kenshin’s Recent Comments

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  failure to understand the political landscape is the real irony for an activist. the author is right, we need to show support for climate change legislation. some of the comments to this article in general are strange. if you're not an activist to work for good public policies to be put in place, why be an activist? aren't we just complaining for no reason? this legislation is a good starting point, it can be made better, and we will continue to ask for it to be made stronger, and we will come back to it again and again to keep it working properly. we will also continue the foxhole to foxhole fights against individual pollution sources too, but this legislation will help make those fights easier. those are honorable achievements, and if some activists would rather concentrate their efforts on that, that's fine, but we really need everyone to come together for this final push. otherwise, it looks like we don't have a strong public backing for our movement. we must show our real numbers, show them the votes.On Calling all radicals: Unite for Kerry-Boxer posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago 32 Responses

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  it is not renewable and we do have peak uranium situation to think about too. these projects only come online here in the US from those dreaded government backed loan guarantees. there's only $18 billion approved from 2005 (not small change.) there's 4 projects up right now on phase 1 approval. all of them cost $10 billion or more (some are lying or not being upfront about their real cost, NOT including waste disposal of course of course...so numbers numbers). if we divy up the money amongst all 4 projects, u wouldn't get enough to finish any project...just enough to start the project, have the project declare bankruptcy half-way thru completion, default on the loan, and then walk away like nothing happened. for many of the French companies that do this, the rest of the money might come from the French bank (government), but even then they are trying to deregulate who would get first privilege in the case of default on the government-backed loans. banks are arguing that they should get what's left-over first, rather than US taxpayers. can anyone say credit default swaps? they have no intention of building anything that will produce a single kilowatt of energy--this is a scam on US taxpayer's money, and by the time the senate investigation hearings are opened, it will not have brough us a single step closer to stopping climate change.On Stewart Brand's nuclear enthusiasm falls short on facts and logic posted 3 weeks, 3 days ago 159 Responses

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  i like cap and trade, i have never supported a carbon tax and at this point i don't think i ever will, but at this point i'm just trying to see what these actions are adding to the political process. we are debating over mechanisms, the way the health care debate has folks who insist on single-payer when it will not happen--the president has said no to single payer. those who support the public option similarly get a load of crap from single-payer folks. i don't know if it is helpful in anyway to anybody to be split up like this, even if it's just a handful of us. i mean, the prez has also said no to carbon tax, so what is the goal? i think Weiss has it exactly right--polluters re-assesed their positions and decided to eat away at whatever bill had the momentum. we'd have the same problem with a carbon tax bill. the thing that concerns me most about carbon tax that no one has really answered is why EXXON supports it. EXXON is advocating for a carbon tax in Australia right now. their lobbyists sound just like any ultra-left progressive on the idea. what loopholes have they found? i don't think it's just about splitting up support on a bill there, i think it's a strategy of getting around any real responsibilities for their pollution--so what is it about carbon tax that would give them a loophole? anyways, all the protests still shows our decision-makers that we mean business on climate change, so it is helpful to a certain degree, but i'm getting concerned that we are playing into the hands of the far-right who would love more examples of our "extremism" so they can relate it to terrorism or communism or whatever name-calling they do.On ‘No compromise’ faction attacks climate bill posted 1 month, 1 week ago 104 Responses

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  my instinct would tell me no.  i still feel that natural gas and oil are common lobbying buddies too close to be trusted, and natural gas would rather scuttle the whole bill than see it thru.  i'd hate to get one of their reps in a hearing, thinking he was our ally, only to slam the bill.  or, manipulate the availability of drills, see below.

  
  natural gas doesn't need our help to fight climate change as they stand.  coal plants are being replaced by natural gas, leading to coal's total energy production last year going down, while natural gas power production has gone up.

  i'm not a fan of natural gas, and besides, we'll be fighting to make sure that geo-thermal projects can get a hold of those drills.  oil and gas basically own all the drills that geothermal would also use to do their projects.  if they don't own them, they may own the patents to them instead.  can u imagine a geothermal company going to the gas companies and asking if they can lease their drills for a project--yeah, just for a few months, we're building a geothermal plant that will basically help to put your industry out of business...i'm sure the answer will be, oh sorry, we don't have any available for the near forseeable future.

  if we do use gas as an ally, the government needs to gain access to those drills, and keep them on hand solely for the purpose of geothermal plants and nothing else.

  it is nice to see oil and coal all in-fighting each other, and not as united together.   coal screams out that oil is foreign dependance, oil screams out against clean coal...now gas?  no, i don't believe it, i think this is a back-up plan that the oil industry has to get what they really want thru a trap door, as opposed to the backdoor.

   

   

  On Should greens ally with natural gas against coal? posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago 16 Responses

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  my instinct would tell me no.  i still feel that natural gas and oil are common lobbying buddies too close to be trusted, and natural gas would rather scuttle the whole bill than see it thru.  i'd hate to get one of their reps in a hearing, thinking he was our ally, only to slam the bill.  or, manipulate the availability of drills, see below.

  
  natural gas doesn't need our help to fight climate change as they stand.  coal plants are being replaced by natural gas, leading to coal's total energy production last year going down, while natural gas power production has gone up.

  i'm not a fan of natural gas, and besides, we'll be fighting to make sure that geo-thermal projects can get a hold of those drills.  oil and gas basically own all the drills that geothermal would also use to do their projects.  if they don't own them, they may own the patents to them instead.  can u imagine a geothermal company going to the gas companies and asking if they can lease their drills for a project--yeah, just for a few months, we're building a geothermal plant that will basically help to put your industry out of business...i'm sure the answer will be, oh sorry, we don't have any available for the near forseeable future.

  if we do use gas as an ally, the government needs to gain access to those drills, and keep them on hand solely for the purpose of geothermal plants and nothing else.

  it is nice to see oil and coal all in-fighting each other, and not as united together.   coal screams out that oil is foreign dependance, oil screams out against clean coal...now gas?  no, i don't believe it, i think this is a back-up plan that the oil industry has to get what they really want thru a trap door, as opposed to the backdoor.

   

   

  On Should greens ally with natural gas against coal? posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago 16 Responses