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Governor O'Malley remains undaunted in his attempt to get Maryland ratepayers to help pay for an offshore wind farm. After failing to get his wind power initiative passed in last years General Assembly he was right back at it ...
I think someone should show the guv the March issue of Wired Magazine. In an article by Juliet Eilperin entitled ?The Clean Tech Meltdown? he?d read that ?a confluence of factors -- including fluctuating silicon prices, newly cheap natural gas, the 2008 financial crisis, China's ascendant solar industry and certain inescapable technological realities -- the clean-tech bubble has burst, leaving us with a traditional energy infrastructure that is still overwhelmingly reliant on fossil fuels.?
?Wind has also taken a hit. Not only can the turbines not match the current costs of gas-fired plants, the flood of cheap Chinese solar panels can make them less attractive as a green option, too. The pace of new wind-turbine installations in the US has declined by more than half since 2008.?
Seriously, one of the hardest things to do in either Government or private business is to realize that your strategy is not going to work, and change. Maybe it was due to factors beyond your control; maybe it was your own fault. But you've been OBE ("overtaken by events") and need to change.
The biggest problem with Solyndra was not the Government grants. It was the inability to react to the fact that once silicon prices tumbled and cheap Chinese solar panels flooded the market, Solyndra's technology was just too high-cost and was DOA. The Energy Department couldn't accept that and pull out, for whatever reason.
The private sector analogies include Bill Gates killing the Microsoft Network at the last minute because he realized the Internet had already killed it; and Kodak going bankrupt because they couldn't accept the fact that digital cameras and the Internet had killed their technology.
I think someone should show the guv the March issue of Wired Magazine. In an article by Juliet Eilperin entitled ?The Clean Tech Meltdown? he?d read that ?a confluence of factors -- including fluctuating silicon prices, newly cheap natural gas, the 2008 financial crisis, China's ascendant solar industry and certain inescapable technological realities -- the clean-tech bubble has burst, leaving us with a traditional energy infrastructure that is still overwhelmingly reliant on fossil fuels.?
?Wind has also taken a hit. Not only can the turbines not match the current costs of gas-fired plants, the flood of cheap Chinese solar panels can make them less attractive as a green option, too. The pace of new wind-turbine installations in the US has declined by more than half since 2008.?
Gypsypalace Here in Fla it's Winn-Dixie that gives the gas points (only at Shell stations) and I USE them. However, Publix frequently sells $50 gas cards for $40. So they keep me hopping back and forth between...
Dave Bittner Last time a was at the Owen Brown Giant the hand scanners were gone. I didn't have time to ask why, but here's hoping they return.
Sarah I also went back yesterday, to buy fruit. I'm still talking it up to my husband so we can go this weekend. Even when I lived in Long Reach, I never went to that Exxon. I usually opt for the Shell...
Dave W I had sworn off Giant too when I had my last straw with their customer service. I had a cashier texting on their phone at the same time as I was trying to check out, delaying my check out, and the...
Interested Party Love the way you are willing to visit all parts of our county (and a bit in others as well). However, I disagree with the Giant Gas Points thing. Drives me crazy. I don't live near a participating...
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