Lord Howell Sees Windmill Emperor Naked
That's right sports fans, looks like AEman's found himself a new hero, in none other than that folksy little UK brewpub, the House of Lords. Howell, a former energy minister, says that windmills, pretty though they may be, are a dangerous distraction, an ineffectual energy sink for would-be energy pro-activists that won't get us any fucking closer to getting off oil and coal than we are today.
His article today in the International Herald Tribune is called "Energy crunch: Windmills just won't get it done".
After reading it, AEman feels half chastened in his outright enthusiasm for Cape Wind and other wind stuff, and half boosted in his gut-level intuition that nuclear power is the only way to:
- Keep all the lights on
- Produce hydrogen to make cars go clean, and,
- Knock out greenhouse emissions
As 2004 rolls over into 2005, AEman will keep his eyes on all new forms of power. Even if Howell is right about wind turbines inability to solve a significant part of the overall problem, each one that gets built represents a move away from the dispicable status quo. As New Englanders know first hand, it takes a hell of a lot of "energy" to build support for an alternative approach. We'll continue to push for alternatives, but choosing wisely among those alternatives will become increasingly important.
posted by Andy Bochman at 8:59 PM
 
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