Monday, May 12, 2008
News Tenn. Congressman has energy ideas ... where are Georgia lawmakers' plans?
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Mon, May 12, 2008 at 7:10 PM
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., unveiled a seven-point energy plan Friday that may seem elementary at first, but at least he's thinking out loud. He and a Democratic colleague say they will work together to develop a formal proposal that they will deliver to the next president.
From the article linked above, the senator's aims:
- Supporting plug-in electric vehicle development, including "smart metering" by utilities that would allow cheaper rates for overnight battery charging.
- Making solar power cost competitive with fossil fuels, with the promise of solar thermal power plants.
- Making biofuels cost competitive with gasoline, particularly ethanol from cellulosic materials.
- Making more new buildings energy efficient.
- Developing systems to capture and store carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.
- Developing ways to safely reprocess and store nuclear waste — the "most important breakthrough" needed to support more nuclear plants.
- Continuing research on nuclear fusion.
Each bulletpoint raises numerous questions.
If we replace today's fuel-efficient fleet with electric vehicles — which Alexander suggests we charge during the night when rates have historically been low — how many power plants are we going to need to provide all that round-the-clock electricity? How will the electricity needed to operate those vehicles be generated?
Making new buildings more energy efficient is considered one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint and make the most of what you already have, but how do you make it affordable or enticing for people to do so?
Nuclear power, while it doesn't contribute to global warming, has plenty of opponents because of its heavy use of water, high cost and potential danger to the environment.
But at least Alexander's got ideas which could spark a little debate. I've yet to see a Georgia lawmaker mention anything along these lines.
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