All Our Energy

With no doubt, we are in the energy-climate change era, as discussed in the acllaimed bestseller “Hot, Flat And Crowded” by Thomas L. Friedman. It is obvious that it is being caused by humans burning fuels that power, heat and move our modern world. It is obvious that the answer is switching our energy use to renewable energy as soon and as widespread as possible. But how do we do that?
We have the methods at hand to change over, realistically, incrementally as it comes on line, 30, 40, 50% or more right now, with additional capacity available as solutions are found for storing extra renewable energy and enhancing and balancing the local, national and international electric grid to handle that much renewable and distributed energy.
So why isn’t that happening?
Because we don’t have the political policies and laws required to make it happen, and few politicians are willing to take on the entrenched and very wealthy dirty energy interests.
The systems we do have, are all geared against innovation and real competition in favor of continuing business as usual.
The majority of government subsidy we have is the conservative-fueled “tax break” system whereby you must already be an extremely profitable corporation or wealthy individual to have enough after-profit(or after deductions) taxes owed to then recoup that back as taxes no longer to be paid.
This virtually eliminates real new, innovative concepts, companies, and methods from even entering the market, a market where they cannot compete because of the very tax breaks the wealthy and profitable receive that they cannot.
Or, of course, the real innovation can be bought off for pennies on the dollar, by the existing tax break receivers
and either killed, delayed, or corrupted by them… Which is exactly what this tax break system is designed to do: extra rewards to those already rewarded. Yet, still somehow this is allegedly a system where the government is “hands off” and shouldn’t be ” picking winners”‘.
Billions of dollars every year in government spending and tax breaks are now permanently in the U.S. Tax Code given to the existing players to continue doing what they are doing. The opponents of renewable energy are only against the continuous on again, off again renewable energy tax policies, which are on and off due to to opponents fighting them, but they are not against these permanent tax breaks which would require an act of congress to undo them.
We have two basic systems here, because they are both non-threatening and also available to those entrenched energy interests:

• Quotas: these are different for every local and state jurisdiction whereby the local state or municipality passes a law requiring a certain amount of renewable energy, possibly even defined as wind, solar etc has to be in place by a certain time.

• Tax breaks and the temporary cash grants in lieu of them that are the current norm.

In hopes of finding solutions to these policy (read: laws) problems, the Intergovernmemtal Panel on Climate Change (I.P.C.C.) released their 135 page report this week, noting that feed in tariffs, as discussed here previously,

achieve larger (renewable energy) deployment at lower cost

(than the grants, quotas, and tax break schemes that currently are not working here in the USA)

It goes on to explain why feed in tariffs work better:

central to this is the assurance of long-term price guarantees [that come with FITs] … Uncertainty discourages investment and increases (costs because of these risks).

And it also says;

…FIT’s have consistently delivered new supply, from a variety of technologies, more effectively and at lower costs than alternative mechanisms, including quotas.

So part of the benefit is that :

FIT’s shift competition from electricity price to equipment price… which is more appropriate for capital-intensive renewable energy technologies.

The other benefits are that FIT’s spur companies to form, which in turn creates an industry.

As that industry grows in numbers, the growth itself assures competition as well as further independent investment both by and because of the expansion in renewable energy.

That industry then creates green jobs. This has proven itself in Germany and Denmark, both of whom have

• Feed in Tariffs,
• massive deployment of renewable energy- about 10 times more per capita than in the US, and growing. In fact, both countries have already reached 20% renewable energy. This 20% is the same amount that is so difficult, that here in the USA, we have had to put off our 20% commitment until the year 2020, and we are not yet on pace to achieve that.
  
  [ed. admin] Oops, never mind that, the Department of Energy now say 20% by 2030!

We need to reinvent American ingenuity. We need to change our corrupt system that favors the highest campaign contribution bidder.

And the number one reason we don’t have more renewable energy:
We(yes you and I) have not demanded it.

Why have we not demanded it: mostly because a few well placed shills keep the public in a state of not understanding what is going on, keep blasting daily against it and distorting the realities involved.
We, as renewable energy proponents have not forcefully fought against the lies and obfuscations anti-renewable energy employees, lobbyists and their followers espouse.

The fight against this, and the battle for public awareness and education is the essence of All Our Energy.

With the state of things, where will we be in 10 years? While we are doing virtually nothing, making minimal private investment, and completely lopsided governmental and infrastructure investment, European countries are light years ahead of us, China, India are on pace to catch up to Europe, surpassing us on the way, by 2020 as well.
Where do you think we will be?