Obama Energy Policy is "Wishful Thinking"

Obama wants to move the US away from coal (almost 50% of electric power generation) to renewables such as solar and wind (less than 3% of electric power generation). This is extremely bad news for the US economy, since neither wind nor solar are anywhere close to being able to take over for coal. More bad news for solar comes from a recent National Science Foundation poll of energy experts on the potential of 26 new solar technologies:

“The main point we’re trying to raise is that PV technology may not become economically attractive for large-scale electricity supply in the near term,” says Curtright. “Many low-carbon technologies will likely be cheaper than PV. If we’ve got limited funds – is PV the way to go?” asks Curtright.

But solar power is riding on a wave of enthusiasm for clean energy technologies. Around the globe, governments are introducing legislation that incentivises investment in and deployment of renewables, including PVs.

“This is a cautionary tale for policymakers,” says Curtright. “We all want PVs to work and we’ve certainly come a long way since the 1980s, but we haven’t thought through the cost implications.” _EnergyEfficiencyNews

Obama has said he will flush many billions of dollars down the wind and solar rat-hole, many years before the technology and infrastructure will be prepared to deal with large scale power from those technologies. It is, simply, wishful thinking. But then, very little solid, real world communication is coming out of this pie in the sky administration.

Perhaps we will need to wait for all the political scandals to die down, for the Obama administration to show that it is thinking in real world terms, and for some of the worst anti-energy offenders of the Pelosi / Boxer congress to get a good slap-down. Perhaps that is what the Obama administration needs to see. There is always Oynklent Green [OTC:OYNK] if all else fails.