Dialing the WayBack machine to whenever... (Here's a chance for lurkers to show themselves. When DID we have this conversation?) Revisiting New Deal 2008's energy plan, with some new twists.
Ryan wants to throw in dozens of nuclear power plants. Not being afraid at all of nuclear power I have no problem with it, but the recent conversations with Baddboy did make me rethink something else we've discussed here before, alternative energy. For argument's sake, I'll use the number 50. We need fifty nuclear power plants to either augment existing nuclear power or replace aging fossil fuel burning plants.
Unless someone gets into office and slash and burns the EPA, we're still looking at 7-15 years before the new plants come online. But let's take the low end and be optimistic about our next president. $200 billion over eight years (assuming re-election, I love being an optimist!) is $25 billion a year in domestic energy production, exclusively nuclear. A very doable number when viewed against an overall annual budget that is nearly $1.5 trillion. Except there are no RESULTS until the man is out of office.
Take the same number, $25 billion annually for 8 years, and dedicate it to alternative energy production for private residents and small businesses, (wind and solar arrays) at $25K installed per average building and the same money gets you 1 million buildings off or minimally drawing from the grid PER YEAR. And the beauty of it? Same dollar figure, very little future expense as the equipment is leased to own to homeowners and small business folks. Maintaining a nuclear plant has a bunch of future expenses rolled into it. Personnel, waste, physical maintenance, and so on. McCain's push for more nuclear plants is fine, I have no problems, but isn't it more appealing to the American Conservative that hey! I own my home, I want to generate my own power. I live in SoCal or PA or NV or some place where the wind blows and the sun shines. Why the hell not? And it's not like I'm saying the Feds should GIVE the stuff away. My American Conservative homeowner will gladly pay a $200 lease bill as opposed to a $200 power bill for up to a decade when at which time the equipment is his/hers and the power it sends back to the grid puts money in his/her pocket.
When the demand on the grid starts to fall because urban domestic power generation is carrying more and more of the weight, diverting domestic petroleum products like coal and natural gas to refineries and distribution centers for automotive uses makes John Q. SUVOwner happy because filling up the Escalade with natural gas at $1.55 would make anyone happy.
"Moonshot" solutions for cars is another far away solution a new president won't see within his terms. McCain can do this NOW, as in January 2009, and see results fast. I mean, for real. How hard is it to hook up a gas station to a natural gas pipeline? Not very. How difficult is it to convert an average auto to burn natural gas? Not very. (New tank basically. Natural gas burns way cleaner than gasoline anyway. Conversion costs will be saved within a year of not spending $4 a gallon for unleaded.)
New Deal rocks.
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