Ecologist Cites Optimistic U.S. Study of Solar Power

[XemaSab]

The Federal Government has found that electricity can be produced by solar power on a competitive basis with other forms of generating electricity in less than a decade, Barry Commoner, the ecologist, said here today.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30B15F63A5B167493C6A91783D85F438785F9

[immoderate]

1. What year is that from?

--imm

[kristopher]

2. 1977, just as Carter was launching renewable initiatives

and 3 years before 12 years of Republican rule.

Here is where we are now:

Here Comes the Sun - The Chart Paul Krugman Left Out



http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2011/12/here-comes-the-sun-the-chart-paul-krugman-left-out


And note that this is the US; solar is better positioned in many other countries.

[immoderate]

3. Thanks, good stuff. I remember Barry Commoner...

--imm

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Reagan’s Road to Climate Perdition

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/29/reagans-road-to-climate-perdition/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Reagan’s Road to Climate Perdition[/font]
January 29, 2012

[font size=3]Exclusive: History can be seen as crossroads where people pick paths and live with the consequences, with some paths leading to grave dangers. Election 1980 was one such crossroad as Americans made the feel-good choice of Ronald Reagan over the eat-your-peas option of Jimmy Carter — taking a path to climate catastrophe, says Sam Parry.

...

“As a result of the Review, I issued the 1979 Solar Message to Congress, the first such message in the Nation’s history. The Message outlined the Administration’s solar program and established an ambitious national goal for the year 2000 of obtaining 20 percent of this Nation’s energy from solar and renewable sources. The thrust of the federal solar program is to help industry develop solar energy sources by emphasizing basic research and development of solar technologies which are not currently economic, such as photovoltaics, which generate energy directly from the sun.

...

However, after Carter was out of the White House, President Reagan not only removed the solar panels from the roof, he systematically dismantled Carter’s alternative energy and conservation initiatives. Reagan became the anti-Carter in almost every way on energy policy. Reagan slashed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s budget by 90 percent, halved the Energy Department’s conservation and alternative fuels budget, eliminated the wind investment tax credit, reduced spending on solar photovoltaic research by two-thirds, slashed energy tax credits for homeowners, and reduced fuel-efficiency standards for cars.

Due largely to Reagan’s policy reversals on alternative energy, the United States fell far short of Carter’s goal of getting 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2000, achieving about only one-quarter of that target, even less than what Carter’s policies had achieved by the early 1980s. In retrospect, it is clear that Reagan made reckless policy choices that had grave consequences for American energy security, for the environment and for the future survivability of life on planet Earth.

...[/font][/font]

[joshcryer]

5. Any time now.