– I’m not surprised.
– When we had tons of cheap energy, we couldn’t be bothered to even think about preparing with alternative energy for when we didn’t. That’s a shame because we could have prepared then for the future with out much fuss or muss.
– And when energy got to be a bigger deal and folks stated talking about Peak Oil and the end of cheap energy, all the obfuscators stood up and grabbed the mike and said, “Hey, there’s no problem, the greens are just hallucinating – don’t let those worry warts spoil your party – just keep buying our oil and gas.” It would have been harder then to have prepared to switch to alternative energy, but, with effort, we could have done it.
-Â Now, that the shit’s hit the fan with the economy, we’re hearing that, “We’re too preoccupied with fixing the economy to worry about alternative energy, the environment and a host of other problems you folks have been raving about for years – we’ve got an economy to fix here. Â Â After that, we can come back and do something, perhaps, reasonable about these other problems.”
– Yeah right. Â Personally, despite all the talk and all the good reasons for doing so, I don’t think there was EVER a time when humanity was going to stand up and do the right thing and begin a fundamental switch to alternative and sustainable energy sources.
– We’re not going to begin to consider it seriously until our hair’s on fire and it is far too late to switch without a huge transition gap between the energies we’re using now and the one’s we’ve yet to build. Â And that transition gap is gonna be a son of a bitch.
= = = = = = = = = = =
HOUSTON — For all the support that the presidential candidates are expressing for renewable energy, alternative energies like wind and solar are facing big new challenges because of the credit freeze and the plunge in oil and natural gas prices.
Shares of alternative energy companies have fallen even more sharply than the rest of the stock market in recent months. The struggles of financial institutions are raising fears that investment capital for big renewable energy projects is likely to get tighter.
Advocates are concerned that if the prices for oil and gas keep falling, the incentive for utilities and consumers to buy expensive renewable energy will shrink. That is what happened in the 1980s when a decade of advances for alternative energy collapsed amid falling prices for conventional fuels.
“Everyone is in shock about what the new world is going to be,” said V. John White, executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technology, a California advocacy group. “Surely, renewable energy projects and new technologies are at risk because of their capital intensity.”
Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain both promise ambitious programs to develop various kinds of alternative energy to combat global warming and achieve energy independence.
Mr. Obama talks of creating five million new jobs in renewable energy and nearly tripling the percentage of the nation’s electricity supplied by renewables by 2025. Mr. McCain has run television advertisements showing wind turbines and has pledged to make the United States the “leader in a new international green economy.”
But after years of rapid growth, the sudden headwinds facing renewables point to slowing momentum and greater dependence on government subsidies, mandates and research financing, at a time when Washington is overloaded with economic problems.
More… ➡
– This article is from the NY Times and they insist that folks have an ID and a PW in order to read their stuff. You can get these for free just by signing up. However, a friend of mine suggests the website bugmenot.com 
as an alternative to having to do these annoying sign ups. Check it out. Thx Bruce S. for the tip.