Clean technology is the next wave of innovation that Silicon Valley needs to capture,” the mayor said, noting that the San Jose City Council had committed to increasing the number of “green jobs” in the city to 25,000 by 2022. San Jose currently has 4,350 such jobs, according to city officials.

But SolFocus assembles its solar panels in China, and the new San Jose headquarters employs just 90 people.

A study released in July by the non-partisan Brookings Institution found clean-technology jobs accounted for just 2 percent of employment nationwide and only slightly more — 2.2 percent — in Silicon Valley. Rather than adding jobs, the study found, the sector actually lost 492 positions from 2003 to 2010 in the South Bay, where the unemployment rate in June was 10.5 percent.

Federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed, government records show. Two years after it was awarded $186 million in federal stimulus money to weatherize drafty homes, California has spent only a little over half that sum and has so far created the equivalent of just 538 full-time jobs in the last quarter, according to the State Department of Community Services and Development.

And it seems its the fault of the Europeans for the failure of green jobs in the US.

Obama blames Europe for his Green Jobs Failure

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer. ... bs-failure

President Obama is blaming cuts in European solar power subsidies for his administration's half-a-billion dollar bad bet on a failed green collar California firm. In 2009, the Department of Energy awarded Solyndra, a solar power panel manufacturer, $535 million in low cost guaranteed loans. The company announced it will file for bankruptcy today. More than 1,100 employees are expected to lose their jobs.

German subsidies for solar power production had made Germany the world's largest market for solar panels. But Germany has been cutting back on those subsidies recently in an effort to reduce their own deficit spending. Without generous government subsidies most "clean" energies, including solar power, simply are not economically sustainable

And although I can't specifically cite the articles this morning, I do recall reading several articles about the negative environmental impacts of green technology on people and animals. I have read that the frequency (or tone?) of large wind farms is messing with some people's health, In California large solar farms are destroying endangered tortoise habitat. We all know that anytime we dam a river to produce hydroelectric, that dam is going to affect the ecosystem of that river. I personally wonder what impact sprawling acres of solar panels will have on local climates and wildlife.

So just as Canadian tar sands may not be the perfect answer because of their ecological impact, it seems that most of the green alternatives either have their own ecological challenges or simply aren't economically feasible yet. Perhaps in easier times these industries would take hold...but not in this current economic environment.

I want green technology to work as much as the next guy...but not if it's going to cost a lot more for energy. Generating legislation that somehow makes using fossil fuels more expensive with the purpose of boosting the attractiveness of otherwise expensive alternative sources of fuel doesn't make sense when people are struggling to make ends meet.....because ultimately the cost is passed on to the consumer...the little guy.....us. I'm also not willing to return to the Stone Age to be green. Back to the drawing board...but please don't legislate more expensive energy. I can't afford it.

Green technology needs more science and research. Some day it may be our only source but for now coal and oil are still king. To ignore this economic reality is silly at least, reckless at worst.

Lions,the reality of our world is this.......EVERYTHING is going to cost more. The planet can NOT sustain the population forever. We have reached the tip point and resources WILL escalate in price because,we as a species,do not view the limitations of this orb we call
Earth, JMO