http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iExnDc6JtBahwnAVhIreGyjcjHOQD91LTEC80

As a fellow “energy nerd” I can understand the appeal of renewables and certainly can sympathize at a ridiculous situation. Still, renewables are not the entire answer, though they can be a large piece of the pie with better energy storage.

a) Al Gore or President Bush’s homes have nothing to do with this. Red Herring’s aside…

b) Thanks, I’ve taken civics. And last I checked, the BLM is part of the executive branch. Executive branch agencies have the power to implement administrative rules that implement laws passed by the legislative branch (e.g. Congress). There’s considerable ambiguity in how to do that, which is why there IS an executive branch in the first place. Sure, Congress passed NEPA, but the BLM is (selectively!) deciding how and where to implement it.

c) Kai’s insight is great. I suspected some serious NIMBYism and knee-jerk enviro backlash was at play here too (just like at Cape Wind in Mass.). But this goes a lot farther than just this one San Diego case, or even this moratorium on solar. This is just more evidence of a systematic failure of US energy policy to prioritize efforts to develop new, clean and scalable energy alternatives — solar being just one of them.

d) As to why not drilling AND solar AND other alternatives, I’m not saying definitely that we shouldn’t drill anywhere. But let’s look at what are real solutions and what are quick fixes — or worse yet, just more of the same practices that got us into this mess. According to the US Energy Information Administration, a branch of the Department of Energy, drilling in ANWR, for example, would cut gas prices 1-3.5 cents/gallon at the pump … ten years from now once oil starts flowing. If we drill everywhere we can, maybe we’ll shave 10 cents of a gallon of gas in 2020. Great, I’ll take that to the bank…

WE CANNOT DRILL OUR WAY OUT OF THIS. Drilling for more oil is a quick hit of the old crack pipe and it’s not going to help us cure our oil addiction and secure a new era of economic prosperity.

Let’s be clear: cheap and abundant oil fueled the economic growth and prosperity of the 20th Century. But our continued dependence on this depleting and increasingly expensive fossil fuel is now imperiling our economy and our American way of life! It’s time to harness America’s vast reserves of untapped renewable energy and develop the clean, abundant and affordable energy sources that will power a new era of sustained American prosperity. It’s time for the new American energy sources of the 21st Century.

Why don’t you take a look at this link on Snopes http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp. It compares Bush’s home to Al Gore’s. As it turns out Bush is much more environmentally conscious of his impact on natural resources than Gore.

So, before you blame anyone for anything, check out the facts first. The information from Kai is much more definitive.

My question to everyone is this – why can’t we do some drilling AND do the solar panels AND explore more alternative fuels to replace oil?

I rarely read threads on the internet because it mostly gets me down, but as an energy professional and a concerned human being, I feel that my weighing in on this issue might help people make the right decision or, at least, provide another viewpoint.

There are some things that are patently evident in the past 50 years of US Energy policy:

1. Renewables work: they have worked since the time of the Roman Republic (or earlier) and provide energy that can not be measured in terms of “efficiency,” “payback,” or CO2 avoidance. The short answer is, “they provide free energy, they provide more energy than they take to produce, and they don’t burn anything.”

2. Nuclear energy is very expensive, are a national security issue, and we still, after decades, cannot deal with the waste.

3. Our oil policy is just simply myopic.

The disheartening thing about the recent Bush decision to place a two-year hold on large-scale solar programs is a double-hit: they are encouraging non-renewable exploration (coal, off-shore drilling, tapping the Arctic Reserve, etc.) while hamstringing renewable development.

I swear, if I had to come up with a more insane scenario, I would be hard pressed!

A simple comparison, even a deep thought, between coal/oil/nuclear investment and renewable investment is foregone. This may seem crass, but:

How ON EARTH can proven renewables, through flawed policy, poor decisions and vested interests winning the day, be discounted, crippled and impeded, be passed over for non-renewable technologies that are proving to be DISASTEROUS to people, other species and the planet?

I may be an energy nerd, but of all the bad decisions that the Bush (and Reagan, and Clinton, …) administrations have made, this is perhaps the most far-reaching. The current administration has institutionalized a wreckless, dangerous and economically damaging path toward using more fossil fuels and ignoring a proven technology that, literally, will HELP the planet.