(DOWNLOAD) "Energy in Three Dimensions: The Rationale for Energy Policy Must Be About More Than Climate Change and Green Energy (Rethinking ENERGY POLICY)" by Issues in Science and Technology " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Energy in Three Dimensions: The Rationale for Energy Policy Must Be About More Than Climate Change and Green Energy (Rethinking ENERGY POLICY)
- Author : Issues in Science and Technology
- Release Date : January 22, 2011
- Genre: Engineering,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 503 KB
Description
The United States has been unable to develop any coherent energy program that can last past changes in the control of our federal executive or Congress. The latest failure was the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill that would have driven an enormous change in the country's energy supply system in the name of controlling global warming. It barely passed the House and went nowhere in the Senate, where what had started as a nonpartisan and more moderate effort by Senators Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman died in the polarized atmosphere that developed in the campaign season leading up to the 2010 congressional elections. I wonder if a big part of our current problem is an overemphasis on "greenness," leading to a too-narrow focus on climate change as the sole driver for action. The public debate on energy is dominated by climate change and its deniers and its exaggerators. The deniers say global warming is a fraud or that it has nothing to do with human activities so we can't do anything about it anyway. The exaggerators say that unless we move within a decade to obtain 30% of our electricity from a narrowly defined group of renewable energy sources the world will descend into chaos by the end of the century. Between these two extremes are many members of Congress who see a need for government action on energy but do not believe that the country needs to move immediately to run the country on wind generators and solar cells. This group includes many Democrats who did not support the Waxman-Markey bill in the House.