An Alternative To Green Energy-- Republican Dystopia... And Gingrich's Moon Colonies

David Plouffe, who is routinely described as an "Obama senior advisor," tends to be the ultimate spokesperson for the president on the Sunday talking heads shows. Yesterday his comments on This Week about Gingrich's overt racism in the Trayvon Martin murder and his comments about Romney being the godfather of the individual mandate in the healthcare system-- a stupid right-wing idea that Democrats stupidly embraced rather than plow forward with single-payer or Medicare-for-all like they should have-- were the headlines. But there was something more important than either remark, mankind's need to develop alternative forms of energy. And he made them on Fox News Sunday. We'll come back to that in a moment. First, for those who missed Stephanopoulos' show, the two main take-aways. First, the end of what's left of Gingrich's shabby, repulsive career:

“Those comments are reprehensible,” said Plouffe. “Speaker Gingrich is clearly in the last throes of his political career… You can make a decision whether to go out with some shred of dignity or say these irresponsible reckless things. And he’s clearly chosen the latter.”

Plouffe was addressing comments Gingrich made on The Sean Hannity Show this past Friday.

“What the President said, in a sense, is disgraceful. It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe. Period,” said Gingrich. “We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background. Is the President suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot that would be okay because it wouldn’t look like him? That’s just nonsense.”

Gingrich was referring to comments President Obama had made about the death of Trayvon Martin during a press conference.

“But obviously this is a tragedy. I can only imagine what these parents are going through. And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids. And you know, I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together-- federal, state and local-- to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened,” said Obama. “But my main message is-- is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon, and you know, I think they are right to expect that all of us, as Americans, are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened”

And Romney as Godfather of the mandate... the day before Obama’s health care law gets taken up by the Supreme Court:

“The mandate is an idea supported by the Heritage Foundation, Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, most famously kind of the godfather of the mandate, Mitt Romney. So we’re confident that it will be upheld. Now, as it relates to the Supreme Court, we’re confident that it’s going to be upheld. You had Democratic and Republican jurists upheld it in lower court decisions, including two very prominent conservative jurists.”

When I was desperately fishing around to find a reason to vote for an Establishment corporate supporter like Obama-- something beyond "at least he's better than McCain"-- I got the idea that he understands and is serious about the dire need for progress in the transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. I even have a solar array on my roof now, thanks to legislation he pushed through-- in the teeth of obstructionism from the sociopaths on the right.

It's been raining a lot in L.A. and today it's been drizzling on and off and has been pretty cloudy. I just checked the meter in my house that shows the output of solar energy from my new rooftop panels. It's producing more than I consume. It always produces more than I consume. My monthly bill went from around $1,000 to zero. Actually, the DWP owes me money, but they don't pay cash, they just give you credits-- like if we ever have 40 days of darkness, I'll still get free electricity from them.

On top of that, I have the satisfaction of knowing I'm not burning any fossil fuels to run a computer that powers a blog that rails against Big Oil... and to know that when everyone in southern California turns into a mutant because of inevitable catastrophes at the Diablo Canyon and San Onofre nuclear plants, it won't be my fault.

If you follow DWT you may have noticed that there are a lot of things I don't like about Obama but one thing I'll always credit him for is taking the big step on solar power. Politicians are more likely to follow than lead but Obama used his earliest post-inaugural political capital to push a solar energy program that will-- if the GOP doesn't gut it (they're being paid very well to try)-- drag America into the 21st Century, something the Koched-up Big Oil & Gas powerhouses feel threatened by and oppose with all their might. If the U.S. catches up with Germany on solar power usage, the impact on oil profits could drop. Decisions like these are decisions societies make when they reach an historical crossroads that determines if they're going to continue to grow or dive onto the trash heap of history. Conservatives always choose the latter; it's in their DNA.

And yesterday Plouffe was defending Obama's energy policies on Fox and calling the right-wing sociopaths who are attacking them "dangerous." He's right; they are dangerous. Sociopaths tend to be-- especially when they get any power over society. Didn't Hitler already proven that once?

“Sadly... this used to be a very bipartisan idea; sadly, the Republicans running for president, many Republicans here in Washington, kind of vilify this, almost mock it, and it is only going to determine our future. It is a very dangerous thing.”

Plouffe defended White House policies amid intense GOP attacks over rising gasoline prices. Pump prices loom as a political threat to Obama heading into his reelection fight.

Obama gave a series of speeches in four states last week that voiced support for expanded oil-and-gas drilling, green energy investments and the administration’s increase in auto mileage standards.

Energy industry experts, however, say policymakers have limited options to lower gas prices, which are linked to oil prices set on world markets.

Plouffe reiterated that a release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an option. He emphasized that it would be used to address crude supply problems, not simply as a way to try and lower prices.

“It is an option that is obviously on the table,” he said. Plouffe also noted that there are currently “some supply issues,” pointing to problems in Libya and the Sudan.

Romney said he can't understand how young people could vote for Obama. That's a shame because it's very clear. Young people want a future-- and not the dystopic one being offered by the GOP. No telling how this is going to play out over the long term. History tells us that short attention spans and voters increasingly worried about supporting their families' needs will slip back into complacency unless we wind up with forthright and strong leaders instead of the pathetic and conflicted corporate shills our campaign financing system dictates. On the other hand, Bloomberg News reported last year that solar power is already rivaling coal and that because of costs of coal-generated energy solar panel installations may surge in the next two years.

Large photovoltaic projects will cost $1.45 a watt to build by 2020, half the current price, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimated today. The London-based research company says solar is viable against fossil fuels on the electric grid in the most sunny regions such as the Middle East.

“We are already in this phase change and are very close to grid parity,” Shawn Qu, chief executive officer of Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ), said in an interview. “In many markets, solar is already competitive with peak electricity prices, such as in California and Japan.”

Chinese companies such as JA Solar Holdings Ltd., Canadian Solar and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. are making panels cheaper, fueled by better cell technology and more streamlined manufacturing processes. That’s making solar economical in more places and will put it in competition with coal, without subsidies, in the coming years, New Energy Finance said.

“The most powerful driver in our industry is the relentless reduction of cost,” Michael Liebreich, chief executive officer of New Energy Finance, said at the company’s annual conference in New York yesterday. “In a decade the cost of solar projects is going to halve again.”

Installation of solar PV systems will almost double to 32.6 gigawatts by 2013 from 18.6 gigawatts last year, New Energy Finance estimates. Manufacturing capacity worldwide has almost quadrupled since 2008 to 27.5 gigawatts, and 12 gigawatts of production will be added this year. Canadian Solar has about 1.3 gigawatts of capacity and expects to reach 2 gigawatts next year, Qu said.

“You have to get better at it as well,” said Bill Gallo, CEO of Areva SA (CEI)’s solar unit. The French company could shave another 20 percent from the cost of making its concentrating solar thermal technology, and the same proportion from building and deploying plants, he said.

Electricity from coal costs about 7 cents a kilowatt hour compared with 6 cents for natural gas and 22.3 cents for solar photovoltaic energy in the final quarter of last year, according to New Energy Finance estimates.

Comparisons often overstate the costs of solar because they may take into account the prices paid by consumers and small businesses who install roof-top power systems, instead of the rates utilities charge each other, said Qu of Canadian Solar.

“Solar isn’t expensive,” he said “In many areas of the solar industry you’re competing with retail power, not wholesale power.”

Rooftop solar installations also will become cheaper, the executives said.

“System costs have declined 5 percent to 8 percent (a year), and we will continue to see that,” SolarCity Inc. CEO Lyndon Rive said in an interview.

Oh, and by the way, did you contribute anything to the DSCC in 2010? Their biggest single expense was electing the most Republican-oriented Democrat in the Senate, Joe Manchin (WV), a die-hard foe of a clean-energy future. If you gave a dollar to the DSCC, part of that money went to this:



UPDATE: Americans May Not Be Willing To Pay For A Cleaner Safer Energy Future, But Corporations Are Willing To Pay For A Filthy, Dangerous And Brutish One-- And Share The Profits With Their Political Shills

Dan Froomkin looked into how the oil lobby greases Washington's wheels and it goes a long way towards explaining what passes for American energy-- and environmental-- policy.

Clout in Washington isn't about winning legislative battles-- it's about making sure that they never happen at all. The oil and gas industry has that kind of clout.

Despite astronomical profits during what have been lean years for most everyone else, the oil and gas industry continues to benefit from massive, multi-billion dollar taxpayer subsidies. Opinion polling shows the American public overwhelmingly wants those subsidies eliminated.

...[T]he oil and gas industry's stranglehold on Congress is so firm that even when the Democrats controlled both houses, repeal of the subsidies didn't stand a chance. Obama proposed cutting them in his previous two budgets as well, but the Senate-- where Republicans and consistently pro-oil Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu had more than enough votes to block any legislation-- never even took a stab at it.

The baker's dozen worst Oil & Gas whores still in Congress (in order of whorishness):

John McCain (R-AZ)- $$2,870,491
Kay Bailey Hitchison (R-TX)- $2,223,271
John Cornyn (R-TX)- $1,877,550
Joe Barton (R-TX)- $1,633,855
Jim Inhofe (R-OK)- $1,367,523
Steve Pearce (R-NM)- $1,338,101
Miss McConnell (R-KY)- $1,154,011
Don Young (R-AK)- $1,022,463
David Diapers Vitter (R-LA)- $1,018,685
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)- $891,574
Mike Conaway (R-TX)- $796,768
Pete Sessions (R-TX)- $776,184
Roy Blunt (R-MO)- $760,598

It looks like it's mostly Republicans who have sold us out to Big Oil-- and that would be correct. But there are some Democrats mixed in with that lots as well and they are no better than these sociopathic Republicans. In honor of the primary season, here are the 5 worst Democratic whores in the House this election cycle, worst in terms of their bought-and-paid for status with Big Oil. Keep in mind that the top 31 recipients of Big Oil bribes in the House this year were all Republicans, with Rick Berg (R-ND, running for Senate) being #1 with $222,950, and Boehner #1 with $215,900. The 5 top Democratic bribes takers this year:

John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA)- $54,750
Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA)- $48,139
Gene Green (D-TX)- $46,600
Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)- $40,500
Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK, retiring to become a lobbyist)- $36,000