Been working in air quality for more than a decade and now work at a headquarters level DoD component environmental office where we write policy and drive that whole "group" so to speak.
This has been a research subject of mine since I was a freshman in college; it's BS.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/If you want to make a positive change, the administration will pull it's head out of its rear, finish Yuca Mtn (or some equivalent) and build more fission plants. Additionally, we need to end this antiquated policy of not reprocessing spent fuel rods due to non-proliferation concerns; the EU has done it for years w/o incident.
There are some basic facts that cannot be overcome.
- "renewables" cannot meet baseline generation needs; no if ands or buts.
- "renewables" have environmental impacts, i.e. you gotta pay to play. Where did the carbon, glass, resin come from to produce the blades for a turbine? What about the transportation and maintenance cost of the equipment? You have to put those things in the middle of nowhere, so you also have to install a distribution system to move the power from nowhere to somewhere.
- Forcing the market to purchase renewable energy over conventional results in less efficient operation of plants and higher cost. Look into the problems that germany is having with this right now....
- Cost per MW is significantly higher for "green" energy than conventional methods.
There are common sense things we could be doing to improve environmental quality without spending trillions. I agree that the issue isn't truly env quality; it's control/power and redistribution of "equity". Go dig into the IRS and UN info on environmental taxation; it becomes clear very quickly.
The way I see it is that I'd rather have a place out in the desert where I put a sign that says "stay back, danger" and store radioactive waste instead of taking and burning coal which releases fine particulate matter which is in part composed of bioaccumulative/persistent toxic metals. Those metals are then ingested by us (and everything else) through inhalation, and ingestion from soil/water and hence food.
I could really melt your brain if I went into how lowering emissions limits in the US and driving industrial activities to other countries (China, Mex, etc) actually increases global emissions due to their lax (or nonexistent) standards... Another fun one is how plastic bags are actually better for the environment than paper (outside of the problem with disposal).
.... only came here looking for info for a project and end up doing this... ack.
