The Loyal Opposition -- Take 2
Recently I wrote about the need for smart criticism from those opposed to Henry Waxman's cap-and-trade plan. This week, former Virginia Governor George Allen who is out touting his new energy policy think tank, made it clear that smart criticism won't come from him. Allen did an interview with Monica Trauzzi on Energy & Environment TV. A transcript is posted at E&E here (subscription required) and Allen's talking points were positively backward. Here's a taste:
Monica Trauzzi: So, do you see a way forward about how we can handle the global warming issue legislatively then?
George Allen: Well, and this is all supposedly for global warming and they estimate 50 years from now there'll be some negligible impact on climate. Gosh, you watch the news and they'll only forecast about four or five days out and a lot of times those aren't right forecasts. I'm not a meteorologist, but they rarely get those right and they're trying to forecast 10, 50 years from now.
Wow - so wrong in so many ways. Here are a few:
Scientists are not predicting "negligible changes." They are predicting a tipping point which fundamentally alters our climate in ways that dramatically lower the quality of life.
Some changes have occurred already. Pine beetle outbreaks are decimating forests throughout the Northwest, and 160 Syrian villages have been abandoned because of prolonged and worsening droughts.
Bigger ones are on the horizon. Failure to act promptly could lead to much more serious tipping point changes, such as disappearance of the Tibetan-Hindu-Kushman glacier, which is the primary source of water for a billion people for India, Pakistan and China, three nuclear powers. The resulting tension could destabilize that part of the world. Need I say more?
Climate Scientists Don't Do the Weekend Weather. Comparing the veracity of climate scientists' predictions to the daily forecasts by the weatherman is the kind of false tautology that climate deniers love. The weathermen here in Virginia can't seem to get it right so why should we believe 10,000 climate scientists who have been studying the issue for the past two decades?
So what's George Allen's solution....wait for it....Burn more coal:
People do need to recognize though that the coal-fired power plants that are coming online now and will be coming online are far cleaner as far as emissions than they were before.
Most rational people understand we will continue using coal to generate electricity, but the point of cap-and-trade is to send price signals that stimulate the transition to renewable energy. Surely, Gov. Allen agrees with that? Nope.
There's nothing wrong with renewables and I think solar photovoltaics with advancements in nanotechnology can be helpful on individual buildings. But to think that we're going to rely on very expensive solar and wind, which is an intermittent power source for our baseload electricity is just...you're violating physics. The wind doesn't blow all the time. The sun doesn't shine all the time.
Here is a news flash, Governor: the renewable industry appears to be much closer solving the intermittent power riddle than coal is to solving the carbon sequestration issue.
I wrote about the advances recently in solar thermal power.
Similar advances are being made with wind. One company in Massachusetts is working on technology to use turbines to generate compressed air, which can be captured underground e.g., in caves or depleted gas wells. The pressurized air can be released when needed to power an electricity generator, even if wind is not spinning the turbine's blades.
If Gov. Allen - along with his new think tank - want to be taken seriously, they'll need to do their homework.
http://www.climatechangeinsights.com/admin/trackback/137969
