Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[langostino]

razor - cost of voltaics ...

Arrggghhhh. Drives me nuts how cost comparisons never capture the externalities. I guess the energy and materials industries know there would be hell to pay if externalities were ever figured into anything and sensible government tax and trade policies adopted to account for them.

Needless to say, when full-cost accounting methods are employed, full-scale photovoltaics wind up being considerably more advantageous in that comparison than they are in the more narrow analysis, as there are tremendous costs to fossil fuel extraction, refining, and consumption which are conveniently omitted from the cost of fossil fuels.

John Kerry and the Democrats are utter morons if they fail to seize on this issue and put together an alternative national energy policy, then stick it up front in the campaign. It's the back door to dealing with Middle East foreign relations, war and peace, corruption of the political system through the buying and selling of government policies to Big Oil and big autos for campaign financing, etc., etc.

Let's see ... an alternative energy policy, (a) cuts total energy costs - private and public, (b) cuts the price of war in the Middle East - money and lives, (c) cuts huge costs in health care that flow downstream from air pollution, (d) lowers tax burdens due to (a-c), (e) stimulates job growth in a new industry, (f) stimulates a leadership industry for the U.S. which, if best in class, would result in new exports and improvement of balance of trade ... etc., etc., etc.