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Clinton Promises 500 Million New Solar Panels

An anonymous reader writes: Hillary Clinton, widely regarded as most likely to win the Democrat nomination for the 2016 U.S. presidential election, has unveiled her campaign climate plan. Speaking at Iowa State University, Clinton said she would set up tax incentives for renewable energy to drive further adoption. She also set a goal of installing half a billion new solar panels within her first term, if elected. Her plan would cost roughly $60 billion over 10 years, and she intends to pay for it by cutting tax breaks to the oil and gas industry. According to The Guardian, "Clinton has promised to make the issue of climate change a key pillar of her campaign platform."

574 comments

  1. Or let us keep our hard-earned money by acoustix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about attempting to end all federal subsidies and let us keep our own money and spend it how we see fit?

    --
    "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
    1. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because that worked out beautifully so far.

    2. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not a solid way to build a stable future isn't it?

    3. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes, yes to more booze, guns and hookers. we need to spend more on that!

    4. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by danbob999 · · Score: 0

      Because that would produce too much pollution, as the cost of pollution (including global warming) isn't included in your cost.

    5. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But then people should just buy the cheapest, dirtiest energy and consumer products that they could lay their hands on, regardless of the effect on others. After a very long time lawsuits might step in the sort things out I guess. Alternatively the government could just ban all coal, gas and nuclear energy but that doesn't seem very practical.

      Subsidy of the things we, collectively, need is a good idea.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      We're talking about the U.S.A., right? I thought the last two items were merged into one...

    7. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by operagost · · Score: 1, Troll

      Everyone else is selfish and shortsighted, but you're not-- right?

      Shouldn't we collectively agree on what is needed, before we collectively decide to pay for them? Is this a democratic republic?

      Some people, like myself, buy green energy and reduce our energy use because we want to. We don't insist on taking money from hard working people so that the wealthy can install solar panels on their 3,000 sq ft homes and the green energy cronies can make millions.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    8. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because that worked out beautifully so far.

      Really? Where? I don't think it has ever been tried here in the US.

    9. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by tysonedwards · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Cutting tax breaks for oil? 3, 2, 1, aaaaand boned.

      --
      Thirty four characters live here.
    10. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by khallow · · Score: 1

      It could be a bit better I suppose. But really, what is stable about the current public spending schemes? There isn't a stable public pension fund out there in the developed world, for example. Medical care takes an increasing portion of the developed world's economies. Businesses become more and more risk clueless due to (often highly profitable) government nannying.

    11. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Shouldn't we collectively agree on what is needed, before we collectively decide to pay for them? Is this a democratic republic?

      You can have one or the other. You can be a "democratic republic" or you can decide things by "collective" agreement. Which one do you prefer?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    12. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by compro01 · · Score: 0

      Medical care takes an increasing portion of the developed world's economies

      And in other nations, it's a faction of what you spend in the USA.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    13. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by mangamuscle · · Score: 1

      are you the oil and gas industry? If so, no, you can't keep your money, miser.

    14. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We've never been able to choose where our tax dollars go! If we did, I can guarantee welfare would cease to exist.

    15. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by kenj123 · · Score: 1

      yeah, because you see you have an above average income and lifestyle and figure I know better that the average so I should be able to make all the spending decisions about my money. But the instant you hit the wall, you get long term disease, become permanently disabled in auto accident, or my fear get accidently shot by one of the gun nuts, you will be singing a different tune.

    16. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by khallow · · Score: 2

      You can have one or the other.

      Or you can have both or neither. There are four states after all, depending on which bits you set. Note here that by definition, democratic republics decide a number of things by collective agreement.

    17. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not in other developed/First World countries.

      Not in other countries that have the same level of medical resources.

      For example, in the 1990's, there were more scan machines (MRI, CT, CAT) in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, than in all of Canada. Or, the recent/current stories of the UK's NIH telling the UK public that the level of care can't remain the same and will be diminished.

    18. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What do you think these "federal subsidies" actually are? They are implemented as "letting people keep their own hard-earned money" rather than paying them in taxes.

    19. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by guruevi · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you don't mind making most foods and fuel unaffordable for the poorest. If you do decide to end all federal subsidies, you include immense amounts of farming and oil subsidies which the 'visible' subsidies between farming and oil are ~$500/person in the US.

      If you don't raise wages, a family of 4 would suddenly have to spend $2000/year more on foods and fuel alone (~$160/month). That is not even including the $6000/year that the US government gives away to other big business such as banks and tech companies, retirement funding etc just to keep these companies from destroying either the environment or the workforce.

      I would love to see our money go to 'better' companies but then you also need to stimulate a workforce that works 15-20h/week at double the current wages.

      There is simply not enough work left in the US to keep everyone employed and things have gotten way too expensive to keep anything but farming here. The US is also lagging massively behind in education starting all the way at first grade and it will take at least 20 years before the first students capable of doing a proper job will graduate IF you reform the education system. As a comparison, I graduated from a "foreign" school at 18 (basically high school) with mathematics and science at a level of a second year bachelor's student in the US (some things I learned in the last year mathematics classes were multi-variable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations and geometry and an introduction to chaos theory).

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    20. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that what you do with more money?

      With any returned $$$, many people (including me) would support education, charities, buy services, save some, buy food, go to restaurants and leave generous tips, take trips again and support other local economies.

      Even the buying of more booze, guns and hookers supports a variety of economies. Local businesses, logistic companies, manufacturers, brewers & distillers, etc. Even hooking (without mentioning the downsides) is a transfer of monies from one to another while providing something of value in return.

      My guess is that you are projecting your views of yourself on every one else. Projection is wrong on many levels and you shouldn't do it.

    21. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Things are so much better since we cut taxes for the wealthy.

      The infrastructure is crumbling and college tuition which was free or nearly free now costs more than a luxury car at state universities.

      We should have more of this dog eat dog stuff until we can share the glorious french experience of 1789 to 1799.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    22. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only for a short time. Democratic republics generally devolve to dictatorships, and the more the republic controls, the faster they devolve.

    23. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by kqs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sure it has; in the late 1800s and early 1900s there were almost no taxes and few subsidies. Everyone (but mostly the very rich) kept their money and spent it however they liked. The results were so unpleasant that the country decided that unions and OSHA, for all of their problems, were preferable to that state.

      The problem with "spending our money as we see fit" is that we ignore externalities. I live in PA; our cheapest power comes from coal plants. Coal causes really bad health problems once it is burned and released into the air; modern exhaust scrubbers help but we still end up with lots of crud entering our lungs. But the health costs are an externality to the coal plants, so coal power's price is artificially low. I still pay the total cost in higher health care costs and a shorter working life, but it doesn't appear as a line item anywhere. By subsidizing solar panels and other less-polluting energies, the hope is to spend money now to reduce medicare and health insurance costs for the next 50 years. You may believe that this will not same you money overall, or that there is a better way to go about this, but it's not an illogical or crazy plan.

    24. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by acoustix · · Score: 1

      Because if they do that the people of the red states won't pay for things like roads and schools, just cool things like NASCAR and shotguns.

      Obviously I'm talking about corporate and personal welfare programs. I'm not talking about government infrastructure. I realize the benefit in roads.

      I don't think that people realize how much more expensive some goods and services are *beacuse* they are being subsidized. The government rarely seems to pay a correct amount for these things. Plus subsidies drive up demand which drives up costs.

      --
      "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
    25. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Immerman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because market inefficiencies make certain necessary adaptations effectively impossible.

      For example, if Company A decides they want to be responsible corporate "citizens" and shift their energy consumption to sustainable sources, then they increase their costs and can no longer compete effectively with Company B unless there's a mass movement to purchase A's products because of their energy policy. And unfortunately the existence of Walmart and the like is proof enough that the mass of Americans consider up-front price to be the single most important factor in purchasing decisions, even when it increases their own long-term costs (a $50 appliance that needs to be replaced yearly is far more expensive than a $200 appliance that will last indefinitely), much less indirect social costs whose full weight won't be felt for generations.

      Granted, at the moment if we removed all fossil-fuel subsidies renewable energy would look far more competitive, but to really level the playing field we would have to also impose new penalties on "socialized-cost subsidies" that have long been grandfathered in: Coal for example imposes phenomenal pollution costs at almost every stage. If however we imposed well-structured penalties/taxes to reflect the actual cost of reversing that damage then it would be one of the most expensive energy sources available.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    26. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by hattig · · Score: 2

      Yes, ALL tax breaks for the oil and gas industry should be abolished.

    27. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by kqs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, actually. A democracy (direct or representative) uses "voting" to collectively decide things. Which is what we are doing when we go to the polls in November 2016. We'll never get 100% agreement, so you or I may decide that our opinions were ignored, but this is how democracy works. Non-collective agreements are what you get with dictators of various stripes who cannot be removed from office.

      I'd be happier if the results were less skewed by billions of dollars of legal bribery (AKA campaign funding), but we've decided that we're okay with that, unfortunately.

    28. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right. Allowing all the radicals to self identify and then allowing the 'revolutionary' process to cause them to kill each other off worked pretty well in France.

      Maybe turn some big sports arenas into "Free Speech Zones" with free or subsidized weapons would work out.

    29. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by khallow · · Score: 1

      And in other nations, it's a faction of what you spend in the USA.

      For the OECD, it's 35% (from countries like Mexico and Estonia) to 70% of the US's spending per GDP (France and Netherlands). It's considerably better than the absolute worst, but it's still a big and growing problem.

    30. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by khallow · · Score: 1

      Only for a short time.

      There we go. With a "short time" being anywhere from a short time to a very long time.

    31. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Adriax · · Score: 1

      http://roostertooths.com/trans...
      I don't think people recognize decade old humor.

      --
      I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
    32. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Captain+Hook · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't disagree with you about the external costs, but I've never been able to work out why the approximate external costs of an industry isn't directly charged to that industry as a licensing fee or additional tax charge.

      Effectively, you are picking a possible winner (in this case Solar) instead of making the industry with lots of external costs pay their way fully and letting the market find the best alternative to that (whether it be Solar, or Geothermal, or even tiny little fusion reactors in every electric toothbrush)

      --
      These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
    33. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by GoChickenFat · · Score: 0

      Do you have any facts to support your assertions of coal burning causing higher health costs? Are there no health related issues for the process of extracting the hazardous materials used for solar panels and the storage batteries needed? I live in a coal and nuclear supplied power state. I don't know of extra health costs related to either. I'll make my own claim that the hospitals and medical facilities here benefit from their own cheaper energy sources and that has helped keep costs down. I'm all for these magic Clinton solar panels at my house but I'd still like to keep my coal and nuclear, thank you very much.

    34. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by bondsbw · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm not even for charging to the industry... I'm for charging the individual entities that are responsible.

      An industry charge might look at two power companies and decide, because they both have $5 billion revenue per year and both use coal plants, both should pay $100 million in additional taxes.

      An entity charge would look at those, and recognize that the second one is focused on clean energy and produces only 5% of the emissions that the first one does, and adjust the tax bill so that the first pays 20 times as much additional tax as the second.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    35. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Bartles · · Score: 1

      What tax breaks for oil?

    36. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great idea, perhaps we could eliminate death as well as taxes.

    37. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Bartles · · Score: 1

      Which tax breaks?

    38. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Insightful

      External health costs? Do you have any idea how many highly toxic chemicals are used, in quantity, to turn polysilicon into a working solar cell? *

      Better idea: Use environmental and workplace safety laws to enforce and minimize those health costs, instead of using the concept as a cudgel to push cronyism.

      * I have worked in the solar industry - even the polycrystal and monocrystal cells use an astounding amount of toxic gases and fluids to prep and coat a solar cell, and don't ask what goes into a thin-film solar panel...

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    39. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem with subsiding solar is that it causes the market to compete for subsidies instead of produceing a good product. A better way is to loan people money to buy solar. Make sure this is viable by taxing electricity producers. Finally take the tax dollars and subsidize the loans to make sure the solar customers are paying less on their loan than they would otherwise be paying for their electric bill. That way home owners have huge incentive to get solar since it saves them money right from the start.

    40. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1, Interesting

      "immense amounts of farming and oil subsidies"

      The greatest subsidy with regard to Oil, is government taxes. The government makes a shit ton more off oil than the oil companies do. And most of the "Subsidies" being counted (Look at what is included) are heating oil subsidies for the Northern States for winter oil for poor people (yes, that is counted as an "oil subsidy"). And if you want to remove all Oil subsidies, you'll end up killing poor people who can't afford to heat their homes in the winter.

      So, yeah, lets get rid of ALL oil subsidies, and put the blame on the (D) who keep spewing their misinformation "Oil Subsidies" (AKA Lies)

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    41. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Crashmarik · · Score: 3, Funny

      yes, yes to more booze, guns and hookers. we need to spend more on that!

      Absolutely after a day of hunting, give me a curvy redhead I only have to pay once and don't have to talk to, and a bottle of good scotch and that is money well spent. At least getting screwed by the hooker is a hell of a lot more fun than having the government do it.

    42. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As someone with above average income and long term cancer (so far) I can assure you the government does not help AT ALL (private insurance stepped up very nicely). In fact they put in Obamacare which drastically increased by insurance rates and didn't improve care in the least. I'm still waiting on my first cent of "help" from the people you claim I would instantly become completely dependent on. If I did wait for them I would have become homeless and dead by now.

      So I fail to see your point in the least.

    43. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >The results were so unpleasant that the country decided that unions and OSHA, for all of their problems, were preferable to that state.

      Too bad that we didn't actually attack the issues (you know, by making it illegal to harm employees, customers and the environment). Rather, we just went with more bureaucracy, since that was working well back then, right?! All hail the system.

    44. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 0

      You can blame the "WalMart" effect on stupid taxes on small businesses, simply because they are "big corporations", which effectively put them out of business because we can't support 50% tax rates on small mom and pop shops.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    45. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know which is more shocking ...

      1) The fact you think rich people are choosing to live in homes as small as 3,000 square feet.

      OR

      2) The fact you apparently think that people who own 3,000 square foot homes are rich.

      Just to bring you up to speed, the rich are choosing homes no smaller than 5k or 6k square feet. Many are choosing homes that are 10k or more square feet.

    46. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with subsiding solar is that it causes the market to compete for subsidies instead of produceing a good product.

      Funny, never once heard that complaint about oil, but renewables come along and all of a sudden it's all hand-wringing and embarrassed shrugs...

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    47. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      All tax breaks for all companies should be abolished then. Lets just do a Flat Tax and be done with engineering our economy from DC (and all the unintended consequences that need further adjusting by government bureaucrats)

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    48. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by smaddox · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that's just what this country's over-leveraged home owners need---more loans.

    49. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Absolutely after a day of hunting, give me a curvy redhead I only have to pay once and don't have to talk to, and a bottle of good scotch and that is money well spent. At least getting screwed by the hooker is a hell of a lot more fun than having the government do it.

      Ah....my kingdom for MOD points today!!

      :)

      The govt shouldn't be in the business of trying to mold or target my behavior. I fail to find in the US Constitution where that is one of its few, enumerated responsibilities and rights...

      Look, I don't mind paying reasonable taxes, to fund common good things, schools, roads, etc. But that is best done by the states who are more directly answerable to MY needs locally.

      I earn my my money, and should be able to spend it on anything legal I wish and I should not be having external forces, like the federal govt trying to mold my behavior by penalizing me with taxation.

      That is simply NOT their job.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    50. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Tax breaks or subsidies for oil have nothing to do with enriching oil companies. They exist very simply to keep gas prices down so that the government doesn't get lynched when gas suddenly costs 12 dollars a gallon.

      I agree that these industries should pay their own way, and they probably could, but allowing oil and gas to become more price volatile would be political suicide, for Democrats as much as for Republicans.

      You won't see those subsidies go away until you have been able to get electric cars and possibly trucks on the road in force.

      At this point, I'd steer well away from those subsidies if you want to raid something for more alternative power spending. You'll never get it except maybe under Bernie, and hopefully even Bernie isn't dumb enough to try that.

    51. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      And yet, all those countries get the benefit of "not invented there, but in the US". People want cheap, they want good, and they want quality, they are surprise when they can only have any two.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    52. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      We're not okay with campaign spending. I don't think anyone is, but how else do you reach 300+ million people?

      And the bigger and more involved the Federal government gets in everyone's daily life, the worse it is going to get. There are people out there who want the government to get even bigger and responsible for more things, yet oddly cannot understand why billions of dollars are pumped into Federal campaigns.

    53. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 0

      The result of having all those regulations and such are that workers are safe, but nobody can actually work, because all those jobs are now in overseas because it is cheaper to it there, and ship it here. Yeah, that worked out well

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    54. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't disagree with you about the external costs, but I've never been able to work out why the approximate external costs of an industry isn't directly charged to that industry as a licensing fee or additional tax charge.

      Effectively, you are picking a possible winner (in this case Solar) instead of making the industry with lots of external costs pay their way fully and letting the market find the best alternative to that (whether it be Solar, or Geothermal, or even tiny little fusion reactors in every electric toothbrush)

      Good luck with getting China to pay for the stuff that wafts its way from their factories and generating stations to the USA. Good luck getting Africa to pay for the damage that tons of sand blowing across the Atlantic does. Good luck getting Kansas to pay for the orange-brown grit that gets dumped on Florida every few years.

      I'm all for getting people to pay the "real" price for what they buy - including environmental damage, lifetime maintenance and disposal costs, and so forth.

      But realistically: A) they won't B) they frequently can't C) not all of the costs are immediately obvious and D) that will make them even less likely to expend money in R&D to come up with a better solution. Today's corporate goals don't mesh with long-term benefits, whether environmental, psychological or even financial. Solar is getting closer to the magic point where financial returns are visible on the quarterly radar, but they're not there yet, which is why sometimes external forces are desirable. And government, for all its ills does have a proven track record at providing incentives when project profits don't, whether those profits are based on at-the-cash-register cost or real cost.

    55. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem with subsiding solar is that it causes the market to compete for subsidies instead of produceing a good product. A better way is to loan people money to buy solar. Make sure this is viable by taxing electricity producers. Finally take the tax dollars and subsidize the loans to make sure the solar customers are paying less on their loan than they would otherwise be paying for their electric bill. That way home owners have huge incentive to get solar since it saves them money right from the start.

      A "good product" is not always immediately apparent. That's what [i]research[/i] is for. If you have a market in solutions instead of a limited monopoly based on what a few big players can spare based on what they think will boost quarterly profits, you can have more teams taking risks to search down paths that at first glance don't look profitable.

    56. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shouldn't we collectively agree on what is needed, before we collectively decide to pay for them? Is this a democratic republic?

      She's not the president. If you don't like her polices don't vote for her.

    57. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not in other developed/First World countries.

      Not in other countries that have the same level of medical resources.

      For example, in the 1990's, there were more scan machines (MRI, CT, CAT) in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, than in all of Canada. Or, the recent/current stories of the UK's NIH telling the UK public that the level of care can't remain the same and will be diminished.

      And the former Soviet Union was positively awash in tractors.

      It's not always what you have, it's how well you can use it.

    58. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by DarkOx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Better idea: Use environmental and workplace safety laws to enforce and minimize those health costs, instead of using the concept as a cudgel to push cronyism.

      Except in 240 years of American government both under the Constitution and the Articles before it that has NEVER been successful. Cronyism has basically been the character of our government from the outset.

      The only thing that has ever worked is to tie the hands of government and the framers knew it. Power corrupts!

      A far better idea would be to eliminate liability protections, weaken the corporate veil, and stop government backed lending. Make industry responsible for the harm it can do. The tail pound from your mine leaked and now my farm land is useless. I should be able to sue the coal company for the economic value of my land and income it could have generated for my family for the next 10 generations and if the coal company goes bankrupt I should be able to collect from the share holders in proportion to the remaining liability and stock they own.

      Oil spill same deal. Heavy metal toxicity from the shit your solar panel plant releases ditto. You want people and industry to behave responsibly the solution is unlimited liability.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    59. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Barsteward · · Score: 2

      Check the Air Pollution section of this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      "High cost" can mean death not just financial

      worth a read as well http://www.env-health.org/IMG/...

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    60. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, that's just what this country's over-leveraged home owners need---more loans.

      And exactly who held a gun to those home owners' heads and forced them to take out loans way beyond their means?

      If you don't know how to live within your means, manage your money like an adult, and overstretch yourself fiscally and fuckup and blow it and lose it....exactly who's fault is that?

      And why would anyone suggest other folks having to be there to catch them when they fall?

      The US is supposed to be free...free to succeed and free to fuck up.

      Most good lessons in life are learned more from fucking up and having to deal with the repercussions.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    61. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by kheldan · · Score: 1

      Tell you what, friend:
      First, you show us your degree(s) in economics. Next, show us your detailed analysis of the U.S. economy, in three modes: (1) As it currently stands, (2) With Hilary Clinton's proposals implemented, and (3) With your suggestion to 'end all Federal subsidies' implemented.
      Otherwise, it just sounds like you're just being a complainer.
      Honestly, I sympathize with you, I'd like it if my wages were tax-free. But even without having a PhD in economics myself, my own common sense tells me that yanking the rug out from under any number of industries in the U.S. like that probably wouldn't be very good for the overall economy. Also, it seems to me that people don't like change, and will resist it, so sometimes in order for a change for the better to happen, there needs to be a nudge from the outside to get things moving. Just my opinions, mind you. What isn't my opinion is that fossil fuels are, and always have been, a limited resource, their use not very good for the environment, and we're sooner or later going to have to move away from them. Sooner would be better. Solar is one of several, non-mutually-exclusive paths away from fossil fuels. Seems like a better way to spend taxpayer money than on, say, more on the military, don't you think?

      --
      Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    62. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Ravaldy · · Score: 1

      Although it sounds perfect it's not. Tax breaks aren't all used for evil such as paying back campaign funding sources. There are legitimate reasons for providing certain industries tax breaks.

    63. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The phrase is "good, fast, cheap; pick two". Good and Quality are equivalent.

    64. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by ultranova · · Score: 1

      We're not okay with campaign spending. I don't think anyone is, but how else do you reach 300+ million people?

      Via the Internet, of course. Have each candidate publish a profile on candidates.gov.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    65. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So tell me, hows your solar panels coming along? Or are you waiting for government edict to put them in place?

    66. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      God wants us to use oil!

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    67. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Wait ... are you talking about the time period where the US became a world superpower?

      Or when US citizens gained cheap access to easily manufactured goods and became more affluent then their overseas counterparts?

      Or what time period are you referring to?

    68. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      You can wave at him from Zimbabwe, dude.

    69. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by chilenexus · · Score: 2

      As it is, we export much of our pollution production to China, since they provide the labor so much cheaper - because they don't bother much with pollution controls, workplace safety, or fair labor practices. They manufacture the goods and produce so much pollution that large cities have visibility reduced to only a few hundred meters. And we know that pollution on scales like that is not going to stay a local phenomenon, as winds blow, climates change, and wildlife dies.

      http://www.usatoday.com/story/...

    70. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think safety has all that much to do with it. Working 20 hours a day with shit standards of living is what makes things cheap. You wish that in your fellow man? Well I wish that on you then.

    71. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure... keep telling yourself that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    72. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So the US was like Somalia when it was less socialistic? Do you not see a difference between government overreach - or more exactly the Federal Government vastly overreaching in its roll - and Somalia like anarchy? If you want to have an honest discussion then you must be honest in your arguments.

    73. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 2

      You wish that in your fellow man?

      I don't wish that on anyone. Nobody does. And yet, we all still buy the stuff that is made in those factories. And instead of Americans working, we have Chinese working. We just moved the problem to another place. That is how economics solves problems (routing around them)

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    74. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by LifesABeach · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My questions to Clinton is, "Only big business is involved? Why can't americans be involved also?"

    75. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      Taxes (all of them) are regressive. Tax subsidies only make it more so.

      And the bigger issue is that the people who own oil companies are typically everyone that has a mutual fund (most Americans). There are very few people that hold substantial positions in most oil companies. So, while the left cries about "Big Oil" as if it is completely detached from everything else, the reality is, those very same people often benefit from "Big Oil" in their portfolios.

      I would love to see a "Left Wing Mutual Fund" that is fully divested of all the "bad" things that left wing protests about, and follows all the left wing bullshit they want others to follow. My guess is, that without substantial government "investments" it would simply be a big fail, which is why you don't actually ever see one.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    76. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by SydShamino · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So we think, now, 30 years after the fact, that the large amount of lead being released into the air from the automotive industry was responsible for the drastic increases in violent crime in the 1960s and 1970s.

      Even supposing we hadn't banned leaded gasoline, how exactly do you think the oil and gas industry would take to new efforts to tax their products today? Do you think consumers would enjoy it? Can we ever prove 100% that this was the cause? How many years back would we need to try to retroactively collect these taxes? Can we even legally do so? Just exactly how much do value do you assign to damaging a baby or young child's brain so that you can appropriate tax gasoline for the effect?

      Now take everything I just said and apply it to carbon dioxide and global climate change and see how well it's working.

      When applied to the commons - primarily the environment - unregulated capitalism is an absolute failure. Attempting to apply more market forces to it only works if your goal is to hasten the revolution that swings things too far in some other direction.

      --
      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
    77. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Google it bitch.

    78. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by SydShamino · · Score: 1

      The tail pound from your mine leaked and now my farm land is useless. I should be able to sue the coal company for the economic value of my land and income it could have generated for my family for the next 10 generations and if the coal company goes bankrupt I should be able to collect from the share holders in proportion to the remaining liability and stock they own.

      What about the share holders who sold out before the leak was discovered? What if the owner died and the money was passed on to heirs? What about the ones that moved to another country? Let's say the leaking pond contaminated your drinking water, and coincidentally two of your children have mental development disorders, which of course you can never prove came from that leak? How much cash is worth that?

      --
      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
    79. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's a tu quoque fallacy. Just because someone else does something wrong doesn't mean it isn't still wrong. Your bias is showing.

    80. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that the mass of Americans consider up-front price to be the single most important factor

      But you clearly know what's better for them don't you? Yes, if we could just let the intellectual elites like yourself run everything, we'd be alright. Who cares anything about freedom when we have Immerman the know-it-all to tell us how things should be.

    81. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What tax breaks? The only one I know of is expedited depreciation - and I don't consider that to be a tax break.

    82. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Firethorn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      An entity charge would look at those, and recognize that the second one is focused on clean energy and produces only 5% of the emissions that the first one does, and adjust the tax bill so that the first pays 20 times as much additional tax as the second.

      Amazingly similar to what I proposed once, though I got jumped on it a bit.

      I said that I'd get rid of all the 'thou shalt do' regulations in the EPA, the allowances and grandfathering, etc...

      Instead, I'd charge for any pollution. Your power plant emits 1 ton of mercury into the atmosphere a year? That will be $X.

      Figure out approximately how much damage X type of pollution in Y type(air, water, ground) causes - environment, medical, death, etc... Multiply by 110% or so to cover the administration costs. Charge the company.

      Internalizing an external cost. Is the pollution not really that big of a deal, and cost-ineffective to handle? Pay the tax. Is it a big deal and it is cost-effective to remediate? They do that. Is it a big deal but not cost-effective? Obviously that economic activity is self-destructive to the country and needs to cease.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    83. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Huge_UID · · Score: 1

      or even tiny little fusion reactors in every electric toothbrush

      Link please. I couldn't find these on Amazon.

    84. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      Look, I don't mind paying reasonable taxes [...]

      Nobody does. Of course, we have wildly different ideas of what is "reasonable."

    85. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I also learned many of those things in high school, in the US.

      Comparing your personal education to the average education in the US is silly. Calculus AB and BC are the college level Calculus courses in the US, they are offered in high school for those smart enough to take them. In science they offered college level Physics and Chemistry (at least), I took Physics in high school myself.

      Most of the problems the US education system has have to do with the inner cities and the way averages work. There is a large population in the US who doesn't care if their kids pass or fail, and it falls back on the state to somehow ensure that they get the education they deserve, but without parental involvement, education is unlikely to succeed. There are no good solutions to this problem, and unfortunately the problem only seems to get worse. These schools are in low income areas, so there is less money to spend on the schools (schools are funded from property taxes). As the schools are doing poorly already, most federal funding that is doled out based on standardized test scores, totally misses these schools as they do horribly on standardized tests as well. It is unfortunate that the US has a position of scorn towards those who have an education, but this is some of the results of the society. A society that calls athletes heroes and values them above a scientist has lost its way.
       

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    86. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      All you can do is use the 'best settled science' of the time. In the case of leaded gasoline, it would quickly have grown more expensive than unleaded. End result of a switchover probably about as fast as happened in history, but you wouldn't have had cheap bums like my grandfather using an adapter so he could feed the cheaper leaded gasoline into his unleaded-only car, ruining the catalytic converter in the process.

      Basically, if the harm was unknown at the time, oh well. But jack the prices up appropriately NOW.

      Just exactly how much do value do you assign to damaging a baby or young child's brain so that you can appropriate tax gasoline for the effect?

      Statistics and actuarial tables, of course. The damage is estimated to affect X kids, cost Y amount of extra medical care, Z amount of extra law enforcement, they'll make $A less in their life, etc... Add it all up, figure out about how much damage is caused per gallon, and charge about 110% of that.

      Do you think consumers would enjoy it?

      Part of the problem is that consumers, people, want their cake and to eat it too. They also tend to be a touch short-sighted. You ask your average consumer about how much they like pollution, and you'll get that they don't. But they'll keep doing polluting activities for various reasons.

      Can we ever prove 100% that this was the cause?

      Not even courts of law operated on a 100% surety principle. In this case, somewhere between 'probable cause' and 'beyond a reasonable doubt' should be sufficient. We're not talking about proving that factory A caused baby X's disability. We're saying that, statistically speaking, factory A is responsible for a number of baby X's, and it's thus their responsibility to pay for it.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    87. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      Easy.

      Extracting materials for and creating solar panels: There are some, but it's sort of like worrying about the CO2 release from the concrete used to build a nuclear plant as 'greenhouse gas emissions' for the electricity the nuclear plant produces. Over the life of the panel, said health related issues dwindle to relative insignificance. A solar panel is net healthier for humans than even 'clean' US combustion within the first year.

      I'll make my own claim that the hospitals and medical facilities here benefit from their own cheaper energy sources and that has helped keep costs down

      Let's assess:
      First, yes, cheaper power does help keep medical costs down. I'd challenge you to find any source that shows that electricity is a significant expense for said medical facilities.
      Second, a better way to look at it is balancing slightly cheaper household expenses and services, including medical, from cheaper power up against the extra expenses from the additional medical care.

      In the case of coal power, it's often found that the external costs per kWh is actually DOUBLE that of the internal costs. So if you get $50 of electricity from coal, it's actually costing you $150. This translates to you, on average, getting one extra upper respiratory tract infection each year, plus a small chance of lung cancer or other serious illness that can lead to death.

      Yes, it's actually cheaper to spend $100 on cleaner electricity in the first place.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    88. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Zalbik · · Score: 1

      Not in other developed/First World countries.

      Not in other countries that have the same level of medical resources.

      For example, in the 1990's, there were more scan machines (MRI, CT, CAT) in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, than in all of Canada. Or, the recent/current stories of the UK's NIH telling the UK public that the level of care can't remain the same and will be diminished.

      And yet studies show the overall quality of health care and life expectancy to be higher in Canada.

      Perhaps the quality of health care shouldn't be determined by the number of MRI machines purchased?

    89. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      External health costs? Do you have any idea how many highly toxic chemicals are used, in quantity, to turn polysilicon into a working solar cell? *

      Actually I do. You can find 'most' of them being released when coal is being burned for power, in sufficient quantities that the quantity of 'nastiness' per kWh is far, far lower with solar panels than with coal.

      It's a bit like nuclear power - sure, the nastiness of the involved materials is far worse per kilogram than with coal, but we use so much coal per kWh that it ends up dirtier, especially since it can't be completely contained.

      I may not agree with the methods, but I'm willing to put up with a lot to get rid of coal.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    90. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Zalbik · · Score: 4, Informative

      Then whose job is it to address global concerns?

      You are aware of the idea of the tragedy of the commons, correct?

      Do you really expect the free market to magically solve global issues where the problem domain exists in the tens to hundreds of years rather than the next fiscal quarter? Why would it?

    91. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you think that government is going to tax the wealthy to pay for everything I've got a miracle elixir to sell you that will cure any disease, soak up radiation, suck CO2 out of the air and make trees bear fruit of pure gold. One way or another the bulk of the revenue is coming out of the working/middle class. The best we can hope is to remove all of the loopholes & hiding places for the wealthy by removing all deductions & exemption and instituting a simple, idiot proof flat tax.

    92. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2

      Aye, and if you count the two trillion dollars we spent to protect oil fields, the subsidies are much higher than people realize for oil.

      Imagine ... if we didn't do that. And oil went to $300 a barrel. We would have automatically gone to less expensive cars, solar would have surged into demand along with other alternative energies. We might have even worked on smaller, safer self contained- no human intervention nuclear power.

      But since we engage in massive subsidies for sports stadiums, oil companies, banking companies-- I think the benefit (much lower cost solar panels) of subsidizing the early expensive iterations of solar panels will be a good bang for the buck. And reduce our need to spend two trillion dollars again in the future.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    93. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Zalbik · · Score: 1

      Shouldn't we collectively agree on what is needed, before we collectively decide to pay for them? Is this a democratic republic?

      Yes, we should have candidates who clearly state what they intend to have the government pay for then we can collectively decide whether to vote for those candidates or not.

      oh, wait....

    94. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      And that's why we vote. To come to a democratic, collective decision.

      And each of us tolerates the decisions we were in the minority on.

      I don't like subsidizing sports stadiums but they got 51% of the vote.

      I voted republican for Reagan and Bush Sr. and then the republicans went bat shit crazy (measurably so on 528.com) with reagan republicans having a '32" conservative ranking while Ted Cruz has a over 60 ( I think it's "68"). Democrats have stayed about the same in the 20's.

      So now, I vote democratic. I don't like all they stand for but no way I'm voting for the extreme right wing conservative party the republicans have become. But... if 51% of the country elects a republican candidate then I'll tolerate it for 4 years because that's the collective decision of our democratic republic.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    95. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Immerman · · Score: 1

      No, that is why we have regulation by an ideally democratic government - to impose those rules upon the entire marketplace that cannot realistically be instated any other way. Because just like most other Tragedy of the Commons situations, if everyone behaves with rational self-interest, then everybody loses. It's only by having rules imposed by a collectively empowered authority that we can align rational self-interest and our own best interests.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    96. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by kqs · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Why does personal responsibility only apply to the poor, not the bankers?

      Blaming the people who took out loans they could not repay is a good idea. (Though it seems that many of those people were lied to by their mortgage brokers about variable rates and balloon loans, but still, people should know better.)

      But I'm surprised that you don't blame the mortgage brokers who falsified the mortgage applications. Or the bank approval officers who approved the applications which contained ludicrous data. Or the people who chopped up the mortgages into tranches, or who rated the crap mortgages AAA, or who bought them for their pensions funds, etc.

      You are blaming the people with absolutely no financial training and who only saw a tiny piece of the landscape, but are giving a free pass to all of the financial experts who saw the whole rotten thing. Why?

      Oh, right, because we bailed out the banks so bankers' only repercussions were 6-8 figure annual bonuses. Once again, why do you want personal responsibility to only apply to the poor, not the bankers?

    97. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by guruevi · · Score: 1

      I understand there are some tracks in the US that allow you to take advanced college-level classes but those seem to be elected rather than mandatory. I'm not talking AP-courses that prep a (rich) kid for college. I am talking about 'basic, mandatory by the state education'.

      I went to one of the worst schools in my area, inner-city (positioned next to a red light district) only because they were the only one with an electrical/electronics track education in the area. They closed a few years after my graduation due to an increasing crime problem amongst students. My elected classes were an additional 8-12h/week on top of the regular school hours (no course replacement)

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    98. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by kqs · · Score: 1

      Nope. We became a world superpower around WW1 and WW2, well after the unions came around. It's harder to be a superpower when your citizens are wage slaves. (Not impossible, but harder.)

      And we gained access to manufactured goods and became affluent when unions raised the factory wages from poverty to middle class. Seriously, look this stuff up; look at when unions gained power and when the median lifestyle in the US improved and when the US began projecting power around the world. Your comments show that you really don't know US history at all.

    99. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by GonzoPhysicist · · Score: 1

      That might be true if you lived in a bubble and your behavior never affected another person. I'm pretty sure this is not the case.

      --
      horror vacui
    100. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by kqs · · Score: 1

      It's hard to charge the local steel mills (which closed 30+ years ago) for the current respiratory problems of people who played outside as kids back when the mills were running. Most externalities have long time lags.

      But we *are* trying to charge industries for externalities. We use cap-and-trade, carbon credits, etc. But that only works when the companies don't control the re-election funds of those who create and enforce those programs. Sure, charging the coal plants more would be the right choice, but that's not an option, so we can either subsidize solar (and wind, waves, nuclear, etc) or we can do nothing. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

    101. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      I'm fine with that, so long as said flat tax also extends to capital gains. We could even just take the present budget, measure the current taxation income, and work out a flat tax rate for personal+corporate+capital, and see what it'd need to be to maintain the same level of it. I'm pretty certain that the end result would end up way better for the 99%. Which is exactly why such a thing would never pass in DC.

    102. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by ThatsDrDangerToYou · · Score: 1

      Don't fergit to head into town (to the liquor store when that scotch runs low), rollin' coal style:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    103. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      Taxes are regressive. CapGains is probably the worst of the regressive taxes. Why are we punishing people who invest?

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    104. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not a bad idea, except where does that money go? Surely you don't believe such a cash pot will be allowed to offset pollution and pay for the administrative costs and go nowhere else.

    105. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Well, why are we punishing people who earn money through hard work? Why is sweat-of-the-brow taxed higher than rent?

      As long as you have one rate set higher than the other, you can make that argument either way. Why not set a single flat rate on all kinds of income? Isn't it only fair?

    106. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      The govt shouldn't be in the business of trying to mold or target my behavior. I fail to find in the US Constitution where that is one of its few, enumerated responsibilities and rights...

      You're looking for the General Welfare Clause, which has been a hotly debated topic since shortly after the constitution was ratified if not before.

    107. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, exactly If Team America: Air Police jumps in and mandates expensive, toxic, inefficient solar panels, all the global issues will be solved in the next fiscal quarter. Brilliant.

    108. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 1

      Oh that is twisted... these people are dangerously ignorant.

    109. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by GoChickenFat · · Score: 2
      This is an interesting assertion that I would like to know more about. can you provide any sources for reference?

      In the case of coal power, it's often found that the external costs per kWh is actually DOUBLE that of the internal costs. So if you get $50 of electricity from coal, it's actually costing you $150. This translates to you, on average, getting one extra upper respiratory tract infection each year, plus a small chance of lung cancer or other serious illness that can lead to death.

      Yes, it's actually cheaper to spend $100 on cleaner electricity in the first place.

      I live in coal fired power land and in my 4 decades I've never had an upper respiratory infection and neither has any of my immediate family. I also don't see respiratory issues in my friends and coworkers outside of those that smoke. For reference I can see a natural gas power plant out my window and I could drive 50 miles either way to a coal power plant - 100 miles to nuclear. My electricity cost is $.10/kwh.
      Also, the following article give some insight to the high energy usage by at least hospitals: http://www.eia.gov/consumption... quote from article: "The 2003 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) data showed that large hospitals (greater than 200,000 square feet) accounted for less than 1 percent of all commercial buildings and 2 percent of commercial floorspace, but consumed 4.3 percent of the total delivered energy used by the commercial sector in 2003"

    110. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by GoChickenFat · · Score: 1

      I could also die from a wreck in my electric car or by falling off my roof while cleaning snow off my solar panels. In those cases I paid extra for the opportunity to die but my general health care costs didn't go down because I bought into either.

    111. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by GoChickenFat · · Score: 1

      Nice job troll. What's the point in visiting slashdot if all answers are a simple google a way...there's no intelligent discussion in that.

    112. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Trust me, if this "cut all the subsidies" idea was really popular, it would happen. Imagine what would happen if voters were happier with a Senator who worked to cut $50G from the Federal budget than one who got $1G of pork for his or her home state.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    113. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The next question is how many of those poisons get out of the manufacturing facility? I don't really care if an industrial plant creates or uses toxic chemicals, provided they keep them away from people.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    114. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The definition of a regressive tax is one that affect the poor more than the rich (FICA is a good example here). Not all taxes are regressive.

      About 45% of US households own mutual funds, which is not "most".

      As far as a "left wing mutual fund" goes, my mother bought stocks based on how much she liked the companies, and she was very left-wing. Her stock selections have done very, very well over time. That's at least some evidence against your unthinking blatant assertion.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    115. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I fail to find in the US Constitution

      Yeah, we know. You're really lousy at reading that document.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    116. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Industry one realize that it is cheaper to pay politicians and Harvard fees to a whole generation of kids to ensure that policies that protect his industry and hinder other competing industry get passed that clean their act and play fair and since we are talking one of the 3 top business moving money (the other 2 being weapons and drugs) that where we are today
      Meanwhile banks ensure there is enough liquidity, want some shares?
      Better does not ensure a win Betamax was better, VHS won

    117. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It helps keeping 10% of the populace below the poverty level and at the same time feeding them advertisements and the American dream so they keep spending any penny they can get in the latest cheap shiny wall mart offer just to feel normal

    118. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by ndogg · · Score: 1

      I don't disagree with you about the external costs, but I've never been able to work out why the approximate external costs of an industry isn't directly charged to that industry as a licensing fee or additional tax charge.

      Because there's never enough political capital to make that happen. The industry would succeed in fighting it by spouting scary words like, "big government."

      --
      // file: mice.h
      #include "frickin_lasers.h"
    119. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except for the fact that that doesn't work and is a huge Erin Brockovich to fix.

      In the land of all things money those with make the rules, and if they ruin a small farm that has been about for 200 years the cost of the lawsuit would be tremendous, out of fear the majority of people would not attempt this.

      Power does not corrupt, absolute power corrupts, you would do well to know the difference. The reason we have checks and balances in our system is to make sure that any one branch can't do too much beyond the power of the constitution to do. This requires all three branches to do their jobs however. This is the major problem with Corporate free speech in terms of campaign donations. You have "people" that speak much much louder than others and that isn't always whats best for the country.

      The bigger problem I see here is that the largest solar producers are in China, so we should probably specify where all these solar cells should be manufactured. Otherwise it is like the bailout all over again with money going everywhere except for where it is needed most.

    120. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So basically get companies to be valued on the triple bottom line.

    121. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      It happened from the 1930s to 1970s. No reason it can't happen again.

    122. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a somewhat hard left I find this is one of a few areas where they are crazy. Climate change is not a real concern, we may want to spend money on research grants to help it along but it wasn't even a concern when Al Gore made his video.

      It only seemed like that then, and still seems like that today, because we are stuck with our evolved brains that can't comprehend the exponential progress of technology. Solar is a few short years away from being grid parity for roof tops all over the world, Australia reached it in 2011 (claims of US states doing so is only due to subsidies for a few of them atm), by 2025 you would not find anywhere in the world where coal could remotely compete with the price of solar unless you had massive fossil fuel subsidies.

      Throw in the improvements in batteries, lithium if you want or one of the many new ones being done by various entities that are more environmentally friendly and don't degrade as quickly ( sure many might not make it to mass production and market, but one just might I personally like Ambri ) and again already in Australia a powerwall (once you can actually buy one) + solar on your roof is more cost effective than staying on the grid ( you will make back your money before the warranty on both runs out ) give it a few years and this will happen globally.

      Now doing so will harm many people, upping the price for the poor who rent or can't afford to buy solar and batteries and apartment dwellers will probably have to push their city mayor to build their own little solar farm. I'm not too experienced in this area, so my flaws are probably obvious. This is the only area I have some concern over, the gap between partial renewable adoption and complete adoption.

      If you only look closely you will see many solar research claims that all seem to fail to come to market, but zoom out a little and this is how the exponential curve continues, many failures and a couple successes. This isn't Kurzweil's true AI is coming in 2029 exponential prediction, the word exponential seems to conjure up kurzweil these days. It has held true since the 70's and if it holds true for a few more years, then "the market" might actually work to solve this before it becomes a problem and no amount of mining bribes will be able to stop it, just slow it down a little as again you can see in coal loving Australia where its leader has fooled many into believing renewables are ugly and evil while coal is good for humanity (not making that up). This might actually be beneficial too, later to adoption will give better tech for cheaper, but research and development wise it may do more harm by missing potential profits.

    123. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Vitriol+Angst · · Score: 1

      A lot of the sub-prime loans went to people with the credit to allow them to get LOWER interest loans. People don't remember that the Republicans partially privatized Fannie Mac and Freddie Mae and that made them profit-oriented.

      You know what happens to mortgagers who get higher interest? It's harder to pay off the loan.

      The "leveraging" -- was mostly from the financial institutions who bundled the sub prime loans with insurance and traded it, sometimes as much as 20x the value of the "deposit" because they could say it was based on a mortgage. Did anyone hold a gun to the financial institutions head and force them to end Glass Stegal (which prevented such investments)?

      Of course, the poor was hurt and the wealthy -- not at all.

      So "personal responsibility" seems voided when ".inc" comes after the name.

      --
      >>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
    124. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by JWW · · Score: 1

      Yes because total control of the commons worked SOOO well for the Soviet Union and their satellites. Governments with total common ownership are responsible for the worst ecological catastrophies in history. Even today, China, with total control of their energy industry, has the worst air pollution in the world.

      Face it, the idea that command and control is the only way is a total lie. An open and free market for technological innovation will save the environment, not mimicking failed God damned central planning from last century.

    125. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree with you in principal... But it is more likely that the healthcare industry will just pocket the savings instead of passing on to the consumer... Which is fine for libtArds since it equates to more revenue from taxes

    126. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by dryeo · · Score: 1

      So you're suggesting spending years and lots of money trying to prove that the tailing pond leak ruined your farm land while the mining company uses their experts to prove that the tailings were safe and of course they're willing to stretch the court case and appeals out for years. Meanwhile your land is worthless, the bank (that has investments in the mine) won't give you a loan and you have no way to make a living.
      Or as was the case one place I lived, by the time it was obvious that arsenic was leaking into the river, the mine (actually they were reprocessing tailings) owners had moved to Bermuda.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    127. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sq feet is a super shitty metric of wealth I can get 10k sq ft cheaper in Wyoming than 1k sq ft in mannhatten

    128. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ahh the Somalia Gambit. Used by effete cunts everywhere to really stick it to anyone they imagine to be vaguely Libertarianish..

    129. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      There is no such thing as an idiot proof flat tax.

      Businesses by their nature have very complicated taxes. We'll let them write off a $45,000 truck to deliver product but not a $45,000 mercedes (unless you are in the limo business in which case, you might be able to after all).

      Wealthy people, by their nature, have very complicated taxes. Is this a business trip or a holiday? Is this a business lunch or a personal lunch?

      We can reduce the loopholes (temporarily) but corporate bought representatives will put them right back in. The flat tax by it's nature is either regressive OR has a massive deduction for everyone which means many of the poorest won't be paying taxes (just like now).

      Each share of the national spending last year was $10,000 for every baby, child, senior, and working person. It's about $20,000 if you restrict it to adults who have earnings. That means- unless people can earn well over $20,000 there is not point in working under a totally flat tax. Which means it must be progressive (you have to take money from those who have money to pay).

      AND it ignores state and local taxes which are currently higher on the poor than the middle class and higher on the middle class than on the wealthy in every single state. In some states, it's 12.9% for the poorest but under 1% for the wealthiest.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    130. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by tbannist · · Score: 1

      An open and free market for technological innovation will save the environment, not mimicking failed God damned central planning from last century.

      No, it won't. Most corporations aren't in the business of protecting the environment, so they won't. And that is really all there is to it: bottom line, if the people running a corporation don't think protecting the environment will improve the quarterly earnings, they won't do it. If you want to protect the environment you are going to need checks and balances, and in this world, that means government intervention.

      It seems that, to mangle an aphorism, absolute power corrupts the environment absolutely.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    131. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by tbannist · · Score: 1

      I would love to see a "Left Wing Mutual Fund" that is fully divested of all the "bad" things that left wing protests about, and follows all the left wing bullshit they want others to follow. My guess is, that without substantial government "investments" it would simply be a big fail, which is why you don't actually ever see one.

      Maybe you don't see them because you aren't looking?

      Your comment caught my attention because it displayed staggeringly colossal ignorance, it took me a few seconds to find those.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    132. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck her. One more govt takeover fuckup dumb bitch who wants to ride the climate change facadeof even more takeover.

    133. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because NEGROES, that's why!

      Duh!

      * this message brought to you by the same inbred pinheads who think having Trump for president is a darn fine eye-dee-ur!

    134. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

      External health costs? Do you have any idea how many highly toxic chemicals are used, in quantity, to turn polysilicon into a working solar cell?

      No, but a better way to frame this question would be, "Do you have any idea how many highly toxic chemicals are emitted into the environment, in quantity, to turn polysilicon into a working solar cell?"

      Nuclear energy is toxic, but if you put the toxic stuff in a box and store it under a mountain, then it is much less of a concern to me.

    135. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

      The US is supposed to be free...free to succeed and free to fuck up.

      Most good lessons in life are learned more from fucking up and having to deal with the repercussions.

      That's fine if you live in a bubble, but when your fuck-up negatively affects my life then the only path is chaos.
      Freedom is relative across all of society. And the most free a society can get is when there are rules in place that ensure other's behaviour impact your life as little as possible. Freedom has never meant 'everyone do whatever they like'.

    136. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      i think you are missing the point. Your 2 examples are down to your or someone else's stupidity, not from the solar power generation itself.

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    137. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I live in PA, too....and I've never gone to the doctor's office/hospital for treatment of coal-emitted respiratory problems....and I don't personally know anyone who has...

    138. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      * I have worked in the solar industry - even the polycrystal and monocrystal cells use an astounding amount of toxic gases and fluids to prep and coat a solar cell

      Virtually anything in modern industry does. That's hardly an argument against solar cells. Is there a law of nature saying you're required to have those toxic compounds leak, otherwise the panel won't work? No? I thought so. Compare this with, for example, gasoline car exhaust...

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    139. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by siliconsmiley · · Score: 1

      In some cases, there are concerns beyond market forces. Burning carbon fuels will always (or at least for the foreseeable future) be cheaper than generating electricity in another way. The cost is in the damage to the atmosphere, not the economy. The atmosphere is not subject to market forces.

    140. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem with our "representative democracy" is that even though the MAJORITY votes on something, Liberal Minorities always... ALWAYS bitch and whine and connive and use the legal system's activist judges to rewrite laws to subvert the majority...
      Don't agree with me?
      Here's a couple examples: Gay Marriage Amendments and laws in the states. Obamacare.
         

    141. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by stephenmac7 · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but I don't quite understand what you mean by "good." Cheap and quality should be enough for anyone. Many people will even take just cheap, as evidenced by the success of Walmart.

      --
      "No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session." -- Judge Gideon J. Tucker
    142. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by GPS+Pilot · · Score: 1

      Funny, never once heard that complaint about oil

      Maybe that's because the oil industry has never been subsidized. It has received tax breaks, perhaps, but not subsidies. Learn the difference:

      * A subsidy is money transferred from government to an unprofitable enterprise, so it can continue to operate. Example: Amtrak, which has never paid taxes. (Only profits are taxed, and Amtrak has never made a profit.)
      * A tax break is a reduction in the amount of money transferred from a profitable enterprise to the government.

      If tax breaks are the same thing as subsidies, then Amtrak has received tax breaks. And it's impossible for an entity that has never paid taxes to have its taxes reduced. From this it should be obvious that tax breaks are not the same thing as subsidies.

      --
      That that is is that that that that is not is not.
    143. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by speshal_K · · Score: 1

      My fear is that the time and energy to determine the external cost in dollars would be either impossible or too costly to ever actually do.

    144. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 1

      That's...beautiful. Enjoy your irrelevancy.

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    145. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      My fear is that the time and energy to determine the external cost in dollars would be either impossible or too costly to ever actually do.

      Now, this might sound 'mean', but we already do it. We have professionals at it. Actuaries. They have tables and you plug the numbers in and it spits out an estimate.

      Please note that I said 'approximately'. It's impossible to determine 'exactly' how much damage coal plant X does, partially because it's dependent upon population density, the amount of power it produces, the dominant winds, rain patterns, etc...

      What we can do is figure out a pretty close estimate on how much damage ALL the coal plants cause via the various pollutants, then look at Plant X, determine what it's producing via sampling, then charge for it.

      If it lacks a certain control against mercury emission, for example, it's costs per kWh are going to be substantially increased because it has to pay for it.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    146. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by GPS+Pilot · · Score: 1

      Enjoy your irrelevancy.

      That's hilarious... the explanation I laid out is the only thing that's relevant every time the oil industry is bashed with the old "subsidies" red herring.

      --
      That that is is that that that that is not is not.
    147. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by jwhitener · · Score: 1

      I don't disagree with you about the external costs, but I've never been able to work out why the approximate external costs of an industry isn't directly charged to that industry as a licensing fee or additional tax charge.

      Lobbying has led to almost all wealthy industries being able to capitalize profit while socializing the external cost. See oil/coal/gas, Wall Street, etc..

      If 'big money' wasn't such an influence on Congress, I suspect we would have made companies pay for damage they do a long time ago.

    148. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by jwhitener · · Score: 1

      External health costs? Do you have any idea how many highly toxic chemicals are used, in quantity, to turn polysilicon into a working solar cell? *

      And are those toxic chemicals burned or vented directly into the air in huge smoke stacks like coal/oil?

    149. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by jwhitener · · Score: 1

      I'd be happier if the results were less skewed by billions of dollars of legal bribery (AKA campaign funding), but we've decided that we're okay with that, unfortunately.

      5-4 Supreme court justices are OK with that. But polls show that the majority are not OK with that.
      http://crooksandliars.com/2015/06/ny-timescbs-poll-concurs-americans-hate
      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/17/AR2010021701151.html

      Over the years I've become a one issue voter: getting the influence of money out of politics.

    150. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by jwhitener · · Score: 1

      Do you really expect the free market to magically solve global issues where the problem domain exists in the tens to hundreds of years rather than the next fiscal quarter? Why would it?

      People of that ideological framework conveniently ignore periods of time when the Federal Government had very little power. And ignore examples around the world right now where government is ineffective. So yes, they really do expect the free market forces to magically preserve 'the commons'.

    151. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 1

      Lol, look at the nerd doubling down!

      the oil industry is bashed

      Except that wasn't was I was talking about. Nice job going OT.

      the explanation I laid out is the only thing that's relevant

      How wonderfully egotistical. I think I've found my new slashdot poster boy...

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    152. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      The only thing that has ever worked is to tie the hands of government and the framers knew it.

      That's putting your Randian clown shoes on. Pretending that banning lead paint is one step away from Soviet gulags is as sensible as saying that starting your own software consulting business is one step away from trafficking human sex slaves. Because what one business does, all businesses will do.

      As sensible....or as asinine.

  2. Too much by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 4, Funny

    She's getting a little ahead of herself there. She's assuming she will beat Trump.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    1. Re:Too much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh no, she's assuming that the American people want to know what ideas she has for the future, and what she'll do in office.

      That's the kind of thing candidates who HAVE plans will do.

      Even Trump, arguably, though his plans are in a different direction, they still do exist.

    2. Re:Too much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Trump wants to sell Trump Brand (tm) Head Mounted Solar Panels to you for a very reasonable cost.

    3. Re:Too much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She's getting a little ahead of herself there. She's assuming she will beat Trump.

      If Trump doesn't get the GOP nomination and runs independant, she will, and she'll become President.

    4. Re:Too much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      and build them in mexico

    5. Re:Too much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From today until Nov 2 of 2016 there will be (approx) 1 million fewer people alive over the age of 50, and many millions who have never voted before will be eligible. If trump wins the nomination for the gop she is a LOCK.

    6. Re: Too much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As long as she's the first woman on the half dollar asap it's all good.

    7. Re:Too much by JoshuaZ · · Score: 1

      How likely do you think Trump is to end up as the Republican nominee?

    8. Re:Too much by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      Which is why the Republicans absolutely CANNOT put Trump on the ticket. I don't like him, I don't like Hillary, I don't like most of the candidates running but I sure as hell prefer to see the better ones face off (unlike putting Romney up against Obama, that was a done deal before it started).

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    9. Re:Too much by dywolf · · Score: 1

      any non zero probability is too much for comfort

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    10. Re:Too much by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Trump wants to sell Trump Brand (tm) Head Mounted Solar Panels to you for a very reasonable cost.

      Wait, do those help you grow hair?

    11. Re:Too much by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 1

      How likely do you think Trump is to end up as the Republican nominee?

      In July of 2011, Michele Bachmann was in second place in the polls and closing in on Mitt Romney. I think the likelihood of Trump ending up as the Republican presidential nominee is equal to the likelihood that Bachmann was going to be the Republican nominee for the 2012 elections. It ain't gonna happen.

      --
      They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
  3. Reaction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is simply a reaction against Bernie Sanders. He is far more socialist than the original 'HIllary is a leftist (err center)' view and yet he is gaining ground (or beating Clinton in certain arenas).

    I expect we'll see some republican candidates become more conservative as an action against Trump.

    Also....who cares? These election promises are just hot smoke to blow up the public's collective ass. "Of course I love you, baby! No way, I'd never leave before breakfast!". etc.

    1. Re:Reaction by mc6809e · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Of course Hillary has no response to Bernie Sanders' honesty.

      Whether one agrees with Bernie Sanders' ideology or not, you can trust Sanders to be honest.

      Hillary believes lying is just part of playing the game and she will do anything to win.

    2. Re:Reaction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It is certainly starting to look that way isn't it? As someone who has been in the White House before as FLOTUS and then part of the present administration as Secretary of State, she knows that Congress will not sign off on this plan to spend $60 billion by taking it from oil and gas subsidies. It might (MIGHT) be a good idea, but she knows as well as we do that it won't fly and won't make it through Congress. So why promise it? It is the classic "chicken in every pot" promise that comes down to "I thought I could get it done, but the President doesn't have as much power as I thought" crap. And SHE KNOWS BETTER.

    3. Re:Reaction by kqs · · Score: 1

      Sure, because if you're not 100% guaranteed success, you should never even try?

    4. Re:Reaction by asylumx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And SHE KNOWS BETTER.

      Sure, all the candidates know better -- but many voters don't. They believe what they want to believe. For example when gas prices go up under a democrat president you'll hear right-wingers crying about how the president causes it and left-wingers claiming he doesn't have control. When the prices go down you'll hear right-wingers claiming he had nothing to do with it and left-wingers claiming he made it all better. Vice versa for a republican president. Nobody cares what the president can actually do when they are at the polls, they only care that what the candidate said resonates with their world view, however rational or bat-shit crazy it may be.

      You and I can tell the difference between a blind campaign promise and a plan for something that's actually achievable, but many people either can't or won't make the effort to do that. That's what drags our political discourse down a series of tubes. We, collectively, get the candidates we deserve. The fact that the best candidates available right now are people like Donald Trump is a reflection of our own society, sadly.

    5. Re:Reaction by tomhath · · Score: 1

      No Republican will change their stance because of Trump. He only places well in the CNN/USA Today polls of "Democrats who say they're Republicans". He has zero chance of getting the nomination.

    6. Re:Reaction by Penguinisto · · Score: 1

      Thing is, if she manages to get the job, she'll forget about even trying.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    7. Re:Reaction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trump is not a conservative. When you stop playing the Big Party Politics game you'll come to notice that not everyone Dem is a liberal and not ever Rep is a conservative. If anything, the Republican lack of true conservatives is what has thrown the party into a tailspin.

    8. Re:Reaction by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Seriously? She's making a promise with the implication that she's totally going to do it. There will be no qualifications or restatements during the campaign. Those will start on January 21st.

      This isn't about trying, this is about the usual crap where candidates polish up some promises that sound really good to their constituency and make it sound like they have a real plan, when they don't.

      I am pretty sure that Clinton actually has an idea what she really wants to do, and she may touch on some of it towards the end of her theoretical term in office. However, she'll mostly do what her party platform is pushing in the meantime. And that plan is both already well known, and won't be touted anywhere because it will be significantly more practical, and significantly less idealistic, than anything you'll hear during the campaign.

    9. Re:Reaction by Vyse+of+Arcadia · · Score: 1

      Also....who cares? These election promises are just hot smoke to blow up the public's collective ass. "Of course I love you, baby! No way, I'd never leave before breakfast!". etc.

      This is the thing to remember. Past behavior is a much stronger indicator than campaign promises. Once elected, Clinton would have no motivation to actually follow through on any promises; she'd just make the same promises again when she runs for re-election and then have four more years of not needing to keep any promises.

    10. Re:Reaction by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Trump is a populist and an agitator. Those sorts tend to only be "conservative" in the sense that tend to appeal to people who want to keep things the way they are, rather than deal with change.

      Which is too bad because conservatives aren't required to like the status quo, although when they want to change it they are defined by being inclined toward graduated, thoughtful change.

      I feel a conservative could very easily accept things like non-punitive immigration reform and more regulation of businesses, but they will always shy away from radical change which could do as much damage as simply having letting things go on the way they were. That's why many quite reasonable conservatives do not like the rhetoric of blaming classes of people for the country's problems and don't like the idea that we suddenly need to embrace underpaid illegal immigrant workers when we are facing unemployment of current citizens.

      It is important to point out that there are times where radical changes end up working out all right. Liberal, progressive, or conservative does not mean "right" or "wrong". There are many times when you just have to do *something*, because nothing is worse than all possible other options.

      However, I am extremely wary of people who preach "change" or revolution constantly, as if everything is a problem that can only be solved by figurative or literal bloodshed. Or people who agitate for anything *NOW*. Most solutions are better off considered as a consistently run, long term, and gradual program, and other changes may be better off not being made at all.

      To my mind, the Trumps of the world are just the other side of the coin from the class warfare agitator. Both are applying a deep seated unease with a whole class of people to help them get to power. And Trump might be worse because he's pretty much in this for his own ego.

    11. Re:Reaction by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Bernie Sanders? This Bernie Sanders? What's not to love?

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    12. Re:Reaction by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, the true conservatives would fit into the TEA party's platform too well, so they would just be called TeaBaggers by the Dems.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    13. Re:Reaction by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      It's REAL easy to be honest when you figure you're not going to be elected. Nothing against Sanders, who I really like, but if he got the nomination or were elected he'd have to get down and dirty with the rest.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  4. Vapor Funding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cutting tax breaks sounds like a viable funding scheme on its face, but in the modern accounting regime that'll simply drive fossil fuel profits to offshore subsidiaries, with no substantial funding increase.

    Cutting existing subsidies, conversely, offers real money to finance programs like this.

    1. Re:Vapor Funding by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Cutting tax breaks sounds like a viable funding scheme on its face, but in the modern accounting regime that'll simply drive fossil fuel profits to offshore subsidiaries, with no substantial funding increase.

      Cutting existing subsidies, conversely, offers real money to finance programs like this.

      Its not a funding scheme. Its a get elected scheme. Net cost and cost benefit considerations are not even a part of it. The formula is "punish big evil companies, give away stuff to the masses". It works.

    2. Re: Vapor Funding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That will never happen. What you all seem to miss is that corporations run your country. Regardless of political party, corporations drive elections. Regardless of liberal or conservative agenda, corporations profit from subsidies, contacts, and tax breaks. The only difference between republican and democrats is which corporations will make out best for the presidential term.

  5. Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mean, technically half a million solar panels on watches would count.

    1. Re:Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      $60 Billion for 500 million panels = $120 per panel. Of course, panel size is not specified (not a needed detail when hawking votes), but the present incentives are more than that per panel if you are talking $1kw panels or larger. Is she proposing a reduction in incentives?

    2. Re:Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by dj245 · · Score: 1

      $60 Billion for 500 million panels = $120 per panel. Of course, panel size is not specified (not a needed detail when hawking votes), but the present incentives are more than that per panel if you are talking $1kw panels or larger. Is she proposing a reduction in incentives?

      My first impression is that this is the standard politician trick of promising something that is already highly likely to occur or inevitable. Most successful politicians, regardless of political party, use these kind of promises all the time. Especially in areas where the measurement of progress can be boiled down to a single or a small number of numerical values.

      --
      Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    3. Re:Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, panel size is not specified (not a needed detail when buying votes) . . ..

      There, fixed that for you.

    4. Re:Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      She probably means the more common 250W panel size, and is including installation costs, and other equipment costs like the inverter.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      Which cost more per KW overall. What a senseless waste if that is the case.

    6. Re:Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or the 60 billion is for her overall plan, and the solar panels are just part of it.

      Which includes some further investments in other aspects of renewable power.

      I don't know whether to blame the journalists, or her speechwriters, but as I said, hopefully the actual plan defines the terms.

    7. Re:Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      True, but they are more practical due to smaller size.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      True, but they are more practical due to smaller size.

      More practical? You are reaching.

    9. Re:Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      It would be a great incentive for this panel:

      http://www.goalzero.com/p/21/b...

      Heck, I'd by 8 of them!

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    10. Re:Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Each large solar panel requires one ounce of silver. Annual production of silver is around 600 million ounces, and all of it is either consumed in industry or bought by private investors. There are no more silver bullion reserves run by governments and USGS predicts there around 4-5 more years worth of extractible silver from known silver deposits. Peek silver was reached last decade.

      Just wait until silver shoots up to around $200-$300 an ounce, followed by $2000-$3000 after that.

  6. Two birds with one stone by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hate that saying though... what did those poor little birds do to you?!

    Her plan would cost roughly $60 billion over 10 years, and she intends to pay for it by cutting tax breaks to the oil and gas industry.

    She wants to cut tax breaks to industries that are making billions in profit to help make her country less dependant on limited ressources.

    She'd have my vote except for the fact that I don't live in the U.S.A.

    1. Re:Two birds with one stone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just checking, cutting tax breaks is not in the same vein as cutting deals?

    2. Re:Two birds with one stone by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Bet you didn't know that Exxon also sells solar stuff. By the way, where are these panels being made?

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    3. Re:Two birds with one stone by DrXym · · Score: 2

      If they're making billions in profits then why are they getting tax breaks? Besides, who's to say that renewables won't make billions in due course? Not just directly either for the company but indirectly in terms of air quality, health (& premiums), pollution etc.

    4. Re:Two birds with one stone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      She wants to cut tax breaks to industries that are making billions in profit

      Yeah because the solar power industry is a non profit charity.

    5. Re:Two birds with one stone by operagost · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I can see you're a single-issue kinda guy.

      So the fact that she broken government regulations and hid confidential emails on her personal server doesn't bother you?

      The fact that she dismissed the disastrous terrorist attack on the US embassy in Benghazi doesn't bother you?

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    6. Re:Two birds with one stone by khallow · · Score: 0

      She'd have my vote except for the fact that I don't live in the U.S.A.

      And I'm sure there's some dumbshit in your country that I'd rather have running things.

      My view is that the US has better things to do with itself than to heavily subsidize Chinese solar power manufacturers.

    7. Re:Two birds with one stone by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

      Bet you didn't know that Exxon also sells solar stuff.

      If Exxon is a purely an energy company and not just an oil company, it makes sense for them to try to plan ahead. Very "soon" it won't be profitable to search/drill/pump/transport oil anymore. For all we know, Exxon could be the best energy company decades in the future. It still won't remove all the pollution they made though.

      By the way, where are these panels being made?

      Probably "Made in China".

    8. Re:Two birds with one stone by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      By the way, where are these panels being made?

      They're being made in countries that started subsidizing their solar industries years ago.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    9. Re:Two birds with one stone by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      As I said in my post, I don't live in the U.S.A. Apart from that solar panel thing, all I know is that she's the wife of former president Bill Clinton.

    10. Re:Two birds with one stone by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      Probably "Made in China".

      Mostly they are from Asia, and so a big chunk of our incentive $$ is going to Asia, rather than staying in country. Windmills have a much higher average US content, and therefore more of that money stays in the US. It is something that should be considered when looking at the true cost and payback. More $$ spent on US content means more US businesses/workers supported and more tax revenue returned through the supply chain.

    11. Re:Two birds with one stone by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Germany, Italy, UK? Sounds a bit pricey...

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    12. Re:Two birds with one stone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone really should tell her because she probably doesn't already know that.

    13. Re:Two birds with one stone by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

      If you think Obama is a socialist, you don't understand the meaning of the word. The U.S.A. is as capitalist as ever, the poor be damned.

    14. Re:Two birds with one stone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You missed the most important part of her platform and why many many people will vote for her. She is a she!!!

    15. Re:Two birds with one stone by fche · · Score: 1

      (What does your first sentence have to do with the second?)

    16. Re:Two birds with one stone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You must live in an alternate universe. In my universe, corporations are totally uninterested in the long term since executive compensation is usually tied to stock prices which are quite sensitive to quarterly results. Simply put the CEO of Exxon could care less if it tanks in 10 years since he will have retired by then with an enormous golden parachute. CEOs are not interested in limiting their possible income to increase their successors. Would you be? A possible exception are the multi-generational family empires like Coors, Tisch, Rose, Wesfeld, etc.

    17. Re:Two birds with one stone by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Exxon, and the first big solar disaster. Some drunk will point the mirrors at nearby buildings and burn down the whole town.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    18. Re:Two birds with one stone by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      If they're making billions in profits then why are they getting tax breaks? Besides, who's to say that renewables won't make billions in due course? .

      There are different ways to look at it. While O&G may get big 'tax breaks' and other incentives, they may pale in comparison to the tax revenue they generate for the country. If you look at the net tax picture, O&G probably shows as a big tax positive, while renewables are more likely tax neutral to negative at this point.

      So, the high profit companies are generating more tax money for us, the question remains "how much more should they pay?", and the answer is quite subjective. I am OK with them paying more taxes, but honestly I'd like to see just what that net tax revenue is before I'd say how much more really makes sense. Some tax incentives help tilt the scale from keeping parts of a company in the US vs moving it oversees. Plenty of games being played in this area, but it is also another element that must be considered.

    19. Re:Two birds with one stone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He's a populist, not a socialist. The difference is irrelevant until they consolidate power.

    20. Re:Two birds with one stone by silas_moeckel · · Score: 1

      Because making PV is a rather nasty business, it pretty much just ships the pollution portion of power generation elsewhere.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    21. Re:Two birds with one stone by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 2

      I hate that saying though... what did those poor little birds do to you?!

      And if you do want to kill birds, invest in wind, not solar!

    22. Re:Two birds with one stone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By the way, where are these panels being made?

      What difference does it make? The vast majority of US Dollars at this point are just bits in computers. If the panels are being made in China but installed in the US, that's actually a good thing if you're predicting financial doom. And if you're not predicting financial doom, what's the big deal about mutually beneficial international trade?

      If everything really goes catastrophically wrong I'd rather have some solar panels than a bank statement showing a huge number of collapsed US Dollars that aren't worth anything.

      Balance of trade is a good idea, but if trade is unbalanced I'd rather be the person receiving the excess of useful physical goods than the person receiving the excess of numbers in an account. The numbers in the account are worthless if we ever reach a point where the people with useful physical goods collectively decide that they no longer want to trade them for numbers.

    23. Re:Two birds with one stone by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      +1 Dark funny

    24. Re:Two birds with one stone by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      They are getting tax breaks for a variety of historical reasons, the main one being that they gave massive amounts of money to certain politicians in exchange for them. Sometimes they use threats as well, as in give us more free money or we will raise prices and cripple parts of the economy, and make your voters really pissed off with you.

      Renewables, depending on the type, have been profitable for a long time. There are two problems though. Firstly we need lots of continued investment and a drive to push costs down even further. Secondly unlike other forms of generation where a company can build one large site supplying vast amounts of energy, solar is usually installed on roof tops so requires individuals and businesses to invest a few thousand in them up-front. That's a barrier for many people, a barrier to something that the country as a whole needs.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    25. Re:Two birds with one stone by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Seriously? Exxon Mobile makes BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in NET profits per quarter and they still get a subsidy! Give me a break. The oil industry not longer needs subsidies. That's a bull shit argument for keeping the subsidies in place.

    26. Re:Two birds with one stone by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      You mean like the Republicans dismissed Condoleezza Rice's responsibility for protecting America from terrorists, ala 911.

    27. Re:Two birds with one stone by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      If you notice, I did not argue at all for them to keep subsidies. I just laid out some things to consider. Your reaction tells me you would rather dismiss those entirely. That is fine. Sometimes the details do make things more difficult. Generalizing subsidies and incentives and assuming they serve no purpose makes it easier.

    28. Re:Two birds with one stone by Penguinisto · · Score: 1

      More likely, someone could run a forklift into one of the massive Fluoride gas tanks and puncture it (the gas is used to surface polysilicon wafers), wiping out a couple of hundred people Union-Carbide-style.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    29. Re:Two birds with one stone by Penguinisto · · Score: 1

      urgh - meant Fluorine... stupid autocorrect. :/

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    30. Re:Two birds with one stone by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      stupid autocorrect

      I dissabled mine, obviously :-)

      But yeah, they will cut corners and make nuclear power look comparatively less risky. We probably should use whatever technology that will cause the least damage with the most vodka.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    31. Re:Two birds with one stone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a tax deduction for exploration costs. If a company has an expense related to doing business, it's not free money, it's less tax.

    32. Re:Two birds with one stone by Moof123 · · Score: 1

      As long as their panels aren't crap and can be bought at a competitive price, I see no issue.

      BMW used to make engines for Nazi planes (Godwin!), but that should have no bearing on your decision when buying a car that fits your criteria. Companies in reviled industries who branch out should be applauded, not blackballed.

    33. Re:Two birds with one stone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. I keep waiting for the billboards to pop up: "Vote for Hillary! 100% less penis than the other guys (literally)!"

    34. Re:Two birds with one stone by cayenne8 · · Score: 0

      As I said in my post, I don't live in the U.S.A. Apart from that solar panel thing, all I know is that she's the wife of former president Bill Clinton.

      So, in other words, her primary qualification is, that she sucked a sitting presidents dick, right?

      Not sure how that qualifies her for President???

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    35. Re: Two birds with one stone by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 0

      That part was contracted out to interns.

    36. Re:Two birds with one stone by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      Here are the things about the Hillary E-mail scandal that should given everyone pause.

      1) Basic technical understanding. Hillary keeps talking about the future and continuing to lead America into the 21st century but does not herself see that conducting business with sensitive materials from an outside e-mail domain is problem. Not only does she not understand this she hasn't got anyone around her to tell her or won't listen to them. yet we are supposed to accept that she makes informed intelligent decisions.

      2) Hillary as per her history "no controlling legal authority" type pattern is being evasive rather than turning that server over to the government immediately like any of us little people would have done once congress started asking about it ( to save our own skin ) she redacted and turned over copies of the documents. Okay minimally compliant, in the mean time though the chain of custody has been ruined. So whatever does surface in terms of classified docs etc will be harder to prove. She is working to construct a legal defense of herself based on various technicalities.

      2a) While we might forgive 2 as simply being prudent, if we accept her vast right wing conspiracy assertions she is basically making her case in the court of public opinion on technicality as well. "Oh those things were classified after the fact", well fine but they were still sensitive and the Secretary of state of all people should have been able to recognize that. Maybe no crime was committed but its still was comically bad judgement and given you want our vote for president why can't you answer for that?

      3) How does her negligent handling of sensitive materials square with her harsh condemnations of Snowden and Manning's deliberate leaks? Given those events were taking place partially under her watch did that trigger any introspection about her only procedures around operation security? If not why not? Do the rules not apply to Hillary?

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    37. Re: Two birds with one stone by cayenne8 · · Score: 0

      That part was contracted out to interns.

      Well, that could be true...

      I mean, they DO have a daughter, so they presumably did it at least once...but there have been many rumors that Hillary is more of a "vagitarian" that a penis fan...so...?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    38. Re:Two birds with one stone by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      The only oil and gas subsidies I know of are the ones that provide heating oil/gas for poor people up north. This prevents people from freezing to death, but I guess redirecting this money to people who own their own houses (therefore doing better than the average citizen) makes sense to a lefty...

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    39. Re:Two birds with one stone by Ichijo · · Score: 1

      The U.S.A. is as capitalist as ever...

      Except for our non-railroad roads, those represent socialism (government ownership of the means of production).

      And parking lots that cities force developers to overbuild. That's private ownership but strong government control over the means of production which is dirigism which is closely associated with fascism.

      The USA may have been a capitalist country in its early history, but it hasn't been that way for many decades.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    40. Re:Two birds with one stone by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      While the right calls Obama a socialist, he's really a capitalist corporate servant.

      To be fair, the system has been so rigged at this point, that unless you are an independently wealthy socialist, you are going to have to sell out to capitalistic corporate interests to be elected.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    41. Re:Two birds with one stone by Straif · · Score: 1

      As has been mentioned earlier in the comments sections a lot of the O & G subsidies aren't actually there to benefit the gas companies but in fact are meant to help poor families. The largest 'subsidy' received by big oil is the purchase of oil for the strategic oil reserve. This is followed closely by the farmers fuel tax exemption. Simply put, farmers are not required to pay the potion of fuel taxes used to maintain roads and highways on equipment that is not driven on roads and highways. In third place is the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program which, as the name implies, is used to pay for home heating oil for low income families.

      Those 3 'subsidies' together make up between 60% - 70% of total oil subsidies in a given year. Much of the rest is the standard accounting type tricks available to any business to write off depreciation/R&D/etc.. In fact in some cases oil companies are more limited in claiming these standard deductions that other companies, like Apple for example, because the max percentage they are allowed to claim is lower.

      Currently 'green' energy subsidies are much higher in the US than O&G and while they also include the standard accounting tricks, they also include many times more in direct payments to the companies as well as other questionable programs like car subsidies on luxury hybrids.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    42. Re:Two birds with one stone by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      More likely, someone could run a forklift into one of the massive Fluoride gas tanks and puncture it (the gas is used to surface polysilicon wafers), wiping out a couple of hundred people Union-Carbide-style.

      That's a minimal risk and some precautions can be made. But the more relevant metric is that roofing jobs are among the most dangerous in the US. Solar installers on roofs will fall to their deaths (or severe injury), and that's a guarantee. There's no magic that keeps solar installers safer than roofing installers.

      I'm guessing it will be about as deadly as coal, per megaWatt. Nothing nearly as safe as atomic power or hydro.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    43. Re:Two birds with one stone by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      There's no magic that keeps solar installers safer than roofing installers.

      Sky hooks! And we clean the panels with Prop Wash®... The real pros use Jet Blast®

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    44. Re:Two birds with one stone by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Oil is going to be profitable for a long time. Assuming we replaced all oil-burning power plants and engines tomorrow (details left as an exercise for the reader) it would still be valuable as a raw material for production of plastics and many other things. Nor are we going to run out of oil per se, but rather it will command higher and higher prices while the volume pumped goes down.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    45. Re:Two birds with one stone by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      What regulations did she break with her email server? It was made illegal about a year after she stopped being Secretary of State, so Kerry couldn't legally do it. For that matter, what did she do that earlier Secretaries of State, like Powell, didn't?

      I don't see why Benghazi is such a big deal. Clinton underestimated the need for security. Lots of people have gotten that wrong over the years.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    46. Re:Two birds with one stone by ajzimm3rman · · Score: 0

      "The game is rigged!" "Corporate slave!" Pearls to swine...pearls to swine...

    47. Re:Two birds with one stone by ajzimm3rman · · Score: 0

      We're "capitalist." But the President himself is a socialist. His policies are socialist, and all of his wittle democrat friends are socialists. Even if I were incorrect in their hidden agenda, they have zero economic knowledge, since they still tout the whining "equality" seeking liberalism proven false during the late 1800's, 1920's, 1980-2000's... How's that "War on Poverty" going? Never got anywhere close to providing the quality of living the poor now have Because of our rise in prosperity, not at all thanks to government.

    48. Re:Two birds with one stone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Call up her campaign office, they'll refer you to someone in Chicago who can help you vote.

    49. Re:Two birds with one stone by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      It's pretty simple. Do you want to vote for corporate sock puppet #1 or #2?

      But the republican sock puppets are very much against my self interest. The party has drifted a long way from when I voted for three republican presidents in a row.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    50. Re:Two birds with one stone by samwichse · · Score: 1

      Hey, what about solar towers? :)

    51. Re:Two birds with one stone by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      Too low on the $ per kill rating.

    52. Re:Two birds with one stone by samwichse · · Score: 1

      But at least they come down cooked, not just with collapsed lungs!

  7. Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    One thing is for sure, the oil companies are going to spend up big on their brethren in the Republican Party to ensure that they get to keep their federal subsidies.

    They won't want to lose those, that's for damn sure.

    Even though subsidies are about as anti-Republican as you can get, nobody is going to say no to free government money and will do whatever they have to in order for it to keep flowing.

  8. I have my own promise by StikyPad · · Score: 2

    I promise I'll vote for any semi-competent alternative candidate who is not part of the Clinton/Bush family. Hell, I might even just write in Elizabeth Warren.

    1. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ... can we try to vote for someone that hasn't been CAUGHT lying... yet?

      Look, I know all politicians are liars but do we have to be so desensitized to it to actually vote for people that were caught lying?

      There are plenty of politicians on both sides that haven't been caught lying. Pick one of them please.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    2. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they haven't been caught lying, they probably don't wield enough clout and influence to get their party's nomination for President. Opposition Research by your opponents is the sign that you've 'arrived' as a politician.

    3. Re:I have my own promise by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      There are plenty of politicians on both sides that haven't been caught lying. Pick one of them please.

      See, I knew I liked you for a reason. Personally I think we need to pick politicians from neither side. There is not a single independent in all of congress. It is a monolith.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    4. Re:I have my own promise by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      ... can we try to vote for someone that hasn't been CAUGHT lying... yet?

      So, you're a Bernie Sanders supporter?

      Which of the GOP hopefuls hasn't been caught lying yet?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you live in a society of liars, one must lie to survive. Honesty looses its ethical ground, and lies become amoral.

    6. Re:I have my own promise by ajzimm3rman · · Score: 0

      Maybe you should look at the economic statements of hers and do your own research as to whether she's correct or not, instead of voting automatically for a party that taxes its way to 'prosperity' every time their elected.

    7. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      You realize by this standard, Trump would be a credible contender... right?

      I don't buy your notion that pissing off the opposition means you're credible. Fucktards on both sides draw fire occasionally either because its easy or because the opposition is starved for targets and so goes after the lower order idiots or because the people that are typically meaningless happen to be in the right place at the right time to be annoying and so it is a big issue that draws the fire and not the person themselves.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    8. Re:I have my own promise by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      Hell, I might even just write in Elizabeth Warren.

      Bernie Sanders is just as good, and actually running.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    9. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 2

      We have two parties for the same reason that there were two sides in WW2. The only way to get more parties is to lower the stakes of power such that people feel comfortable to stand on principle.

      That is... you need to make people comfortable enough to not choose the lesser of evils simply to win.

      Everyone is going to vote republican or democrat... red or blue... team 1 or team 2... and what holds either side together is not any central idea or shared values... its hatred/fear of the opposition. That's it.

      Think Libertarians and social cons like each other? They view each other as cannon fodder. And you get the same thing on the left. Think Greens and industrial unions like each other? Nope.

      As the man said, political parties is how we organize our animosities. You don't choose one side or the other based on liking one thing or another more but because you DON"T like something more.

      That is the nature of the parties. They're both clubs of people that don't like the other club.

      And why don't they like the other club? Because the cost of losing is too high. Republicans lost an election and the ACA happened out of fucking no where. Democrats lose an election and who knows what could happen. But the thing is that raises the stakes such that you can't let the opposition win. And that means you can't shake and be friends. And that means you afford to do anything but choose your faction of choice... dig in like its WW1... and tell gallows humor jokes while the rubble from artillary shells rains down on your mates in the trenches.

      There are solutions to this... but there is no way out of this unless the power of government is cut back to something that is small enough that people don't get so worked up when an election goes one way or the other.

      There are factions in both parties that don't want government power to be cut back... and those are the factions that are causing the problem. Because when the government can change everything based on a few percentage points in an election... then there is going to be hate. No way out of it unless the power is scaled back and too many people are married not only to the existing power but expanding it.

      This is going to get a lost worse until it gets better.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    10. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *loses

    11. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      I haven't chosen anyone yet. The election season is too new.

      Bernie would be fine though... I don't think he's been caught lying yet.

      as to the GOP field... I'll just cite people that I know have lied... I don't know about the rest:

      I know Trump has lied... about many things over many years.
      I know Jeb has flip flopped a lot and that basically counts as a lie in my book without a reason not including polling for the change.
      I know Rubio has been caught lying about a few things.
      I'm not sure about Huckabee but I don't trust him and don't like him. That isn't to say I like anyone else on the list but Huck pisses me off.
      I know christie has lied about a couple things.
      I'm not sure about Rick Perry but the guy is such a terrible politician that I don't care. By that I mean, he's bad at speaking to people, he sounds stupid, he doesn't know how to deal with the media... and this makes him bad at politics which makes him a bad politician. Bush was the same way. Texas needs to send more polished and competent baby kissers to DC.
      I know Carly Fiorina has a very odd history with HP that I'd classify as dishonest. Wasn't she wire tapping board members or something? That's just creepy shit.
      I'm not sure about Lindsey graham... but he reads the same way that huckabee does and I actively dislike him.

      I don't know about the rest.

      People I didn't mention that could be honest so far as I know:
      Scott Walker
      Ben Carson
      Rand Paul
      Ted Cruz
      John Kasich
      Bobby Jindal
      George Pataki
      Jim Gilmore

      I'm reading off a list here... I couldn't name all these people off the top of my head. the GOP field is a three ring circus at this point.

      There are two or three people in the DNC line up that aren't known liars and there have to be a hand full or so in the GOP field if only because there are so many of them.

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    12. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      I disagree. Login and we'll talk about.

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    13. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Democrats tax and spend their way to "prosperity". The Republicans spend their way to "prosperity".

    14. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I promise I'll vote for any semi-competent alternative candidate who is not part of the Clinton/Bush family. Hell, I might even just write in Elizabeth Warren.

      Then you could really feel good about yourself for voting for a woman *and* an American Indian at the same time. Bwahahahahah. Fauxahantis.

    15. Re:I have my own promise by blue9steel · · Score: 1

      We have two parties for the same reason that there were two sides in WW2. The only way to get more parties is to lower the stakes of power such that people feel comfortable to stand on principle.

      I would argue it's more of an artifact of a first past the post voting system. Third parties act as spoilers and thus end up merging with one of the two dominant ones instead.

    16. Re:I have my own promise by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Have you ever lied?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    17. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's right boys, limit their choices and keep them fighting one another over the best of several worst choices. It's worked for generations and will work for generations still!
       
      Thanks for being part of the problem. The establishment loves you for it. Now get back to work so they can have another round of golf on your dime.

    18. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      while first past the post definitely causes there to be only two parties it would be a mistake to think that you'd get more than two sides with more parties.

      Look at countries with lots of parties and you'll find that there are still only two power blocks.

      In WW2 we had the US, GB, USSR on one side and the NAZIs, fascist italians whatever they called themselves, and the Imperial Japanese.

      That's all you get with multiply party systems. You get two powerful sides with subfactions within them.

      But with first past the post you really have the exact same thing because within both parties you have subfactions.

      Some of the democrats for example are greens in that their most important issue is the environment. Then you have other democrats where their most important issue is protecting and supporting industrial unions. Those are not compatible positions. But they exist under the same "big tent" or "big umbrella" of their respective party.

      And both parties work that way. You have at LEAST five or six factions in each party. Arguably they could all be seperate political parties in their own right. But as you say because of first past the post they have to unite under only two parties total.

      Fine... but that doesn't change that those factions are still operating under the skin.

      The whole thing is a debate over whether you want the organs inside the meat bag or on the outside. Either way its going to work the same way.

      If you have 10 parties for example, then you're going to have about five of them form a coalition government to dominate the other five which is generally how the parliamentary system works.

      How is the same group of parties forming a coalition any different from how the two US parties operate?

      Again, you can't get away from the two sides because the stakes are too high to stand on principle. When you can't lose you will make alliances with people you don't like to put up a common defense.

      The only way you're going to stop people from doing this is if the stakes of losing become low enough that people feel comfortable telling potential allies to choke on their own severed penises because they'd rather lose than ally with them.

      There is no party or faction in any situation where the stakes are high that will do that. They will ally with anyone to win. If you want this to stop then you have to make people feel comfortable with losing if it means keeping their principles.

      And that is going to mean radically scaling back the power of government. There is too much to lose in modern American politics to not fight to the death over these issues. And that means you'll shake hands with the devil if it means you might win.

      Look at Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. No one likes either of them.

      Hillary is a lying sell out that basically has gotten everything she has in return for not divorcing Bill Clinton after he got caught with an intern's mouth around his dick. Her accomplishments are what? Getting elected to the Senate for a term where she did nothing to distinguish herself. And then basically forcing herself on Obama's state department even though he didn't want her... but it was give her that or fight the Clinton machine. And by all indications she was comically incompetent. Say what you like about Bush, but he put a black woman in charge of the state department that spoke Russian... and Hillary couldn't even get one word translated properly for a symbolic state gift. Her entire tenure was full of incompetence and its dumb for democrats to pretend otherwise. If god help you she wins you're going to be spending the next 4 years minimum making excuses for this person. Think the republicans liked making excuses for Bush Jr? Well, why would you do that to yourself?

      And Jeb is another fucking Bush. I really don't care about anything beyond that point. He's just utterly unacceptable on that basis alone. That family got two presidents into the white house... that's enough for the next 100 years. I don't want to see them again in m

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    19. Re:I have my own promise by Moof123 · · Score: 1

      He's a loonie, and so far the only candidate I actually want to vote for.

      I don't think that is a statement on how good of a candidate he is, but rather just how awful the other choices are.

    20. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 2

      I have never told a lie professionally.

      I have never lied to a business associate or a boss or a subordinate about something that was work related.

      I've never run for office so I can neither say nor not say I haven't lied to political constituent since I've never had one.

      Some politicians are well known to lie and lie often. Hillary has become pathetic on the issue lately. I mean, even her supporters know she's a fucking liar. They don't even deny it anymore.

      But not all politicians have that sort of record.

      Warren is another well known liar.

      Please pick a candidate that isn't a well known piece of shit.

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    21. Re:I have my own promise by bmo · · Score: 1

      >He's a loonie

      No he isn't. His line of politics has kept him employed for decades. He's been banging the pan for these issues (universal healthcare, raised minimum wage, education, energy independence, ecology, etc) consistently and it gets traction. Because those are things people want and he's not saying it for show.

      He's saying it because it matters.

      Unlike Hillary.

      >and so far the only candidate I actually want to vote for.

      Then you should vote for him.

      --
      BMO

    22. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Vote third party and thumb your nose at all of them.

    23. Re:I have my own promise by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      People I didn't mention that could be honest so far as I know:
      Scott Walker
      Ben Carson
      Rand Paul
      Ted Cruz
      John Kasich
      Bobby Jindal
      George Pataki
      Jim Gilmore

      We can take them one at a time:

      Scott Walker:
      http://www.politifact.com/pers...

      Carson:

      "A lot of people who go into prison straight, and when they come out they’re gay."

      Rand Paul:
      http://www.salon.com/2015/02/1...

      Ted Cruz:
      http://www.politicususa.com/20...

      John Kasich:
      http://mediatrackers.org/ohio/...

      After that, the list becomes too trivial to fact-check. "George Pataki'? Really?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    24. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, so all lies are equal I see. If I don't tell my wife that "yes the does make you look fat" then I'm just a "liar"?

    25. Re:I have my own promise by blue9steel · · Score: 1

      If you have 10 parties for example, then you're going to have about five of them form a coalition government to dominate the other five which is generally how the parliamentary system works.

      Basically what I've seen in the few live examples we have is that yes, there are power blocs, but they tend to shift more and it's easier for new factions to emerge. Additionally, some voting systems push towards the center rather than the extremes, ranked voting for example tends to produce "consensus" candidates more often than first past the post. *shrug* There is no perfect system, but I think some are better than what we have now.

    26. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you ever lied?

      To 300 million people for my and my friend's personal gain?

      I can honestly say that I have not.

    27. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      I actually clicked on a lot of the walker links and they turned out to be misleading points.

      For example they said he lied when he said that the state of Wisconsin would begin its fiscal budget with a surplus of X dollars then they say that is false because as of this moment they actually have a deficit. That isn't what he said though. He said at time Y we have a balance of X. What they said was because at time Y+5 they have a balance of X-700... he lied when he said that at time Y they had a balance of X.

      That's deceitful. I've noticed this with poli"fact" before... they are more interested in advocacy from what I've seen than in actual accurate reporting or integrity. So... not a great source to be honest.

      lets go through the rest of the list...

      As to paul... given that he left Baylor to go to Duke where he got a medical degree and completed his residency... I'm not feeling that as something that really matters. I mean, warren lied about being a native american and did so in the media and used the point to win diversity points. Where is paul's angle here?

      As to Carson... a stupid opinion is not evidence of lying. And I should point out I'm not endorsing any of these people. Carson is a f'ing joke in my opinion. The guy has no record in public office. I prefer governors and generals for the presidency. Historically they make the best presidents. Its not a lock that they will... Bush was a governor and was terrible. But generally that job experience leads to effective presidents. The generals especially. Go through the US presidents that were generals before and they're pretty bullet proof. I know that sounds jingoistic or something because everyone hates the military for largely kneejerk reasons. But look at the data. They were pretty good.

      Anyway, Carson was what... CEO of a pizza chain? Get the fuck out of here. What he was CEO of doesn't really matter. CEO is not something I consider job experience for that position. Of course, neither do I credit experience in the legislature. Most of our senator presidents turned out to be shitty as well.

      As to Cruz... if we call that a lie then there hasn't been an honest politician running for office since I've been living. Not even bernie could pass the standard you're putting out there. This is a bit of rhetorical hyperbole. I can't think of any politician that hasn't crossed that line. ... anyway, I said I was just reading off a list I found of people running. I can't cite these people off the top of my head... you know outside of the top four or five. The republican field is a circus as I said... you'd apparently agree.

      Anyway, without any advocacy, I'd just like to have a president that unites Americans for a change. I don't care if they're democrats or republicans or independents. Someone that tries to be a nation's president instead of a crusading against the opposing political camp. The infighting in my country has grown toxic and I believe if it doesn't stop there are going to be serious structural political problems where states are going to just stop complying with orders at a certain point. We already have this with certain issues but it could start to get more overt. The feds can say they'll send in the army or cut off funding... but that assumes the state that bucks them does everything in the dumbest way possible. If they boil the frog then it will be hard for the feds to muster the political will to do anything violent. And the funding issue is complicated as well because the feds have radically less power than they presume to have... most of it is sustained through voluntary funding programs... aka cooperate and you get money. if they cut off the money they'll also remove most of the reasons to cooperate with them.

      It is somewhat analogous to what is going on with Greece. You cut them off from aid and they have less reason to play the EU game.

      If DC keeps strong arming people the nation is going to start becoming like herding cats. They're all going to go off in their own directions.

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    28. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Actually first past the post usually filters out extremists. The people that tend to make it through the system tend to be as boring as dish water.

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    29. Re:I have my own promise by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I am curious about what lies you think these people told. I haven't heard anything about Christie lying. The whole bridgegate thing was pretty clear, he said he had no idea about it, and even with access to emails, no one was able to point to any indication that he knew about it.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    30. Re:I have my own promise by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

      I'd say he is actively ignorant, or blatantly lying. But I think quite possibly he is just a huge troll.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    31. Re:I have my own promise by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Let me be honest.... Brevity is a virtue :-)

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    32. Re:I have my own promise by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      It has to stop or we're going to start actually hating each other.

      I'll never hate you, Karmashock.

      In fact, I wish I knew how to quit you.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    33. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it can be a Sanders / Warren ticket - unfortunately I still don't see much changing regardless of who is in the White House. The president's powers are somewhat limited, congress can and will be a major impediment to anyone who is president. That is part of how the system is supposed to work, congress is supposed be able have some control over the president. Unfortunately the congresses that have been in office are not just a check against the president, they've been a check against everything.

    34. Re:I have my own promise by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      You have a point. I don't like having incompetent liars in office. Since the chance of getting honest people is vanishingly small, I'd at least rather have the competent ones.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    35. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have never lied.

    36. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lucky for you, Trump could run as an independent.

    37. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Only if you can manage to express a complete thought and support it in that space.

      If you can't... verbosity is a lesser evil than vagueness.

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    38. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are a ton of third party options without having to lean on Trump. I guess you don't take the time to get familiar with the real playing field and just jump on whoever you thinks going to win's bandwagon. That's the kind of thinking that keeps people as slaves instead of as equals.

    39. Re:I have my own promise by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and I also frequently bump the little problem of intentional misinterpretation by the listener for many various reasons that require the simplest thoughts take up the entire Library of Congress to explain to them. Most of the Tolstoy written around here is just people who like to pontificate and express a demeanor of superiority. It's all word masturbation. There is no need to overcomplicate things.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    40. Re:I have my own promise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am voting for Bernie Sanders regardless of his nomination status. The only thing I'm afraid of is the inevitable assassination attempt as he wrestles control of the country away from billionaires. He doesn't deserve that.

    41. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      I often restate the same thing in different ways to make it harder for people to strawman me actually. You find this in law as well. A thing will be said over and over in different ways so it is very hard for someone to just grab one sentence take it out of context and say "well clearly it means this".

      Also something that has to be understood is that there are a lot of people that are just ignorant. Going into some detail helps them. If you just vaguely reference your point you've not given them a chance to learn. You're also very prone to make non-falisfiable statements which are inherently illogical.

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  9. A good start by Camembert · · Score: 1

    I know it is not enough to handle all our energy needs but this would be a good step forward, and presumably it would drive down the cost of solar panels. It is the kind of policy that would truly ve future oriented.

    1. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You didn't do well in economics, eh? Increased demand drives prices up, not down.

    2. Re:A good start by Karmashock · · Score: 2

      Its not going to make any difference because it isn't a systemic change. And what is more, people keep thinking the big corps don't like the green movement. THEY LOVE IT. The pork spending in the name of the environment has been legendary. All the corps are feeding on the issue at this point. They all have some green product or green initiative and they all get big grants from the feds for it.

      These solar panels... We're talking about the clintons here... there will be quid pro quo on who gets the contract.

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    3. Re:A good start by bobbied · · Score: 1

      You didn't do well in economics, eh? Increased demand drives prices up, not down.

      Yes, but you got to believe the liberal lie that government interference ALWAYS produces a good result... After all, it's the GOAL that counts, not the way proposed to achieve that goal.... Case in point: Solyndra... It was about the stated goals of pushing solar panel production (not what it turned out to really be, a quid pro quo for large investors in the proper party).

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    4. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At first, but the increased demand causes increased production. The increased production capability will help bring prices back down.

      Its the same reason anything new fangled is expensive and only bought by early adopters. The prices come down as the new fangled gadget becomes more popular and spurs the increase in production capability.

      I find it ironic that you accuse someone else at being bad at economics.

    5. Re:A good start by ajzimm3rman · · Score: 0

      Actually, economically there would be no incentive for prices to lower because the government would be there to pick up the tab. Besides, where is the evidence all of our current subsidization has risen the level of output from these so called "renewable" resources? Also, what is the life expectancy of these solar panels? My research shows it's about 20 years. So after 20 years of paying it off you'll need a new one!

    6. Re:A good start by pipingguy · · Score: 1

      The pork spending in the name of the environment has been legendary. All the corps are feeding on the issue at this point. They all have some green product or green initiative and they all get big grants from the feds for it.

      None of that pesky, problematic free market unpredictability to deal with, it's all guaranteed, sweet, sweet taxpayer money!

    7. Re:A good start by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      Really? That's why the price of 4K TVs have been going through the roof....sorry Potsy, demand for a product helps drive the cost down. When supply is limited, that's when costs go up.

    8. Re:A good start by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      Nice strawman moron. "Always" - no one is saying always. But hey pretend that the economic collapse of 2008 was a good thing with all that free market gambling going on....

    9. Re:A good start by bobbied · · Score: 1

      2008 was not about the free markets, but the results of government messing around with the mortgage markets. At it's core it was about loans made to people who couldn't pay them back, loans that government regulations nearly forced lenders into making or face discrimination charges.

      All the "credit default swaps" and other such things where the way all this house of cards that was the sub-prime mortgage business where a result of the government messing around with the rules of who *should* qualify for a mortgage and the way banks could spread the risk around. But if you wanted to be in the mortgage business, you HAD to lend money to unqualified borrowers.

      If the liberal position isn't producing one government program after another, what are they doing? (Trying to get elected.) Liberals believe that government and regulation is the answer, don't try to deny it.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    10. Re:A good start by Moof123 · · Score: 1

      Wrong. Most people forget that there is a time dependence on the supply demand curve, and often an NRE portion. Supply/demand works as you state as a way to describe what will happen in the short term.

      If you sell 1,000 cars you have to charge more than if you know you are selling a million of them. The miracle of mass production shows up when you can ammortize the development costs over many units. The more you sell, the more you can spread that cost around and more reasonable spend extra development money to lower the production costs (make a custom battery plant, buy robots to replace workers, etc).

      So over time you can get 1990's Ferrari performance for Chevy prices. Many of the major safety and convenience features in a Chevy started out in luxury cars and trickled down as the volumes went up and the prices came down. As volumes go up you find that there si higher integration and a drop in the per unit price, which a textbook beginner supply/demand curve is inadequate to describe.

    11. Re:A good start by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Wrong. There was profit in subprime loans, until it all collapsed. Nobody forced the banks to make those loans (the regulations were a lot less intrusive than that), and nobody forced them to keep making them.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    12. Re:A good start by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Again, We are going to have to disagree on this one. I believe that mortgage lenders where coerced into making loans they knew where likely going to be bad by federal fair housing standards and equal opportunity laws where they started looking at things like race and sex and deciding which lenders where in compliance and which ones where too discriminating. HUD was big into this kind of thing for decades. What do you think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac where all about and why do you think they got left holding most of the bag?

      I realize that it's pretty indirect, but the fact remains that it was government relaxation of mortgage standards and the government accepting the risk for the sub-prime loans that got this ball rolling. If you had left banks to their own devices, skipped on Fannie and Freddie, you can bet 2008 would never have happened...

      You want to just blame the evil banks for everything..... They had a PART in this, but it was government that really messed this thing up, both by pushing the lenders into making loans that NOBODY in the right mind would buy, and then soaking up this bad paper by funding Fannie and Freddie to take on the risk for it almost without bound. There should have been laws about this, but that would have killed the sacred cow of "affordable housing" congress was trying to keep alive. It was the S&L thing on steroids, which ALSO was a failure of government regulation with the S&L's being encouraged to do bad things in the process....

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  10. Thanks, lady! by xenotransplant · · Score: 0, Troll

    I had no idea what I should do with other peoples' money. You have solved this issue wonderfully.

  11. Storage? by invictusvoyd · · Score: 1, Informative

    If solar is stored in lead-acid,how does it become environmentally friendly?

    1. Re:Storage? by kenaaker · · Score: 5, Informative
      You use the electricity and solar heat to create methane with a Sabatier reaction, and dump the methane into the national natural gas pipeline system. The gas becomes part of the 7-30 day reserve supply and runs the gas turbine peaking plants. There is a German pilot plant that has been running since 2012 and further development is planned.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_gas has more information.

    2. Re:Storage? by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Funny

      By using it to electrocute puppies.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    3. Re:Storage? by Karmashock · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The only way it becomes enviro friendly is if it is distributed.

      The big problem with the green power plant concept is that they are building power plants. These are distributed energy sources. Put them on houses.

      Instead of giving the subsidies to corporations, give them to TAX PAYERS to buy panels to off set their energy usage.

      Especially in places that are hot... because they have sun and their air conditioners will sync up with their solar power generation.

      Don't even worry about other parts of the country. Hit the suburbs first. Possibly some rural communities.

      here someone will say "what about the cities"... nuclear power.

      For hundreds of years to come probably that will be the best answer for cities. People will say "but they're dangerous"... power is always dangerous. The first person to discover fire said "Ouch"... You make peace with the danger and you respect it. But shunning it because it is dangerous means you sleep in the cold.

      Respect it. The Japanese plant that everyone is exercised about had shitty maintenance. They were doctoring their reports to make it look like they were doing their jobs but they weren't. Result? Problems. You don't follow procedure in a powder mill and don't be surprised when it explodes.

      That's how this works. Nuclear power is wonderful. We could completely remove fossil fuels from our power grid with nuclear alone. economically.

      No other technology will let us do that.

      "green" power makes up about 4 percent of US generation minus the hydro. If you want to add the hydro that's still only 10 percent. Nuclear even though we haven't built a plant since the 1970s and many plants have closed... nuclear is comfortably around 22~25 percent of our power. Coal alone is about 45 percent of US electrical generation. And the balance is other fossil fuels.

      Nothing short of nuclear is making a dent in that.

      So choose. Nuclear or coal. Because unless your country has lots of Hydro like Canada... that's what you're doing. Anyone else that tells you differently is blowing green smoke up your ass.

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    4. Re:Storage? by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 1

      When you catch someone atomising lead-acid batteries and spraying them into peoples' faces at street level in municipal city centres and suburban estates, let us know.

    5. Re:Storage? by compro01 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What's the issue with lead-acid batteries? They're one of the most recycled things around.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    6. Re:Storage? by ajzimm3rman · · Score: 0

      Also, how is it environmentally friendly to mine millions of rare earth minerals to produce a product that only lasts 20 years? http://www.quora.com/How-large...

    7. Re:Storage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only way it becomes enviro friendly is if it is distributed.

      That's true of a lot of things. Pee on somebody, that's bad. Pee in the pool, less bad, but some people may still get upset. Pee in the ocean? Nobody cares.

      Same with coal power generation, or nuclear power even. What's news about that?

      The big problem with the green power plant concept is that they are building power plants. These are distributed energy sources. Put them on houses.

      Both of these things are being done, in many jurisdictions. Are you not aware of this?

      Instead of giving the subsidies to corporations, give them to TAX PAYERS to buy panels to off set their energy usage.

      Apparently you aren't. There's a 30% credit available to individuals now, plus many local offerings and incentives. Nobody makes big news splashes about those, except when some utility or another (like Hawaii's or Arizona's) makes a stink about having to adjust their systems for it.

      But if your local utility company isn't doing this, ok, complain to them, mine is, I can't help with yours, I don't know who they are.

      "green" power makes up about 4 percent of US generation minus the hydro.

      Your numbers seem off. Wind alone makes up 4%, with Solar and Geothermal adding another bit. Then there's biomass, which is another problem.

      Nothing short of nuclear is making a dent in that.

      Well, leaving aside the growth of natural gas, which is pretty substantial, if problematic, when it comes to renewables, Wind already is. Wind generation in the US was around 2,000 MW of production in 2000. 97 farms. Enough for a bit over half a million homes. Most of it was in California. Today there are 833 farms, generating enough power for 15 million homes. 14 States have generated more power from Wind than California did in 2000. The biggest growers? Iowa and Texas.

      Anyone else that tells you differently is blowing green smoke up your ass.

      No, we're catching the wind being blown, and making use of it for electricity, which is reducing the amount of brown and black smoke in the air. Plus the pollutants you can't see, but are still problems.

      Maybe you just need a little less hot-air.

    8. Re:Storage? by glenebob · · Score: 1

      Did Nazi that coming.

    9. Re:Storage? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      It won't be, for the most part. Storage is moving towards lithium for small scale and sodium sulphur for large scale. In both cases, most of the battery is recycled. Used lithium cells are already getting quite cheap thanks to electric vehicles.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    10. Re:Storage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lead acid batteries are primarily used to start cars. For any other application, there are better batteries.

      For massive amounts of electricity, we could just pump water up water towers and then hydro electrically generate off-solar hours.

    11. Re:Storage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That requires alternating current.

      http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/10/19/edison-publicly-tortured-animals-to-discredit-ac-power/

    12. Re:Storage? by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 1

      That is really really cool. I figured we were going to use solar with hydrogen gas someday to store the energy in gas. If they're doing it with methane already, I'm sure they have great results.

    13. Re:Storage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd say the problem with them is the lead and the sulphuric acid. They have to be recycled, because the failure to do so would be an environmental catastrophe.

    14. Re:Storage? by kenaaker · · Score: 1

      Converting the (momentarily) excess energy to methane is a nice way to deal with hydrogen leakage and embrittlement and saves on the infrastructure required to consume hydrogen. And the gas peaking plants are already there.

    15. Re:Storage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I never knew that the solar panels were completely disintegrated when they passed 20 years.

      I guess that makes the 25 year guarantee a steal for the customer and a boneheaded idea for the manufacturers.

      Oh, wait, no, that's a load of cockshite, just like your claims.

    16. Re:Storage? by Jaazaniah · · Score: 1

      Your presumption is that storage would be lead-acid. Graphene is on the rise, and while not industrialized yet, it will be, and it'll then overtake other storage methods for the improvements already seen in the labs.

    17. Re:Storage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The power is not the Nuclear, the problem is the owners of the Nuclear

    18. Re:Storage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Especially in places that are hot... because they have sun and their air conditioners will sync up with their solar power generation.

      Actually there's a significant phase difference because peak daily temperatures generally occurs about 4 hours after solar noon, and peak yearly temperatures occur two months after the summer solstice.

      Therefore, daily peak solar power generation won't coincide with peak temperatures unless you point your panels a bit west (towards 5 pm sun) and angle them down to match late August. But good luck trying to convince your solar installer that such an alignment is a good idea.

      Conclusion: You probably still need batteries unless (a) your panels are hooked up to a time machine, (b) you plan draw tons of power from the grid from 3-7pm in mid August to mid September, or (c) you convince your installer to point your panels in a direction that produces less total energy over a 1 year period, so that your peak consumption corresponds to your peak generation.

    19. Re:Storage? by toddestan · · Score: 1

      They can be a problem, but they are one of the few battery types that can be recycled for a profit by reselling the recovered materials. That helps keep them out the of the dump.

  12. So now?!?!!! by burtosis · · Score: 1

    she intends to pay for it by cutting tax breaks to the oil and gas industry.

    Wow so now she is backing out of the race entirely? If she was actually serious about it she would never get elected. My guess is if elected those cuts would mysteriously change place and come from somewhere with less money flowing into Washington.

    1. Re:So now?!?!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If she was actually serious about it she would never get elected

      Why not? I don't think that the fraction of voters that work in the oil and gas industry is very significant.

    2. Re:So now?!?!!! by Lab+Rat+Jason · · Score: 1

      Don't forget to count the fraction of voters with significant _investments_ in the oil and gas industry...

      --
      Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
    3. Re:So now?!?!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah - but the number that counts isn't heads, but dollars. The amount of dollars that the oil and gas industry represents is very significant, indeed.

    4. Re:So now?!?!!! by bobbied · · Score: 2

      she intends to pay for it by cutting tax breaks to the oil and gas industry.

      Wow so now she is backing out of the race entirely? If she was actually serious about it she would never get elected. My guess is if elected those cuts would mysteriously change place and come from somewhere with less money flowing into Washington.

      Actually, one needs to specify what tax breaks she thinks she's talking about.. What tax break is given to oil companies that isn't given to other types of businesses too? I dare say, she's intending to cripple the whole economic system in this country, or she's intending to single out one specific industry for "special" treatment concerning things like capital equipment depreciation and deduction of business expenses for paying leases and insurance..

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    5. Re:So now?!?!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are grossly misinformed. In a United States presidential election the number that counts is the electoral vote, which is itself determined by popular vote.

    6. Re:So now?!?!!! by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 1

      I don't think that the fraction of voters that work in the oil and gas industry is very significant.

      But the fraction of voters who care about the price at the pump is very significant, and attempts to lower gas prices is where these subsidies actually come from.

      The benefit to the oil and gas industry is less direct than Democrats like to pretend: it's not that $x billion in subsidies turns into $x billion in extra profits; rather, subsidies simply make the subsidized product more competitive with other products and expand its market share.

    7. Re:So now?!?!!! by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 1

      If she was actually serious about it she would never get elected

      Why not? I don't think that the fraction of voters that work in the oil and gas industry is very significant.

      Newsflash: The supply chain for food production is 100% dependent on oil and gas production. We all work for the oil and gas industry.

  13. And when she reneges by MikeRT · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And on top of it, you get a level of transparency the resembles what a blackhole does to sunlight her supporters will be just shocked--SHOCKED--that voting for a candidate with her horrendous record on honesty backfired on them.

    I mean FFS, I'm generally a conservative and I'd vote for Bernie Sanders in a heartbeat over her even though he's an avowed Socialist because at least the man seems to have some real integrity and respect for the middle class.

    1. Re:And when she reneges by DigiShaman · · Score: 0

      Pretty much. Although the idea of Bernie Sanders as another FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) frankly scares the hell out of me. We have so many poor immigrants flooding into our country that we're already heading towards another populist South American style form of corruption. Think Venezuela or Argentina; gimme gimme gimme followed by all those assholes in office that promise to deliver, but can't.

      Fact is, the math doesn't lie. The Democrats will win. Question is, how radical and populist will the next POTUS and congress be this election before the next one causes total implosion?

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    2. Re:And when she reneges by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

      Bernie Sanders is a sheep dog, herding 'hippie' money into the democratic party. He is not opposing Hillary. In fact he already said he will endorse her when she wins the nomination. This is a tag team. And the cynicism couldn't be more obvious. It's a shame people aren't seeing through the facade.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    3. Re:And when she reneges by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Hillary is only lying to us, not the people who launder their money through campaign financing. If we are going reward her for it, why shouldn't she? In fact it would seem odd for her not to. The average voter wants to be lied to. You've seen what happens to people who tell the truth. And Bernie? Rattling off numbers like a damn robot. Let's just remember that he is serving the party.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    4. Re:And when she reneges by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you see him on Meet the Press yesterday? What an Angry Old Man.

      If I wanted someone like Bernie Sanders to be president, I would have voted for McCain in 2008.

    5. Re:And when she reneges by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      This forum, in spite of the leftward shift in recent years ("What in god's name does this or that story have to do witb News for Nerds???") is somewhat balanced.

      On another I read, the vast majority are walking around with EFB, Erections For Bernie, so long lasting and firm they're well past the point they "should seek medical care".

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    6. Re:And when she reneges by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      The scam is working perfectly. There is absolutely no talk of any other parties or independents in mass media. The democrats have both sides locked up, while the republicans remain the comedic side show, which also seems to intentionally scare people over to the democrats.

      Eh, we all know the routine, if Hillary wins, your hedge funds will never do better...

      And this 'solar panel' thing? Please... the whole thing sounds like a soon to be abandoned industrial park, here we go again with the democrat's *chicken in every pot* routine (probably with the accompanying world war), but the blip on Wall Street will make a few bucks for somebody.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    7. Re:And when she reneges by Khashishi · · Score: 1

      We are better off with poor immigrants who come in and start businesses than poor guest workers who are barely more than slaves working on plantations.

    8. Re:And when she reneges by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      The former H1Bs stagnate wages, but they do produce. It's the later group that's a net loss in revenue for the American tax payer (citizen). It's the rich 1% in Mexico that should be footing the bill for their welfare, not us!

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    9. Re:And when she reneges by Khashishi · · Score: 1

      I was referring to H-2A, rather than H-1B.

    10. Re:And when she reneges by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, if they were starting business. Some just pick up enough day labor to get by until someone starts collecting welfare....certainly not all or even most.

      Also, at least around here, illegal immigrants are #1 cause of copper theft in houses (too much work for most of the hoodlums, yes I mean that small percentage of black kids who think they are gangbangers) and #1 source of illegal squatters. No they aren't the high percentage of rapist and murderers that Thump thinks they are but the crime rate is certainly higher with them around.

    11. Re:And when she reneges by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You haven't been following the process very closely, we can all tell. You see all the republican candidates decimating each other, and assume that because Sanders and Clinton aren't, that they are teamed up? Sanders will run even if he doesn't get the democratic nomination, that much is certain. That you assume that two politicians who aren't actively cutting each other down are in some conspiracy proves that the American political process has affected even the citizens.

      Mud slinging IS political debate at this point, at least to people like the parent poster. Your mind would be blown to live in pretty much any other country in the world.

  14. Solar panels as in . . . ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Solar panels as in light-collecting hardware?

    Or as in decision-making bodies regulating light-collecting hardware?

  15. How big is a "solar panel"? by swb · · Score: 1

    I'm kind of wondering where they would all go.

    If each panel was a square meter, that's 193 square miles of solar panels.

    1. Re:How big is a "solar panel"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Roofs and exterior walls of buildings, mostly.

    2. Re:How big is a "solar panel"? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 3, Funny

      The best way to maximize solar panel efficiency is to put them into orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

    3. Re:How big is a "solar panel"? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      I'm kind of wondering where they would all go.

      If each panel was a square meter, that's 193 square miles of solar panels.

      Hillary is talking about solar panels from Solyndra. They take up very little space . . . because they don't exist at all.

      Instead of making promises about the number of solar panels, Hillary should be talking about how much power will be produced by them. In relation to how much power that comes from other sources.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    4. Re:How big is a "solar panel"? by Jeremi · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm kind of wondering where they would all go.
      If each panel was a square meter, that's 193 square miles of solar panels.

      193 square miles is 0.006% of the surface area of the United States.

      Or, if we wanted to only put the solar panels on existing residential roofs -- there are currently about 6184 square miles of residential roof space in the USA. (ref)

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    5. Re:How big is a "solar panel"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hillary is talking about solar panels from Solyndra. They take up very little space . . . because they don't exist at all.

      Solyndra's solar panels did exist, and their factory produced them. The problem was that China used a cheaper technology to flood the market, rather than Solyndra not actually producing a viable product.

      They were neither a scam, nor a fraud, they were merely making choices that didn't work out. In their case, a more expensive technical process to produce their solar panels, a process which worked well enough for plenty of their panels to be in use anyway.

      Instead of making promises about the number of solar panels, Hillary should be talking about how much power will be produced by them. In relation to how much power that comes from other sources.

      She did, don't blame Hillary Clinton for what one set of journalists wrote, rather than accurately repeating all of her plan.

      Here's what you can get from the fact sheet:

      Expand the amount of installed solar capacity to 140 gigawatts by the end of 2020, a 700% increase from current levels. That is the equivalent of having rooftop solar systems on over 25 million homes.

      I'd paste more, but meh, I made my point.

    6. Re:How big is a "solar panel"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have one in the calculator on my desk. Only 499,999,999 more to go!

    7. Re:How big is a "solar panel"? by Moof123 · · Score: 1

      That has been proposed for a while. However, it takes huge amounts of energy to get that many panels into orbit, and space is still a very harsh place do construction work.

      Geosynchronous would allow satellites to hover over their receiving stations, but the distances are quite large, making it very hard to make a narrow enough beam to power a city a couple hundred miles away without also cooking it.

      Low earth orbit is better, but now your giant death ray is moving, and must track one of many receiving stations as it orbits. No easy task either.

      Ground based solar is vastly more serviceable, but needs an upgraded power grid to push around power from where we have it to where we need it. Storage is still needed if we want to go beyond the ~20% point, but generally solar can fill in the peak usages caused by summertime AC use. There still is a lot of low hanging fruit for solar to help with, and the limitations of storage shouldn't be used to distract from us from using solar up to that point.

    8. Re:How big is a "solar panel"? by Moof123 · · Score: 1

      So a 14x14 mile square? Put a few of those in the Mojave desert. Put many more out in Eastern Oregon, Texas, New Mexico, etc. We have many large and mostly empty places in the USA.

      Let's get that started, and also start funding/subsidizing the heck out of energy storage projects to help get solar to fill in more than just daylight hours.

    9. Re:How big is a "solar panel"? by butchersong · · Score: 1

      The problem was that China used a cheaper technology to flood the market, rather than Solyndra not actually producing a viable product

      If you don't have a valid business plan then you don't get a loan. At least, that is the way it is supposed to work. If you know you can create a product for 100 dollars that is currently being imported for 20 from china you don't have a viable product.

    10. Re:How big is a "solar panel"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't have a valid business plan then you don't get a loan. At least, that is the way it is supposed to work. If you know you can create a product for 100 dollars that is currently being imported for 20 from china you don't have a viable product.

      A valid argument, if it were true. They had a valid business plan,but among other things they weren't expecting a massive dumping of Chinese-government subsidized solar panels. Which lead to the panels going down from the prices they were then, to much less. About a 75 percent price drop. I doubt they had reason to expect that to happen.

      There is no rationality to expecting perfect knowledge on the part of an investment. And even if that were required, there's a difference between being wrong, and committing fraud.

      A lot of people fumed and ranted how Solyndra defrauded the government in some way. Well, if they did, it wasn't because they didn't have a solar panel product, or because they didn't build a factory to build their solar panels.

      Hence my objection to the post claiming that Solyndra's panels not existing at all. They do exist, and they did work. They still do. If Hillary Clinton wanted to license the technology for some massive government program to build solar panels, they could. I wouldn't say it would be a good idea, but the objections would be that other choices would be better today, not that it wouldn't work at all.

  16. She can give me 30 of them by Lumpy · · Score: 2

    I'll even do the install on my home myself.
      give me 30 monocrystalline current tech 300 watt panels. 9000 Watt Hour will reduce my carbon footprint dramatically, in fact I will use a syncing inverter that will push my excess power back to the grid so that my neighbors can benefit from it.

    I'll even put a sign in my yard for her if she does this.

    Note to the uneducated that will pipe in, This is how most solar installations work, grid intertied syncing inverters without battery storage are incredibly common for solar installs. No it doesn't cost the power company anything.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:She can give me 30 of them by operagost · · Score: 1

      Those are useless in a power outage, of course. And the cost doubles if you want to use them for backup, which is what we need.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    2. Re:She can give me 30 of them by burtosis · · Score: 1

      I'll even do the install on my home myself. give me 30 monocrystalline current tech 300 watt panels. 9000 Watt Hour will reduce my carbon footprint dramatically, in fact I will use a syncing inverter that will push my excess power back to the grid so that my neighbors can benefit from it.

      No it doesn't cost the power company anything.

      What are you talking about it sounds like they just lost a customer and gained another competitor.

    3. Re:She can give me 30 of them by bobbied · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, it DOES cost the power company.... Even if they don't pay you for the power you generate.

      The electric grid needs to be stable, that requires that every watt of power being used, must be instantly available when the demand for it happens. When you hit that light switch, the power to run the light must be instantly generated someplace, turn that light off and the system must stop providing that power, instantly. This instant power on/off capacity is actually done using mechanical storage in the spinning parts of power generation plants.

      Solar panels and inverters have no such storage capacity, they push power into the system when the sun shines, and stop doing that when it doesn't. This means that on cloudy days there is a large variation in the power available from photovoltaic solar sources. This variation can be averaged over large areas, but there remains a lot of uncertainty in how much power will be available at any instant, because it's really hard to forecast with accuracy where a cloud or thunder storm will be formed and where it will go.

      So, this leads to how photovoltaic solar has "cost" for your electric provider. Because of the uncertainty of how much power your solar panels will have available, the provider must maintain sufficient margin available to handle the instantaneous load of the entire system. So they are burning fuel to be ready to produce electricity they are unlikely to use because of the unpredictable nature of photovoltaic solar and not knowing if they will get what they expect from that source or not.

      In addition, there are transmission grid efficiency issues that come into play. It is really hard to keep the grid efficient when you know where and when you've scheduled power to be available and when and where it will be used. With the load variance introduced from a photovoltaic power source this problem becomes even more difficult. Power companies respond by using less efficient, but more stable configurations and power flows because of this varying load within the system. This inefficiency costs them as well.

      So, I'm not saying that it's all bad for power companies. Being able to buy power from your solar panels at your retail rate during peak load where the going spot rate may be triple or more is a good thing for them, but I am saying that there ARE costs in efficiency and complexity for them.

      Then there is a safety issue that's not talked about too much when the power grid goes down in local areas. Your Photovoltaic system can be pretty lethal for linemen if left connected when the power grid is down. Hopefully you have an inverter that figures out pretty quick when the line voltage and frequency is out of working range and shuts down, but there is a risk things won't work as expected and somebody gets hurt. It's a minor issue, but it does have cost for electric providers.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    4. Re:She can give me 30 of them by crtreece · · Score: 1
      >>No it doesn't cost the power company anything.

      No, it doesn't. There is a cost associated with maintaining the infrastructure to which your system is connected though.

      --
      file: .signature not found
    5. Re:She can give me 30 of them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll even do the install on my home myself.
      Note to the uneducated that will pipe in, This is how most solar installations work, grid intertied syncing inverters without battery storage are incredibly common for solar installs. No it doesn't cost the power company anything.

      Sure - hand me a bunch of "free" solar panels that will help me get back some of my tax dollars and I'll be happy.
      The power company? Maybe less so - you're the uneducated one for that last part..."feed in" actually creates plenty of problems for them, since the existing grids were not designed that way, hence they have to spend a bunch on upgrades.

    6. Re:She can give me 30 of them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wo exactly needs that?

    7. Re:She can give me 30 of them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      give me 30 monocrystalline current tech 300 watt panels . . .
      I'll even put a sign in my yard for her if she does this.

      So what you're saying is that your vote can be bought - which is especially repugnant when the money for the buying is stolen from someone else's pocket.

      If the panels are so great it won't be difficult for you to find the motivation to buy them with your own money.

    8. Re:She can give me 30 of them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huh? Why? I lose my power for about 3 hours a YEAR here in Georgia where our lines are above ground. I have a backup for the VoIP, server, and wifi. That's one marine battery that will run them for about 6 hours. Why do we need a whole house backup?

    9. Re:She can give me 30 of them by Ichijo · · Score: 1

      Because of the uncertainty of how much power your solar panels will have available, the provider must maintain sufficient margin available to handle the instantaneous load of the entire system.

      It was always true that the provider had to maintain sufficient margin between electrical supply and demand in order to prevent blackouts. And yes, now they have to look at weather reports to determine not just demand but also supply--although the two cancel each other out to a degree because people use less A/C on cloudy days.

      But providers now have one additional tool to manage demand: smart meters. Conceptually, you can program your smart meter to raise your thermostat temperature in the summer during periods of high electrical demand, or lower your hot water temperature, or turn off lights, or tell your washer to refuse to start a load of laundry until the demand event has passed. As a result, providers can now reduce demand within seconds where it otherwise takes 10 minutes to bring a peaker plant online, and this reduces the margin providers need to maintain.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    10. Re:She can give me 30 of them by bobbied · · Score: 1

      I have a smart meter and my provider has yet to offer me the option of automatically shedding load automatically based on my instantaneous use. But this idea is NOT new. I've seen devices on AC units and electric water heaters designed to cycle the unit off to shed load and that was over a decade ago. The provider controlled these devices via radio signals and gave you some credit or better rate for the ability to turn off your devices when they wanted.

      My provider does offer an incentive for shedding load on peek days with advanced warning. They send me an E-mail about 24 hours before the event, asking me to reduce use during projected peek loads. They pay $0.60 per KWH for any reduced load I manage to provide. Turn up your AC, turn off your lights and don't cook indoors during those hours for savings. Seems effective to me, they get to shed load, don't have to pay peak rates for the power I don't use and I get a credit on my bill. I'm guessing this saves them about $0.60 per KWH even after paying me a credit, depending on the spot electric market cost during peak. However, this is not an automatic thing for them.

      My point is that it's not really "smart meters" that allow this automatic shedding of load, but increased communications capacity that "smart meters" bring to the table. Smart Meters do allow for "time of use" billing which allows providers like mine to pass on the costs (or in this case the reduced costs) more directly and encourage conservation during more critical times.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    11. Re:She can give me 30 of them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if only statistical models existed that could help plan the billion dollar profiting corporations to judge production and demand.

    12. Re:She can give me 30 of them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      which you and everyone else pay for monthly on top of any other energy use.

    13. Re:She can give me 30 of them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "the provider must maintain sufficient margin available to handle the instantaneous load of the entire system."

      Are all solar panels served by a particular utility likely to stop producing power immediately and unpredictably? The answer is no, No more so than all coal plants are likely to stop producing power immediately and unpredictably. So a utility needs to ensure that there is sufficient reserve power to cover short term aggregate variability, which will oscillate around an expected value, much as demand does now, and these things are well-modelled. The variation might be a little greater than now but it does not require a margin equal to all installed solar.

      Medium-term predictions are going to be based on weather models, and to some extent energy companies already model this as it gives an indication of demand, but would need to be extended to include information on cloudiness such that medium-term peaking generation (primarily gas turbines) can be brought online. Weather predictions on a scale of a few hours are very good, and the panels can be modelled with respect to the cloudiness, as well as general insolation.

    14. Re:She can give me 30 of them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I have a smart meter and my provider has yet to offer me the option of automatically shedding load automatically based on my instantaneous use. "

      The current tendency seems to be to apply it to large single users for short term management as this is simpler for power companies to handle at present. E.g. if you get a large hotel chain to cut its A/C for 30 minutes the temperature of its hotels will rise only a small amount, but a single agreement and simple budgetary arrangement sheds a lot of load.

      For a single dwelling shedding a/c load for 30 minutes has more of an impact on it due to lower thermal inertia. There's a reasonable argument for adding more thermal mass to buildings so that once cool they tend to stay cool, or once warm they tend to stay warm. Obviously this does mean if you let your house get warm in summer or cold in winter it is more inconvenient, but better design with respect to thermal gain, depending on latitude, is also indicated. There's a lot of inertia in that there are a lot of houses built already, but adding porches, shades, or blocks can be done. Then the thermal inertia aspect makes shedding load for smaller buildings more reasonable.

    15. Re:She can give me 30 of them by bobbied · · Score: 1

      The availability of solar and say a coal fired plant are totally different numbers. Coal fired plants have reliability numbers for available output which is darned near one hundred percent of scheduled. Yes, there are failures from time to time, but the availability of a coal plant is really good and when they are making power, chances are it's going to be 100% of scheduled.

      Photovoltaic solar, on the other hand, has variability approaching 50% of scheduled capacity ALL THE TIME. Lets say you have a forecasted 100MW solar capacity on line, you can only count on a fraction of that to be available and you need to have reserves to cover the variable fraction, even if you get what you forecasted. Wind is similar only it's worse, usually having about 35% (65% variable) capacity. It's hard to know where the sun will shine and how fast the wind will blow over the next 10 min, and you simply must as a grid operator KNOW how much power you are generating and how much you are using and they must balance or really bad things happen to the grid (think blackouts and equipment damage..)

      So this reserve capacity needs to be up and spinning, ready for energy production when you put photovoltaic solar and wind into the mix. More reserve capacity than you would need w/o the renewables and their unreliable energy sources....

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    16. Re:She can give me 30 of them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Literally buying your vote. The Republic is lost.

  17. Please, don't let it be solar freaking roadways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If so, i will vote for Trump.

  18. Democratic nomination not Democrat nomination by starless · · Score: 0

    unless you're a Republican into that type of stuff...
    "There’s no great mystery about the motives behind this deliberate misnaming. 'Democrat Party' is a slur, or intended to be—a handy way to express contempt."
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    1. Re:Democratic nomination not Democrat nomination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's Democrat; because there's nothing democratic about an authoritarian statist party. It's only democratic in how they get elected, but even the results are dubious.

    2. Re:Democratic nomination not Democrat nomination by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

      unless you're a Republican

      Shouldn't that read "unless you're a Republic"?

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    3. Re:Democratic nomination not Democrat nomination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I will never understand why Democratics take such offense to this, it seems like it's about the least offense slur one can muster. The appropriate response is on the order of an eyeroll.

      When Obama calls tea party members "teabaggers," isn't using the term "Democrat Party" like bringing a wet noodle to a gun fight?

    4. Re:Democratic nomination not Democrat nomination by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 2

      I'm voting for Bernie, the Independent Social.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    5. Re:Democratic nomination not Democrat nomination by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

      I happened to attend a statewide convention for the Democratic party in Oklahoma this weekend. We had at least one speaker, a former Democratic governor, consistently refer to the party as "the Democrat party". I think it would be fair to say he meant no insult by it. I guess that's just how the party's name is said where he comes from.

      Now perhaps that's because he lives in a rural area in a very red state, so everyone around him is hostile to the party. However, I get the sense from rather a lot of people that this is just how they think it is said, regardless of intent.

      I'm not saying that's right and you have to accept it, but language is something achieved by rough consensus. At some point you may find yourself fighting the tide with a bucket.

  19. So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A known liar makes promises. There isn't the slightest reason in the world to believe her.

  20. Dammit, be careful! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    She needs to tread carefully with this. Obama's first move was to get involved with Solyndra, a company that made solar panels, and it was a huge failure and amounted to what was business fraud in the end (he pumped taxpayer money into a company doomed to fail from the outset, while the owners got to pocket tons of bucks).

    I drive past the former Solyndra building every day to work, and it is a constant reminder of him either being so unprepared that he made a terrible mistake or mislead the public to enrich his business buddies. Given the unethical stuff he's doing now (Expanded drilling for Shell, trying to push TPP through, Keystone XL work, etc.) it was likely the latter.

    I want Hillary to win, but a big solar component to her plan will make the Republicans bring up Solyndra over and over again.

    1. Re:Dammit, be careful! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps you should learn a little bit about what happened with Solyndra rather than repeating things you've "heard" about it. Here's a couple of points:

      • The Solyndra loan guarantee was a multi-year process that the Bush Administration launched in 2007.
      • The loan comprises just 1.3% of DOE’s overall loan portfolio, and it's the only loan that’s known to be troubled.
      • Many of the largest investors in Solyndra are heavy supporters of the GOP, including one of the earliest and largest, Madrone Capital Partners, which is owned and operated by the Waltons (no, not the TV show Waltons, the Wal-Mart Waltons).

      There's a lot more, but, basically, your claims are incorrect. Getting Solyndra loans was not the first move of the Obama administration, it was a continuation of policy started by the Bush administration. There was no fraud.

      I can only suppose your ideas about the other things you list are also incorrect. I suggest you look into the facts before you talk about them any more.

  21. Normal human translation by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What this means to the layperson is, "The solar industry can't survive on its own and needs a crap-ton of subsidies to keep it afloat."
    This didn't work in the 70s but I guess because "the right people" will be in charge, it'll work this time around.

    1. Re:Normal human translation by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The same could be said for the oil and gas industries. With billions in pure profits, why the fuck are they still getting subsidies and tax breaks?

    2. Re:Normal human translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sorry you have such a low opinion of the normal human being. If I were to say your words, I would at least qualify my remark as talking about the uneducated and thoughtless people who have been brainwashed into thinking government support of any kind if a sign of reprehensible incompetence that must be disparaged and despised.

      Which is not a small number, I won't dispute their existence in some larger than desired degree, but I don't consider it a normal thing.

    3. Re:Normal human translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The same could be said for the oil and gas industries. With billions in pure profits, why the fuck are they still getting subsidies and tax breaks?

      Um, no the two aren't comparable. 1 needs subsidies to stay afloat, the other uses subsidies (which are available to all companies btw, not just oil and gas) to increase profits. Trying to compare to the industries is folly.

    4. Re:Normal human translation by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 1

      The same could be said for the oil and gas industries. With billions in pure profits, why the fuck are they still getting subsidies and tax breaks?

      The effect of subsidies to the oil and gas industries is not to increase their profits, it is to lower the price of oil and gas, and increase consumption.

      So why did they ever get subsidies? Basically because mainstream America wanted lower gas prices and wanted to drive more.

    5. Re:Normal human translation by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

      If something is making enough profits to break even (or better), it shouldn't be getting subsidies at all.

    6. Re:Normal human translation by pipingguy · · Score: 1

      Business expense deduction is a subsidy, then? How much do the O&G companies pay in taxes each year?

    7. Re:Normal human translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A stable lower price is never the effect of subsidies. If the strongest competitor doesn't need the subsidies to be profitable, then they can lower their prices by that amount, but they only need to do so for a short time: The other competitors need part of the subsidies to be profitable, so they can't lower their prices as much and lose more business to the strongest competitor. In the end the competitors that didn't need the subsidy survive and the others don't, just like without subsidies. At that point, it's all gravy. This means that subsidies can create a market where otherwise there would be no profitable investment for anyone, but as soon as a naturally profitable competitor emerges, the subsidies just end up as higher profits for the investors. The failure of subsidies to lower prices has also been shown empirically.

    8. Re:Normal human translation by tomhath · · Score: 2

      Tax deduction for the costs of doing business aren't subsidies. Please stop confusing the two.

    9. Re:Normal human translation by tomhath · · Score: 1

      Have you ever actually looked at how much oil companies pay in taxes each year? Exxon has topped the list for a long time, but the other big oil companies are right up there.

      . Exxon Mobil > Income tax expense: $31.0 billion
      > Earnings before taxes: $78.7 billion (the most)
      > Revenue: $428.4 billion (2nd most)
      > 1-yr. share price change: +14.5%
      > Industry: Oil and gas

      Exxon Mobil is one of the nation’s largest companies by a number of measures. The oil and gas titan trails only Walmart in revenue and has the highest pre-tax income of any American public company. Not surprisingly, Exxon Mobil also pays more in taxes than any other corporation.

    10. Re:Normal human translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you bothered to look at the subsidies and tax breaks that the oil companies get, you would see that those subsidies are there to incentivize those companies to do things that the government would like those companies to do but are not otherwise profitable, or that might be more profitable for them to do elsewhere (where we would not get benefit from it)

      Remove those incentives, and the oil companies will likely just shift their resources around so they keep making money - it may have bad effects on the US economy when they shut down those US operations to go work more on operations in other countries, but that is not something that the companies have to care about.

    11. Re:Normal human translation by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The solar industry would survive without subsidies, but it would also take a lot longer to get the number of panels that the country needs to reduce pollution and CO2 emissions.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    12. Re:Normal human translation by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Serious question.......what tax breaks exactly are they getting? I've tried half-heartedly for a while now, but haven't figured out what it is.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    13. Re:Normal human translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. I know for a fact that my neighbor deducts home mortgage interest and still has money left over to pay someone to cut his grass!

    14. Re:Normal human translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you are referring to the "tax breaks received by the oil and gas industry" referred to in the summary, they are neither subsidies nor unusual tax breaks but deductions for exploration costs. Incur a cost doing business? It's deductible. SOP.

    15. Re:Normal human translation by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      Just because I'm talking about both doesn't mean I'm confusing the two. Some people were talking about tax breaks, other were talking about subsidies.

    16. Re:Normal human translation by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      My reply was to RogueWarrior65, who mentioned subsidies.

    17. Re:Normal human translation by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      I was referring to subsidies, mentioned by RogueWarrior65 in the post I was replying to.

    18. Re:Normal human translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is giving money to a company or giving money to company not both subsidies?

    19. Re:Normal human translation by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Actually, the right people can make anything work. More than a few ideas are being given a bad rap because of lousy execution. But, we're still looking for the right people, definitely in the wrong place. Elusive as unicorns they appear to be.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    20. Re:Normal human translation by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 1

      Sooooo...perpetual motion?

    21. Re:Normal human translation by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Damn near! Shit moves pretty slowly. Look how many years we spent riding a damn horse until the right guy could build an engine. You gotta ask, why did everything happen so recently?

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    22. Re:Normal human translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They aren't getting breaks specific to their industry, but the talking point still works on a certain misinformed demographic.

    23. Re:Normal human translation by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 1

      It's pretty simple. Profit motive. The time of the solitary inventor devoting his life to the joy of inventing is long since passed because of an ever increasing need of money to pay for things that we have no choice about. A major example is insurance. You have to have it and you have to have several different kinds. In some cases, you have to have insurance to protect you from people who don't have it even though they are required by law to have it. What a scam! The other big one that most people don't fully realize are fees. Fees upon fees upon more bullsh*t fees. Take a look at the statement for every monthly bill you get and study the laundry list of fees that have nothing to do with the commodity you're using. And some of those fees are so byzantine that you can't tell what they're for. Case in point: my electric bill for the workshop space that I rent has a $30 per month "metering" fee. The same line item for my house is only $3. So I called to find out what the eff. The first person I spoke to had no clue what it was. A supervisor told me that it's for a three-phase meter. I said, "But I don't have three-phase service inside the shop." Doesn't matter. The meter is the meter. Beyond that, we're rapidly going down the rat hole where the average person can't own anything anymore. They'll "rent" everything forever and wonder why they're broke all the time.

    24. Re:Normal human translation by volmtech · · Score: 1

      Look it up, one of the new definitions of subsidy is a tax not paid. So like one other person has already said, any money not taxed away after a company's breakeven point can be called a subsidy.

  22. Star-Lord by sycodon · · Score: 2

    That has to be the most paranoid, pedantic and inane wiki article I've ever read.

    The term "Democrat..." has been used countless times by DEMOCRATS themselves on television for as long as I can remember.

    You might as well get your panties in a twist because people don't call you "Star-Lord".

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  23. 500 Million New Solar Panels? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

    That will cost a minimum of 75 million dollars.

  24. Tax break cuts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    set up tax incentives... cutting tax breaks

    Wouldn't it be nice if we just had independent taxes and subsidies that the average person could actually understand, and so that other taxes actually worked as intended?

  25. Suburban thinking by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2

    Rooftop solar is a great offset for energy usage in sunny parts of the country where the construction is all one-story. Now what about the high-rise apartment buildings in cities where the roof area per inhabitant is tiny and where buildings shade each other at different times of the day? Renewable power sources are highly situational, in that the type and availability of each source, and how they might mesh together, is heavily dependent on location. Then consider demand: a household may not mind having to wait to turn the oven on until the sun is high, while an industrial user has no such option.

    If Hillary wants the government to help, there is a better way to do it than having it subsidize all the "good" energy and hope for the best. Fix the legal system so that all forms of energy construction are limited only by the siting and safety standards that apply to that source, with the religious preferences of political pressure groups losing all legal standing to interfere. Capital will then flow to energy projects that are the best for each place.

    1. Re:Suburban thinking by Jeremi · · Score: 2

      The technical problems you mention have obvious solutions.

      Not enough roof space on a high-rise to supply power to all of its residents? No problem, just put the solar panels somewhere else instead. Wires make it easy to move electricity from one place to another.

      Need more power when the sun isn't shining? That's a bit more expensive to solve, but the solution is obvious -- generate excess power in advance and store it in batteries, so that it is available when you need it. The cell phone, laptop, tablet, and electric car markets are all driving the costs of battery storage down to the point where this will soon be economical to do at scale.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    2. Re:Suburban thinking by NotDrWho · · Score: 1

      No problem, just put the solar panels somewhere else instead.

      Where?

      generate excess power in advance and store it in batteries

      Who's going to pay for the batteries, and to replace them periodically?

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    3. Re:Suburban thinking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cities are unsustainable without the surrounding land. This is true for almost every aspect: food, water, energy, etc. So discarding an idea because it can't make a city self-sufficient is nonsensical.

    4. Re:Suburban thinking by GoChickenFat · · Score: 1

      Do you mean supporting things like immanent domain over us rural land owners? Forcing the sale or easements through our properties for the greater good? It's funny - all of this energy discussion ends up being more about "not in my backyard". It doesn't matter if it's coal burning, windmills, solar panels or hazardous mining - the cities need this and the voting population in these cities are more than willing to vote in people that will take things from others so they can feel good about their "clean" energy. I'd love to see just one city doze a block of dilapidated houses and put up just one of the giant windmills or crack open a hazardous lead mine downtown.

    5. Re:Suburban thinking by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      Being able to send the sun to your rainy city from Arizona over wires is vital, but your area might at the same time be a good place to generate hydro, which after all these years is still king of the renewables (OR...you have the option of keeping your green valleys by installing nuclear, but that's another story). Putting your hydro on the grid increases the energy options for all the other places, especially those using different renewables. Your cloudy tropical city might lie near volcanos, which makes geothermal a possibility.

      But for each of these sources, including non-rooftop solar, there are religious objections, which is why taking religion out of the regulatory process is a much better way of getting renewables built than printing more money. While interest rates are still infinitesimal, raising capital is not an issue.

    6. Re:Suburban thinking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      According to the census, there are 70million detached houses in the US.

    7. Re:Suburban thinking by Moof123 · · Score: 1

      Who pays for your current power plant when it needs maintenance, repair, or replacement? We have these things called "utility companies" that have the charter to keep the lights on (some do a better job than others). Similarly if utility companies are driven to put in energy storage by laws or incentives, they would pool user fees (you do have an electric bill, right?) and pay for ongoing maintenance and repair of panels and storage systems.

      Today we have subsidies, the argument being made is to adjust those to favor solar instead of coal, oil, and natural gas. Utility companies are largely driven by rules to best serve their customers. If subsidies make solar the cheapest option, the change will happen as old power plants wear out and get replaced.

      But surely you are not as dumb as your comments appear to be?

    8. Re:Suburban thinking by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      Solar panels can go on more buildings than just houses. Any building with a large flat roof could host a considerable number of solar panels for instance. Around here all of the schools have solar panels on them. A company pays them for leasing the roof space.

    9. Re:Suburban thinking by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      No, what I'm saying is that "I think energy source X is the Devil's work" would no longer be a valid argument against any source that satisfies the emissions, safety and siting standards established for its type.

    10. Re:Suburban thinking by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      Certainly, but the building height limitation still applies. A suburban shopping mall with acres of flat roof over two floors of shopping? Great place for solar. A ten-story standalone Nordstrom's in the middle of a city? Not so much, because even assuming the same insolation, the number of individual users per square meter of roof is a lot higher.

    11. Re:Suburban thinking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The word you're looking for is eminent.

    12. Re:Suburban thinking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The average electricity consumption in the US is about 4000TWh per 300 million people and year. That's 13MWh per person and year. To produce that much electricity with solar cells takes panels with a combined power of ca. 13kWp. With current technology, that's an area of 70*13=910 square foot per person. The maximum population density derived from this number is 30000 people per square mile. That's roughly the population density of New York City. But of course that would require every surface which is ever exposed to direct sunlight (roofs, sides of buildings, windows, streets, parks, etc.) to be covered with solar cells, and I'm pretty sure New Yorkers have an above-average electricity consumption, and it wouldn't even begin to eat into any form of energy besides electricity. Cities are not self-sustainable in any way.

    13. Re: Suburban thinking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do those buldings get power today? It is almost as if they are connected to some kind of grid that helps out with that.

    14. Re:Suburban thinking by GoChickenFat · · Score: 1

      ah...gotcha. The problem there is setting standards that are "equal" without bias by the folks setting the standards.

    15. Re: Suburban thinking by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      The scenario being explored here is, "Suppose we replace our existing baseload sources with flickery, fluctuating small renewables. And oh, that one really big, reliable renewable doesn't count, because it was the evil energy source my grandpa opposed even before there were nuclear plants to mindlessly protest against."

    16. Re:Suburban thinking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm pretty sure New Yorkers have an above-average electricity consumption, and it wouldn't even begin to eat into any form of energy besides electricity.

      Actually...if New York City were a state, it would rank 51st in per capita energy use.

      http://www.nycedc.com/sites/default/files/files/economic-snapshot/July%20Econ%20Snap%202013_0.pdf

      Even as a state as a whole, New York ranks among the lowest.

      http://www.eia.gov/state/rankings/

      What else might you be sure about that's not quite true?

    17. Re: Suburban thinking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, that's not the scenario we are exploring here. The amount of solar panels we are talking about is a relatively small part of the needed electricity generation. If you are exploring that scenario it is because you have not read and understood the article, summary, or any of the comments.

  26. The end result by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "by cutting tax breaks to the oil and gas industry"

    So when those companies pass that on to the consumer, you should expect higher gasoline prices and heating bills under a Clinton admin.

  27. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by bobbied · · Score: 4, Informative

    You act like Oil Companies care about solar panels.... They don't. Let me explain why...

    Solar panels exclusively generate electricity, Oil companies have little to do with electricity. Yea, they sell natural gas to electric producers, but that's the limit of their involvement in electricity production. Natural gas production is not a huge money maker right now, prices are down even though demand is up and there is little expectation that this changes in the next decade. Oil companies don't care about solar panels or wind farms because they don't have anything to do with their core business. Start messing with fuel oil, gasoline and other Oil based industrial production, then you might get some interest from big oil.

    Of course this Clinton position is about appealing to the liberal environmentalists. Now THAT does interest Big Oil because this position implies a national energy position that is slanted in a way that impacts the ability of oil companies to produce more domestically. Solar panels don't matter to this, but it's the rest or the implied policy that this solar panel idea betrays.

    So you are parroting what really amounts to a "liberal lie", which amounts to a misrepresentation of what is really going on. Big Oil doesn't oppose solar panels... They simply don't care...

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  28. Manufacturing by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

    Does the US manufacture a significant amount of solar panels, or will much of this money go overseas?

    1. Re: Manufacturing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not sure about the panels themselves, but the US is at least a major producer of the polysilicon that goes into them.

    2. Re:Manufacturing by nephilimsd · · Score: 1

      Who cares? It's not like we produce most of our oil here anyway, so why does it matter which foreign country gets those dollars?

  29. I agree in theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    But the fact of the matter is that people are short sighted and subsequently, the markets.

    Look it now. With all this abnormally cheap gasoline, people don't give a shit about gas mileage anymore. Now is a great time to buy a hybrid or electric, btw.

    But, petroleum WILL go back up again and we'll be back where we started.

    Secondly, pollution. I want clean air. I hate this bullshit of smog days and being told to stay in - I love being outdoors. And unfortunately, the majority of people don't care because they are couch potatoes and stay in.

    Third - the future. China is investing heavily in solar and other non-fossil fuel energy production. While we the US insist on staying in the 19th century. In other words, we're setting ourselves up to be stuck behind because we are so short sighted - which is what the free markets do; be short sighted.

    1. Re:I agree in theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      China's stock market is down 8,5% today. It has an economy run by diktat, even worse than Hilary's dreams. It will not end well.

    2. Re: I agree in theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes because we all know that stock prices are directly tied to performance... Oh wait no they aren't. They're an emotional Rollercoaster based on "investor confidence".

    3. Re:I agree in theory by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Um, China is investing money in all power technologies. They are building every type of power plant as fast as they can. They are building coal power plants at an enormous rate, along with nuclear, and hydro (where possible). The US is trending cleaner in power production, while China is staying dirty or going even dirtier. Holding up China as what the US should strive for is extremely odd. Your statement reminds me of Mr Magoo in many ways. "Oh look at how much China is spending on solar power!"

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    4. Re:I agree in theory by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      Third - the future. China is investing heavily in solar and other non-fossil fuel energy production. While we the US insist on staying in the 19th century. In other words, we're setting ourselves up to be stuck behind because we are so short sighted - which is what the free markets do; be short sighted.

      This is not true. We are investing heavily in solar. Take a look at prices and capacity over the last 30 years. The industry shows incredible growth. The percentage growth of renewables is not short of amazing. You look at the graph and see "only 3% and forget that in 1980 it was magnitudes less. US energy use has grown over the last 30 years and yet renewables have grown to be a recognizable portion of the market. At this rate renewables will be dominant in 30 years.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
  30. Re:I love Hillary by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    But if you're a heavy in the stock market, you couldn't ask for better. She's gonna make a lot of money for some folks. Just be sure to cash out in 2023

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  31. Check my math. by wcrowe · · Score: 0

    Check my math, please
    31,536,000 seconds per year.
    126,144,000 seconds per 4-year term
    126,144,000 / 500,000,000 = 0.252288

    To install 500,000,000 solar panels during her first term (4 years) means that about 4 solar panels would have to be installed every second. With all the wiring and retrofitting involved, even with a few hundred companies installing solar panels, this does not sound possible.

    --
    Proverbs 21:19
    1. Re:Check my math. by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      Hey, its amazing how fast people will work for an extra $120 per panel.

    2. Re:Check my math. by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      I didn't check your math but you didn't factor in the time it would take to pass in the legislation to make this law (probably at least a year). Then I doubt there's that much excess supply in the solar panel industry especially with China installing all that it can so you would have to wait at least another year for the plants to be built because they probably aren't going to invest in them until they know for sure that the law has been passed. That's if they build the extra plants because they might not make their money back if the surge in panels isn't kept up past 2020.

    3. Re:Check my math. by Moof123 · · Score: 1

      So if we had 100,000 workers installing panels, they would only have 7 hours per panel to install it?

      Horrors. We might need to get unions involved to keep people from exceeding that rate and put hard working solar installers out of work.

    4. Re:Check my math. by wcrowe · · Score: 1

      We might be hard pressed to come up with an army of 100,000 installers. At present, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 4,800 Solar photovoltaic installers in the U.S.

      At present, each installer would have to install about 104,166 in the 4-year period. Assuming each worker is on the job 250 days per year, that would be 417 panels installed per day, or 52 panels per hour.

      So, we'll definitely need a whole lot more installers than we have right now to reach Ms. Clinton's goal. I wonder where all these people are going to come from? And who is going to train them?

         

      --
      Proverbs 21:19
  32. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Electric cars could really take a bite out of oil company profits. Cheap, clean energy from the sun (which provides more energy to the surface of this planet every single day than will be produced in the entire history of all fossil fuels combined) could help make that world a reality.

    The internal combustion engine is getting to be kind of an old technology, but it's very profitable.

  33. Hillary Canute by div_2n · · Score: 2

    Current projections I've seen show about that many being installed regardless of what political efforts are underway. So she's basically pulling a Canute. That's really bold and ambitious of her. /s

  34. nice pivot. by nimbius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    public: what about rampant police abuse of power?
    the constant unending stream of shadow money into political campaigns?
    the nearly endless war on terror and our secret torture prison in Cuba?
    What are you going to do about the impending student loan collapse and the rampant US unemployment fueled by abusive trade agreements that are largely unreported?
    what approach will you take to immigration reform?
    How will you address the growing number of domestic mass shootings?
    What is your approach to the continued neglect of social security? the highway trust? the Veterans Administration?
    Clinton: Free solar panels for everything forever.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  35. But... she's not going to win the nomination... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    She's not widely regarded as the most likely to win the nomination. Clinton is trailing Sanders in the polls.

  36. Tax breaks for oil and gas? by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 2

    What exactly is she talking about? Every company has to follow GAAP accounting. Expenses are deducted from earnings to arrive at profits, which are taxed at rates set by federal law. Depreciation schedules are also set by law. Is she talking about requiring gas and oil companies to follow more punitive tax laws, which have not been written or passed? Is it even legal to treat some companies differently than others depending on their product?

  37. 500 million panels is 0.5% of energy consumed by Trachman · · Score: 1

    All authoritarians are bad at math. Many of them just incompetent and the moment they open their mouth and speak in areas that require quantification, they fail often.

    This time is not exception. Who does Hillary has in her presidential team? Liberal art majors?

    Here is the calculation:

    One solar panel generates approximately 200 Wh of energy. Some might say solar panel generates 230 Wh, but for the sake of simple and easy to understand calculation let's use 200 Wh. There will be 500 million of them.

    Let's say there will be 4 hours sun in one day, called Peak Sun hours, a factor which need to be taken into account when making this calculation. Let's say there will be 365 days in a year.

    Total energy will be generated per hour: 500 million panels times 200 Wh= 100,000 million Watt hours, or 100,000,000,000 Wh, or 100,000,000, KWh, or 100,000 Mega Wh, or 100 Giga Wh per one hour. My math is correct so far. Right? Per year total energy to be generated 100 GWh X 4 hours x 365 days in a year = 146,000 GWh = 146 TWh.

    146 TWh, is the output of 500,000,000 of solar panels

    Total energy consumed in USA in 2009, is approx 25,000 TWh per year, here is the source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    So Hillary is proposing to install solar panels that will be 0.5% of overall energy consumption?

    Calculating energy in solar panels, is just as bad as scaring the world with Iran's 100,000 centrifuges, or measuring volume with Olympic size pools.

    Yeah. Authoritarians are often bad at math and they are bad this time also.

    0.5 % is of course better than nothing, speaking in absolute terms, but the same, or more, can be achieved by many other alternatives.

    1. Re:500 million panels is 0.5% of energy consumed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Electricity consumption in the US is less than 4000TWh/year. 146TWh (which is a tad optimistic btw.) is about three and a half percent of the total electricity consumption. That's an ambitious goal, but at less than 2 panels per capita, it's obviously only a start.

    2. Re: 500 million panels is 0.5% of energy consumed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe authoritans are bad at math, but unlike you they might know the difference between W and Wh.

    3. Re:500 million panels is 0.5% of energy consumed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      maybe your math is correct .. maybe not.
      the point is that your "146 TWh" energy could in theory manufacture many many more solar panels ... in the usa?
      which of course could again be subject to your mathematical scrutiny and maybe again yield an astonishing amount of free energy which in turn could
      again be used to (by now) in part be used to manufacture .. you guessed it ... more solar panels ... all this because the sun shines for free?
      -
      to "fill up" a empty 80 kwh tesla-car (350 miles?) battery you need about 20 kW of solarpanels and 4 hours (average peak over one day) of FREEE sun-shine, which
      is 'bout 130 square meters ...
       

  38. Is she paying for them? by NotDrWho · · Score: 1

    Because if she is, then I'll certainly take them. Otherwise, piss off.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  39. I am pretty sure I could take the engine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    out of my toyota attach it to a generator and run cleaner and cheaper than all of the poison made by photovoltaics, I challenge them all to a unicorn joust.

  40. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If energy from the sun is cheap, why does it have to be subsidized?

  41. Hillary has NO chance of being president, PERIOD. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After Obama I and MILLIONS of others are ready and willing to vote Republican, if only to
    send a message to the Democrats that we've HAD ENOUGH.

  42. bait and switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I was told there were going to be death panels!
    When the hell is O'bummer going to take our guns?!! He better hurry up!

  43. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They do care. Go to ANY discussion on this forum about electric cars. I guarantee you'll see a bunch of nonsense about how your electricity comes from fossile fuels. This really does put a market limit on what people are willing to pay to get an electric for their own environmental edification. A cleaner grid means more people will be willing to pay a premium for an electric car - and there is a tipping point with this kind of thing - manufacturing costs, societal changes, sunk costs in charger installations, the list goes on. Don't kid yourself, oil profits are at risk from solar proliferation. Don't forget, Energy is fungible.

  44. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by silas_moeckel · · Score: 1

    Because subsidies turn 10k of PV into 30k, much like when the 7k fed tax credit for hybrids went away the price went down 7k.

    --
    No sir I dont like it.
  45. Re:She is better then jeb bush by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not trolling here, but you assume a lot of people think all those are a bad thing.

    My check from the government is my earned entitlement. Your check from the government is an amoral welfare. Paul Ryan hates Social Security, but when he drew Social Security to get to college, it was somehow fine. Even Ayn Rand drew government checks.

    Also JEB Bush is redundant, like typing your PIN Number on an ATM Machine. J.E.B. is an acronym for John Elliot Bush. The Bush is redundant, much like Bushes in general ;) Ok, that last part was a troll, but the first part not, I swear.

  46. Re:I love Hillary by bobbied · · Score: 1

    She could strangle puppies on live TV and the Democrats would nominate her.

    She's batshit crazy in the most evil of ways.

    Wait a second here... We don't know that they will nominate her.. They didn't LAST time she ran and was seen as the heir apparent... And look who beat her then... A junior senator from Illinois out of Chicago who NOBODY outside of his state had taken any notice of...

    Looking back, I wish she'd won that nomination.... Where I believe she would have won the general too, there would have been no way for her to win the second term and we'd be done with this craziness by now... Besides, Bill would have loved a new batch of interns to play with as I'm sure he's a lonely man even at his age...

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  47. Is it like Romney's 2$ gasoline? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Romney in 2012 made dramatic and what he thought would create shock value by promising 2$ a gallon gasoline. Obama actually saw 2$ gasoline for a brief period! Free market has a way of doing things no one predicted.

    The current trend is 500 million new solar panels without any special action by any legislator/executive. Simple market forces and trend lines. Residential solar is becoming competitive with subsidies and net metering. Utility scale solar is on track to become competitive with natural gas in a few years. It is already competitive with coal for fresh installations. No new coal plant has come on line this year and last. The pipeline is dry too. Number of coal plants have fallen from 633 to 518 in the last decade. Coal has lost 20 GW of capacity in that time, and is on track to lose another 40 GW. Natural gas providing base load and solar meeting the peak load is going to become the norm in the next 10 years. No new breakthrough in energy storage, no battery wall made by Elon Musk, no widespread investment by home owners needed. Simple existing technologies, free market forces, interest rates and world flush with 2 trillion in capital not knowing where to invest for good returns.

    So half billion new solar panels might happen no matter who wins, Hilary or Jeb! or Walker or Trump or Bernie. We might even look back and see Hilary's half a billion solar panels the same way we look at Romney's 2$ gasoline.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  48. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by asylumx · · Score: 1

    The same question could be asked about oil.

  49. Garden Lights by tomhath · · Score: 1

    Each one has a little solar panel and an LED that comes on at night; they'r eimported from China by the million. I have a half dozen of them along my driveway.

  50. Re:She is better then jeb bush by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    just wait for your tax bill when people that used to be on medicaid and medicare trun to the local jail to see a DR and you may see a former IT pro that got replaced by a H1B with a pre-existing conditions there as well.

  51. Promises, Promises by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Funny

    She also set a goal of installing half a billion new solar panels within her first term

    Come on, even working four years straight there's no way she can install that many solar panels!

    On the other hand, if she's doing that there's no way she has time to screw up the country like past presidents... OK, i'm in, as long as she keeps her promise to just install solar panels.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  52. tuned out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just don't care about elections anymore, the last time I voted was obama's first election. I had been voting since 1995, there is seriously no point in it. It's all become either a dynasty candidate or billion dollar backed candidate that even gets a chance....which are usually the same 3-4 dinks vying for the position for 10 years.

    Im just so sick of this polarized one party "split hairs" 2 party system we are in.

    My predications, hilary wins. because people are morons and the name is easy to remember. end of story.

  53. 500 new solar panels by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    500 new solar panels AND a pony. No, TWO ponies. And a yacht. And a lifetime supply of whiskey. And Sofía Vergara as my personal sex slave.

    I mean, as long as we're dreaming....

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    1. Re:500 new solar panels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      500 new solar panels AND a pony. No, TWO ponies. And a yacht. And a lifetime supply of whiskey. And Sofía Vergara as my personal sex slave.

      I mean, as long as we're dreaming....

      The solar panels, ponies, yacht, and whiskey can be arranged easily. A sex slave would raise some eyebrows. LOL

  54. Pay for it creatively and I'm in by bjdevil66 · · Score: 1

    Let's not get into any more long-term debt for it (with creative accounting, more national debt, etc.), but I'm sure there's some way to get these panels out there with a long-term support plan.

    No more Solyndra-type money into black holes, please.

  55. Irrelephant by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Why do you think that even matters? If it's down to a Bush/Clinton matchup, who WOULDN'T vote for the Trump candidate... hell, the result is in the name!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  56. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

    Big oil opposes and end to oil subsidies. Clear enough for you.

  57. like typical left, she has it wrong. by WindBourne · · Score: 2

    We need to drop the subsidies and simply say that all buildings less than 6 stories are to have enough on-site AE to equal the energy used for the HVAC (and require AC as well). In addition, the local utility must buy any daily extra at the maximum price that it costs them to buy electricity from elsewhere.

    If she gets that passed, then not only will it put a stop to energy growth, but it will pretty much encourage cheaper buildings, and storage mechanism.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:like typical left, she has it wrong. by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      I think that it might be better to spend the money to up the insulation. I go by construction sites and the minimum amount of insulation required is terrible. If it was increased massive amounts of energy and money could be saved while increasing comfort.

    2. Re: like typical left, she has it wrong. by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Think about what I wrote. Currently, unsubsidized solar is expensive to put in. So, the builder has a choice of lowering HVAC energy demands and installing less solar, OR simply installing a lot more panels. Builders will find it cheaper to install more insulation, use aerogel windows for places like basement, bathrooms, maybe bedrooms, etc. Likewise, they will switch over to using geo-thermal HVAC, esp if house is well insulated. In time, aerogel windows and geo-thermal HVAC will become so cheap that older homes will switch.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    3. Re: like typical left, she has it wrong. by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      That may work for larger buildings. (As an aside I wish they would make it mandatory to for apartment/condo buildings more than four or six stories to use geothermal for the heating and cooling.) I don't think it would work for smaller buildings and homes.

      I just replaced my furnace and A/C in addition to looking at getting solar panels put in. Now this is for eastern Ontario so the economics will be different for a lot of places in the US. The numbers I'm using are retail but their relative values should be similar to a trades person.

      I'm in the suburbs so that means for a geothermal system I would need to drill vertical holes for the system. I didn't get one priced but they range between $30k and $40k with $10k for the drilling.

      There seems to be only two air source heat pumps on the market for my region and they cost around $13k. Plus they would need a backup heating system for the extremely cold days. So with installation estimate $20k

      A 98% efficiency natural gas furnace with a 16 SEER A/C comes in around $8k.

      From looking around at solar power it costs about $8k to install the basics (wiring, inverter, etc) and then it's approximately $2200 per kW of panels.

      In all the systems there is a fan for circulating the air and you are going to have the installation costs for the solar power. So it basically comes down to adding solar panels to cover the difference between the A/C and the heat pumps. The builder could also decide to go up to a SEER 21 A/C if it was cheaper than adding the solar panels or increasing insulation.

    4. Re: like typical left, she has it wrong. by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      First off, you were looking to modify an OLD building. That is not a great time to install geo. The deep loops are too expensive esp. when you have to drill more than 2.
      Secondly, if building a new building, esp. homes, and a builder can spend loads of money on AE, OR put more into insulation (such as aerogel windows/doors, or 2x6 studs combined with R40 insulation in the walls, and R60 in the attic).
      Once you have a lot of insulation, then geo-thermal is dirt cheap to install. Basically, you put a small horizontal loop in the backyard.

      In the end, the economics of Solar (which is the best AE on most buildings), will drive better insulation, along with geo-thermal.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  58. Where in the US Constitution..... by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Hmm.

    I"m still trying to thumb through my US Constitution and find where within the enumerated responsibilities and rights of the Federal Govt. that it is charged with picking winners and losers in industry. Also,where in there is the Fed govt supposed to figure out health costs of one industry vs another and penalize one over another?

    And no, it has nothing to do with the "General Welfare" parts....

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    1. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by D.McG. · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It has everything to do with the general well-being of the populace. "Life" is referenced a few times in the constitution. If coal byproducts will shorten my "Life" then I'm all for the government to at least pick out the losers. Now, since we cannot be left without electricity after taking down coal, I'm also fine with folks proposing an alternative. Classic "don't complain without a solution". Clinton is proposing a solution. That's all it is, a proposal if elected.

    2. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by njnnja · · Score: 1

      It's the Commerce Clause, of course.

      Poe's law disclaimer: I'm joking, I think...

    3. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by jbengt · · Score: 1

      The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts . . .
      To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
      To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
      To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof;
      No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

    4. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It has everything to do with the general well-being of the populace. "Life" is referenced a few times in the constitution.

      You might want to be careful with that line of thinking. For example, forcing you to exercise would also measurably lengthen your life; do you want the government to be able to mandate such a thing?

    5. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by DroolTwist · · Score: 1

      Winston takes his place in front of the telescreen for the Physical Jerks, a daily exercise routine for Outer Party members. During the exercise, he thinks about the past and remembers a time as a child when he and his family ran into a bunker during a bombing. He is lost in the memory as he tries to touch his toes, causing the exercise director to shout at him from the telescreen.

    6. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You might want to be careful with that line of thinking. For example, forcing you to exercise would also measurably lengthen your life; do you want the government to be able to mandate such a thing?

      "Forcing"? No. Encouraging people to exercise more? Sure...and they already do that. For all the good it does...maybe they should offer my kid some subsidies to get his ass outside...yeah, that might work.

    7. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      It is the clauses about taxing and spending for the general welfare. The clauses are pretty broad, however much you may dislike them.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    8. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      What extent of "encouraging" do you find acceptable? For example, should we tax people higher if they don't exercise enough, and then use that money to give everyone else free gym passes?

    9. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They can mandate all they want, they wouldn't have the ability to enforce that. It's pretty disingenuous to try and equate the two.

      The constitution is all about making a fair playing field. Some things we should absolutely have a referendum on and get things added to the constitution rather than making laws strut a fine line.

      That said, many municipalities in this country actually do things that are good for your health by taxing soda, cigarettes, and many other goods. They end up mostly hurting the poor but they do get a lot of people to quit smoking. Quite frankly if the right wasn't advocating more working hours then more people would have a chance to get exercise.

    10. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

      There's clearly a distinction between the government mandating my self-improvement vs preventing others from reducing the length and quality of my life. I'd say the latter is firmly in the constitution's purview.

      --
      Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
    11. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You really don't see the difference? Forcing an individual to exercise is not the same as forcing a company to not spew pollution into the air. You are on an ideological bent if you think they are equal.

    12. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      I see the difference. The point is that it's not about "general well-being of the populace" at all.

    13. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by tbannist · · Score: 1

      How is the rule "do not poison the people" not about the "general well-being of the people"?

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    14. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Let me rephrase that. It could be used as a justification of such a law, yes. My point is that it doesn't have to be, and we're better off not doing that because that would have undesirable legal side effects down the line.

      "General well-being of the people" is a very vague notion that can be used as a justification for too many things, most of which you probably wouldn't like at all. Of specific note is that it doesn't require any outside actor - they could just as well limit your own activities that are potentially harmful to yourself, even statistically speaking (i.e. not harmful to you personally, but universally banning them would prevent enough people from exercising them in a harmful way that it would improve "general well-being"

      It's far better to go with some more concrete justifications, such as specific measurable harm that is inflicted by the actor to other parties. It's not exactly hard to do with pollutants, either, because the emissions are measurable, and so are their effects. It's still collective harm, since it's pretty hard to quantify the individual damage you get from e.g. AGW (though still possible in some cases, and I'd love to see the polluters pay compensation and damages specifically to people they hurt whenever we can trace it), but then at least it's about harm, not some nebulous "it could be better that way".

    15. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For example, forcing you to exercise would also measurably lengthen your life; do you want the government to be able to mandate such a thing?

      Yeah man, can you imagine?

      - Mandatory exercise breaks at work
      - Regulated Office Hours, stiff penalties for companies forcing overtime at the detriment of employee health
      - Higher taxes on unhealthy food, more oversight into what is 'healthy' and what isn't
      - Government programs & subsidies for gyms/pools/personal training.

      Sounds pretty... good actually.

    16. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      You are missing the point: none of these force you to exercise, merely encourage you to do so. But if your rationale is "general welfare", then literally forcing people to exercise is equally legitimate - it's for their own good!

    17. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

      You might want to be careful with that line of thinking. For example, forcing you to exercise would also measurably lengthen your life; do you want the government to be able to mandate such a thing?

      I'd actually support it. The biggest cost to healthcare is fat bastards who eat the wrong food and don't do enough exercise. So yeah, if that means you live longer and I pay less tax, the sign me up for that one.

    18. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Thank you for illustrating my point so eloquently. It's precisely because of people like you that this line of reasoning is so fraught with peril.

    19. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Finland, the government subsidizes sports activities for adults and they have one of the healthiest populations of adults, so yes. I get what you are saying, but that is a horrible example.

    20. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      So far, all the people responding to my example have overlooked one crucial word in it: "force". Does Finland merely provide incentive for people to maintain a healthy lifestyle? Or do they actively force people into such a lifestyle. That's the main distinction here.

    21. Re: Where in the US Constitution..... by kenh · · Score: 1

      are you arguing the Constitution is 'Pro Life'?

      Interesting.

      --
      Ken
    22. Re: Where in the US Constitution..... by kenh · · Score: 1

      The 'Good and Plenty' Clsuse?

      --
      Ken
    23. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds exactly like school actually, with mandatory gym class participation.

    24. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Life" is referenced a few times in the constitution.

      And yet we still allow abortion.

    25. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

      You wrote a whole bunch of words there but didn't actually make any point. Why do you even bother?

    26. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by bhiestand · · Score: 1

      ...where within the enumerated responsibilities and rights of the Federal Govt. that it is charged with picking winners and losers in industry

      I hate the "picking winners and losers" argument. The phrase needs to die. Every single thing the government is tasked to do requires picking winners and losers.

      Judicial Branch - inherently picks winners and losers
      Congress - inherently picks winners and losers -- every spending bill, appropriation, regulation, trade treaty, etc. has a winner and loser in the private sector
      Executive - need I continue?

      --
      SWM seeks new sig for a brief fling
    27. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by samwichse · · Score: 1

      Do I make a profit on not-exercising, while my lack of exercise harms the health of those around me?

    28. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      That's precisely my point - the valid reason to regulate here is specific, measurable harm, not "general well-being".

    29. Re:Where in the US Constitution..... by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      I"m still trying to thumb through my US Constitution and find where within the enumerated responsibilities and rights of the Federal Govt. that it is charged with picking winners and losers in industry.

      It's in the Moran's appendix for Randians. Keep looking, you'll find it.

  59. So it's either Clinton or Sanders already? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shame. If we absolutely must have another Democrat in the White House, I'd much prefer Jim Webb to either of them.

  60. Well bless her little heart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is that going to be enough to power the the Clintons' mansions in Chappaqua and D.C.?

  61. Sweet by argStyopa · · Score: 0

    We'll need an agency to deliver on these promises of massive subsidies to get the panels out into the hands of customers.

    We should call it Solyndra, I hear that's available now?

    --
    -Styopa
    1. Re: Sweet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I will see your Solyndra and raise you the tax dollars funneled into Halliburton for the Iraq war, all 75 Solyndras of it.

  62. Re:She is better then jeb bush by tnk1 · · Score: 1

    Ayn Rand at least, was forced to pay into that fund. Why should she surrender her money just because she opposes the program?

    It is up for debate whether Ayn Rand could have taken the money that she'd have gotten back in her SS checks and have done better with investing that money or not. The thing is, she had no choice in the matter and it is always supposed to have been her money. It wasn't some sort of government largess, you know.

    That's like saying that someone who opposed Communism that waited in a food line in the Soviet Union was hypocritical for taking food from the government while opposing it.

    I suppose they have the option of starving themselves to death to make a point, but suicide isn't actually required for you to sincerely believe in something.

  63. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by bobbied · · Score: 1

    Big oil opposes and end to oil subsidies. Clear enough for you.

    There are NO subsidies unique to oil companies that I know of.. Care to enlighten me?

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  64. Re:She is better then jeb bush by DarkOx · · Score: 2

    My check from the government is my earned entitlement. Your check from the government is an amoral welfare. Paul Ryan hates Social Security, but when he drew Social Security to get to college, it was somehow fine. Even Ayn Rand drew government checks.

    Because as an individual its not a moral act. You leave nothing on the frigging table. Rand and Ryan I am sure never voted to support those programs, they also never voted for the taxes and regulations they labored under before or after utilizing them.

    If there were an option to opt out of society and only opt back in when the time to collect comes that would be wrong. The way I figure it even though I totally support dismantling most of what the federal government does until someone tells me I don't have to file a 1040 form and sends me a check re-reimbursing me with interest for all the various activities my tax dollars have paid for along the way that I did not support you better believe I feel entitled to collect from and utilize programs I qualify for. I did not vote for them, I did not get my way. My fellow citizens did however.

    Its a democratic republic. We take the consequences of elections good or bad. There is nothing wrong with voting to end programs, distributions, etc and still taking advantage of them if you loose. That is inherit in the rules of our society.

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  65. Hillary is Berning by bmo · · Score: 1

    >solar, wind, and other sources of cleaner energy
    >ending reliance on foreign oil and domestic coal

    It's funny how Hillary is repeating things Sanders has been talking about for 40 years. All except for the things that really matter, like bringing back Glass-Steagall.

    I vote D most of the time and she can fuck right off.

    And no, I won't settle for Hillary because Bernie is "too radical" (all his policies are supported by the majority of people if you ask them) and that if he wins the nomination he might lose to a Republican. No, no he wont. The Republicans have people who appeal to the Idiocracy (seriously listen to Rubio or Cruz, they talk like they know what they're doing, but they're really empty suits) but that only gets them through the Primaries. Against Bernie in a national election, they fail.

    Hillary is in such a bind it's hilarious. She's positioned herself as a "centrist" which is far right of what people actually want. She sees what Bernie is saying is getting the crowds to come out and she wants some of that. The funny thing is, she has all this baggage (She's quite the warmonger and Wall Street "woman of the street." which she has to discard in order to do that. It's not going to go away, and the more she tries to appropriate his messages, the more of a hypocrite she looks, and all Bernie has to say is "where were you when I was saying this stuff ten years ago?"

    She thinks it's "her turn" and that she should just be anointed, especially if you talk to the Hillary supporters and read between the lines. She thought that in 2008 against Obama, too. She's going to be so disappointed.

    Popcorn. I'm buying a truckload.

    --
    BMO

  66. Re:She is better then jeb bush by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually JEB = John Ellis Bush.
    ftfy

  67. Re:She is better then jeb bush by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 2

    I forgot to put something in my original rant... and Slashdot doesn't allow editing of comments, so I'll post this here.

    Paul Ryan rails against people getting their entitlements. He calls people who take those entitlements freeloaders. Yet he himself took an entitlement. Why is he allowed to get his entitlement, yet others, who don't want to "leave anything on the table" bad? It's duplicitous. And technically, Ryan wasn't even entitled to it directly, it was his dad's SS benefits. Also, his family had enough cash to send him to college, but he took the government entitlement. Again, leave nothing on the table is fine, but that's not my point.

    I don't mind either Rand nor Ryan taking benefits. I don't even think Ryan duplicitous for trying to dismantle the same program that spawned him - though I view it short sighted. What bugs me is people who take entitlements who rail against others taking entitlements. Either don't take any, or shut up about others taking the same help you took.

  68. Running the numbers... by kenh · · Score: 1

    So she eats to install 1/2 a billion solar panels at a cost of $60 Billion over ten years... Let's see, that makes each panel cost $120. No, that's the cost of the subsidy, $120/panel... Including all government waste, fraud and abuse - seems like a very low number.

    And let me see, where is that $60 billion going to come from? Oh yes, by rolling back 'tax breaks' on oil companies, which will - anybody want to guess? Yes! Raise the cost of gasoline!

    I sure hope all those poor and lower-income folks that can't afford even the subsidized solar panels don't mind paying more at the pump so that middle-class suburbanites can pay less for their solar panels...

    --
    Ken
    1. Re:Running the numbers... by Moof123 · · Score: 1

      I'm fine raising the price of gas to a natural level (no subsidies). Oil companies don't need the welfare anymore. Subsidies in general bug me. Once they are in place they never go away. Modest tariffs to add a little friction at the borders is also a good thing if you ask me, it make it harder for big companies to arbitrage the labor supply.

      I'd rather see funding in general come from taxing the top 5-10% more, especially the top 0.1%. Even independent of adding solar panels I would like to see the top income brackets taxed much more, with the funding going to infrastructure and education. I'd also like to see military funding rolled back, which is more practical if we manage to become less dependent on unstable countries for our energy needs.

      What was your point again?

    2. Re: Running the numbers... by kenh · · Score: 1

      Please: a) identify the 'subsidy' you feel the oil industry should lose, and b) explain why the oil industry is to be singled out and denied a tax benefit every other company in every other industry is entitled to.

      The so-called 'subsidies' the oil companies enjoy are things like 'research tax credits, depreciating capital investments, etc.

      --
      Ken
  69. Re:She is better then jeb bush by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    I figure it even though I totally support dismantling most of what the federal government does until someone tells me I don't have to file a 1040 form...

    I would prefer to just make them do the paperwork. Turn the Department of Internal Revenue into a Service!

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  70. Re:She is better then jeb bush by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    J.E.B. is an acronym for John Elliot Bush.

    Actually, JEB is an acronym for JEB's Every Bush.

  71. Gee, that's like a week in Iraq, amirite? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nah, we should keep dumping cash into oil wars.

  72. Really, solar and climate change again? by U8MyData · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Please. This is simple pandering to manufactured crisis' that has been going on for a long time. Does everyone realize that within a hundred years of time we have progressed as a species faster than any other time in history? The planet is a living breathing organism that can catch a cold, fever, flu, etc. We are more or less trying to micro manage the health of a 4.5 billion year old planet. Yes, I am certain we have as a species effected the environment and we DO need to be cognoscente; however, mother earth can and will take care of herself.

    As far as this solar issue, isn't there more pressing things that a presidential candidate should be consumed with? Russia, China, Iran, ( Clinton, in my opinion, will hurt this country more than help or lead. She has this sense of entitlement that wreaks. This is unfortunate as the battle and movement to be the "first female" president of the United States trumps (no pun intended) and defiles the dignity and integrity of the office of POTUS. I for one will be happy when there are no longer pursuits of social experimentation and where decisions of this kind of import will be based on what they should, the merit and qualification of any candidate. Perhaps this is a Utopian perspective on our democracy, however, it isn't a bad standard from which to start qualification.

    1. Re:Really, solar and climate change again? by Vitriol+Angst · · Score: 1

      "Mother earth will take care of herself."

      Yeah, and the rocks won't care if we are here or not.

      "She has this sense of entitlement that wreaks. "

      As compared to rich boys like Mitt or Trump or Bush? Is she LESS political or just less entitled? Which of the 4 of them would make their own coffee -- do you even know the answer or is this an opinion?

      I'm not a fan of Hillary or ANY of the Republican candidates, but what has that to do with Climate change? Isn't it hard enough to get one point across without lumping in others?

      And why can't we deal with the environment AND trading partners who happen to point weapons at us? There are certainly more than a few jobs in America -- some people even flip burgers while we worry about Russia and fuel efficiency standards.

      --
      >>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
  73. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Because many people in the northern US can't afford oil/natural gas to heat their homes, therefore they get subsidies that pay for that oil so they don't freeze to death.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  74. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apparently it WASN'T clear enough for you.

    Here it is again:

    Big oil opposes and end to oil subsidies. Clear enough for you.

    Note the complete lack of claim about there being oil only subsidies.

    Feel enlightened now?

  75. Look at it this way, then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If oil companies aren't getting any tax breaks, then you have nothing to whine about their "nonexistent" tax breaks being cut.

    So why the bitching?

  76. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by randallman · · Score: 1

    Solar power + grid storage will initially replace natural gas peaker plants and break into the base load production. Southern California Edison is probably the most visible and recent example. Grid storage enables more variable power sources like solar and wind to function on the grid, displacing natural gas peaker plants. Simultaneously, the same technology that enables grid storage, low cost batteries, is bringing the EV to the mass market within the next 2 years.

    Solar is certainly a major part of this energy shift. The oil companies take a hit on two fronts. Within the next 20 years the major uses of oil will be reduced to heating and large/utility vehicles.

  77. She will have to convince her buddy Warren Buffet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Buffet owns NV Energy here in Nevada. There are a few companies like Switch Communications, MGM and Sands Corp that want to get off of the NV Grid and use solar and other renewable energies but have been blocked by the public utilities commission which is heavily swayed by NV Energy. The energy companies don't want too much solar because it will drive customers away from the grid which means less money for the energy company. Switch Communications is going to sue now to leave the grid and they were going to pay a $27 million exit tax, but that was rejected. In Las Vegas, every house should have solar panels but that would put NV Energy out of business and Buffet won't stand for that.

  78. Free ponies for everyone!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks Hillary

  79. Can you say palms greased from solar industry? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, so it would appear that palm greasing from oil is being replaced by palm greasing from solar. Nice.

    I wonder which foundation donors are bribing her?

    I wonder what the emails on her illegal/insecure email server say about the solar proposal?

    I wonder what the slaughtered embassy people would have said about this?

    I wonder what her gagged supporters would say? (if Hillary hadn't told them not to speak with reporters)

    Fail, Fail,Fail.
    What really disturbs me is she might just have enough idiotic and ignorant constituents to elect her into office.
    Sad, sad, sad.
       

  80. Incorrect Summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No where in either referenced documents does Sec. Clinton suggest how to pay for the panels.

    That said, the "oil and gas subsidies" red herring has been thrown around for quite a long time, with little understanding of what those really mean.
    Forbes did a great job in outlining these http://www.forbes.com/sites/energysource/2012/04/25/the-surprising-reason-that-oil-subsidies-persist-even-liberals-love-them/
    Basically, the tax breaks Oil & Gas get go to farmers for cheap food, the strategic petroleum reserve, and low income heating oil assistance. And then there's the offshoring of tech that keeps your iPhone prices down - why are we subsidizing Apple more than Oil? (Apple can take up to a 9% credit, oil is already capped at 6%).

  81. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by bobbied · · Score: 1

    Grid storage? PFFFT..

    Don't make me laugh. Batteries may be getting cheaper but It's not happening *anytime* soon with any kind of capacity that can really make a difference for photovoltaic solar and wind power even with batteries that are free. It's absolutely NOT cost effective because the conversion and storage losses are huge and it makes it way too expensive.... And don't be fooled by the "sunshine is free" so we don't care how much we waste argument. Despite how hard Elion Musk tries to market his little home battery pack thing, it's simply NOT cost effective to charge a battery and use the power later.

    The only real way one can do electric storage on an industrial scale is to pump water up hill into a large reservoir, then use it coming back down hill to generate power when you want it back. However, this technique only has a few places where it will work where the geography is suitable and enough water is available. Even then, the efficiency is abysmal and it's only really viable cost wise when you can buy the power for about 1/3rd what you sell it for at peek. Batteries are worse at efficiency, especially on the industrial scales required for what you are suggesting.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  82. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by Straif · · Score: 1

    The top 3 'subsidies' for oil are:
    1) The national oil reserve
    2) farmers fuel exemption
    3) Home heating oil credit

    Those together make up over 60% of all the 'subsidies' big oil receives.

    You can debate the need for the oil reserves but that is often considered a national security issue.
    The farm credit excludes farmers for paying road and highway taxes on equipment not driven on roads.
    The heating oil credit is used to pay for oil for low income families.

    Unlike green subsidies which are mostly focused on the producers, the bulk of oil subsidies are for the consumers. Farmers will still need to buy fuel for their equipment and families in the northern states will still need heating oil. All ending those subsidies will do is cause both of those groups to have to pay more while having little impact on big oils bottom line since the additional cost will all go to the government anyway (which will then have to be given out as some other form of subsidy/welfare payment to keep costs of food down and help people not freeze to death).

    --
    Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
  83. Clothlines for all by hambone142 · · Score: 1

    Nowadays, clothes lines are "out of vogue".

    I use one frequently. I've noticed there are two major users of electricity in my home. The clothes dryer and the air conditioning system.

    If we cut our electricity usage by using "solar clothes dryers" (clotheslines) we'd enjoy a substantial reduction in our electricity usage.

    Yes, it won't work for all (apartment/condo dwellers) but for suburbia, it would.

  84. Sources on coal by Firethorn · · Score: 1

    Sure:
    http://www.skepticalscience.co...
    http://www.sourcewatch.org/ind...

    Though I'll note that I was thinking of generation cost(~$0.05) for coal, not retail. Remember, that $0.10 per kWh includes transportation, electricity from the natural gas plant next door and the nuclear plant down the road, as well as the coal generation.

    Also, the following article give some insight to the high energy usage by at least hospitals:

    Yes, hospitals use a lot of electricity, but consider that everything else about hospitals are more expensive than average commercial buildings as well. After all, you're paying a lot of wages for doctors and nurses with masters degrees, using expensive drugs and equipment, etc....

    As for your anecdotal 'evidence', keep in mind that I'm mostly talking about averages - you get lucky and don't have any upper respiratory track illnesses, but you're also 50 miles away. 30% of asthma cases are blamed on poor air quality.

    Relative to coal, Natural gas isn't a problem at all, and nuclear, well, I want to see more of it. Remember, I wasn't putting down nuclear, just mentioning that worrying about the CO2 production from the concrete that goes into building the plant isn't actually that big of a deal in the face of the sheer amount of power the plant will produce over it's operational lifespan.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  85. Re:She is better then jeb bush by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    DarkOx didn't think of that attack against Ayn Rand which is not only easily debunked, it only speaks to her character (or her character in her legal office and the advice she took from a legal/social assistant). It doesn't speak to her writing, ideas, or the specifics of her philosophy (as documented).

    It does speak to the lack of intellectual honesty from DarkOx that he repeats nonsense without understanding or critical thought.

    AFAIK, she took SS for sufficiently little time, there is no way in fuck she got back all that stolen money.

  86. Coal Powered Teslas by Scot+Seese · · Score: 1

    While it's easy to scoff at the campaign promises of politicians, I for one welcome anything that fixes our problem of coal powered electric vehicles.

    --
    THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
  87. bribes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HIllary: vote for me and I'll give you free solar panels!

    Meh...

    If she wins... well things will be rather meh...

    If she loses... things will be a nightmare beyond anything shrub ever did...

    I guess it's back to the shiniest of two turds.

    I have a secret hope Sanders might pull ahead.

  88. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by bobbied · · Score: 1

    No, you just repeated the claim, but didn't say what the subsidies you think Oil companies get actually ARE.

    I'm asking you to detail what they ARE if it's so clear they exist to you, tell me what they are... Enlighten me with the details of these subsidies you'd end....

    BTW, I don't think any exist even though you and others make this claim all the time.... So tell me what they are, I'm waiting....

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  89. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not a Democrat or Republican, but here I go...

    1. I possibly want SNAP made permanent, none of this three-month thing that is coming up.
    2. I want either a negative income tax or "basic" income, but not necessarily at a living wage thing.
    3. I want us to focus on pollution, not necessarily trying to prevent climate change. This way, if the pollution doesn't mitigate climate change, we at least get clean air, water, etc.
    4. I want public financing of elections.
    5. I want 12 year term limits in Congress.

  90. Subsidies for the solar farms but not residentials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hope these subsidies won't be allotted to big solar farm corporations, and will be an available incentive for people who want to put solar power on their own roofs.

  91. Re:She is better then jeb bush by tbannist · · Score: 1

    It is up for debate whether Ayn Rand could have taken the money that she'd have gotten back in her SS checks and have done better with investing that money or not.

    She certainly didn't do better with the money that wasn't taxed (or she wouldn't have needed social security in the first place). So why would we expect her to have done better with the money that was taxed?

    Furthermore, she, who was supposed to be the pinnacle of personal responsibility, failed to be responsible for her own life. How can we expect those who have fewer opportunities that her, to be more responsible than her?

    That's like saying that someone who opposed Communism that waited in a food line in the Soviet Union was hypocritical for taking food from the government while opposing it.

    The difference is that Ayn Rand railed against the program for years, and in the end she needed it. It's not hypocrisy that she took the money that undermines her entire credo. It's the hypocrisy that she claimed no one truly needed the safety nets of society, that only parasites would use them, that it was easy to live your life without ever needing to use them. The hypocrisy is that after spending years claiming no one should need them and having been given every opportunity to ensure that she did not need them, she failed to live up to her own minimum standards. She failed to do what she had declared was not only simple, but the duty of every American. She failed to stand on their own two feet. She, who had so much more opportunity for success than so many of her fellows, was not able to do what she claimed everyone should be able to do. So, in the end, everything she claimed and stood for was exposed as arrogance and wishful thinking.

    Safety nets exist because even good people can stumble and fall, and it's a shame that Ayn Rand was never able to understand and admit that. She was so wrapped up in her bolsephobia that she was never able to see the government in a rational light. It is a bigger shame that she has a legion of parrots who look only to her ideas and ignore her reality because it suits their wishful thinking to do so.

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  92. Re:She is better then jeb bush by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just think of all the welfare recipients in Rand's own state who keep voting for him.

    I'm not seeing a problem with eliminating welfare for people who vote against it.

    Just think, about when the voter ID laws backfire and all those welfare republicans in the red states lose their right to vote.

  93. Stupid bitch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stupid bitch. I hope that is coming from her pocket books because she thinks other people should pay for it just like all Democrates.

  94. and if you're a bank ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and you make a bad loan, to either a person or a country, then you should "pay the consequences" and go bankrupt.
    No one held a gun to the head of the bankers, and yet they got bailed out by the public.
    Why does the public not, in turn, get bailed out by the government or the bankers?

    Hence, asymmetrical warfare, and we are "terrorised" into submission... ... or rebellion.

  95. Re: old joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Q: How do you know if a politician is lying?
    A: His or her lips are moving! :D

  96. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I believe increased solar panel usage will result in increased national gas consumption as well. Using Germany as a model, they now consume more coal power than in decades. All so they can supply power during low wind and sunny days. This may convert to gas power plants in the future. Nuclear energy is a much bigger threat to oil and gas.

  97. $$$MORE MONEY FOR CRONIES$$$ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's all this is about. Clinton doesn't care about the people, only the cronies, just like the rest of the Political Class.

  98. Who is making them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My guess is that someone will be receiving some nice commission checks...

    500 million panels seems a bit far fetched...even in ten years.

  99. fMRI by NewYork · · Score: 1

    Use fMRI to check the intregrity of Clinton's statement;

  100. Next time yuo fly into San Diego or Phoenix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look down at the rooftops and tell that how many have solar panels. This illustrates our current presidents lies on this issue and and I sure Hillary will also be in the pocket of the utilities.

  101. Solar is a joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Solar is a joke, until we get efficiencies up to where it actually makes sense, and even then, it's still got the temporal and storage problems.

    Nuclear using LFTR and the thorium cycle is clearly an easy long-term win, with Fusion being the obvious mega-long-term win.

    And, if you want to go into space, solar is a non-starter for everything but near-earth satellites. You can't use solar on the moon, or mars, and it's RTG's that get you to places like pluto. So we need to invest in LFTR technology now anyways if we want to get off the rock.

    And yes, I agree, it is patently better to internalize all those external costs to the power producers, rather than try and subsidize one particular technology that may win. Having said that, nuclear of any kind would simply NOT have happened had the US government not seriously subsidized it's development from the 40's to the 70's, so some subsidies are necessarily a bad thing. It's just too bad that it often takes war to get something done (and yes, the Apollo program was a war, the US was directly competing with the Russians to understand how to deliver ICBM's, going to the moon was a sideshow).

  102. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The real liberal lie is that Nuclear is bad no matter how you do it.

    LFTR kicks ass on current nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal. It just destroys those solutions in everyway, and we should invest in that, if we are going to subsidize anything.

    Oh, but I forget, Nuclear is BAD.

  103. Re:Oil companies will spend up big on Republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You never asked what subsidies, you claimed that there were no oil only ones. Ones to oil and others can still be cut to oil.

    Still not wanting to understand, I see.

  104. Open-ended subsidies by GPS+Pilot · · Score: 1

    the benefit of subsidizing the early expensive iterations of solar panels

    One question: when do the "early expensive iterations" come to an end?

    40 years ago I was playing with photovoltaic cells. Today, they are orders of magnitude less expensive than they were then.

    Rational people like me would support subsidies, if they weren't open-ended; i.e., if hard-and-fast criteria were established for ending those subsidies.

    --
    That that is is that that that that is not is not.
  105. I call BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Untill such time as I get a solar panel and a small matter-anti matter reactor to power my house I call BS. I'll also take 1 small fusion reactor, a TARDIS, vortex Manipulator, a personal teleporter system, and while i'm at it a medium size IKV Vorcha' Class class ship and a barter based economy.

    Then I suspect most of these candidates are like kids bickering. Not one Democrate or Republican as accomplished a damn thing.

  106. bah no to both Democrats and Republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can't I get Warren(Socialist), Gloria Riveria (Inipendent), Waren Flames (former rapper and socialist), hell biden (Progressive, and Socialist) might be a better choice then the typical Repubican or Dem, they've both sucked for about 60 years when Rosevelt's New Deal (socialist) was passed. He also proclaimed and I am quoting: "anyone that dares appose me and not help me turn this countery around, I will have tried for improsoned, and I will keep apointing staff, and the supreme court till we get things done"