I think the proposal on the table is to spend to build this alt.e new grid. We need a new grid anyway. Gore wants it to be alt.e. This is a huge expenditure.
Once we do THAT, that means the utilities will not have to pay to finance the thing, because the govt picked up the tab. If you don't have to pay for new plants, alt.e is competitive now. THe whole problem with alt.e is that the coal plants are already paid for while greentech is not, so the opponents of greentech always include the cost of the new plant in with the energy cost- of course thats more expensive for green. What they don't mention is that many of the coal plants in the US are 40 years old and more. But anyway, govt builds a new grid.
Now we have the grid which means the electricity is cheap. NOW, if you buy an electric car you will have tiny fuel costs. The grid will precipitate electric and plug in hybrids for consumers.
At the same time, if detroit is going to ask for money, mandate fuel efficiency, why not? If we are going to give them the money anyway. But I agree with you, no reason to subsidize electric cars.
The plan advocates immediate investment in energy efficiency, renewable power generation -- including public investment in wind, solar and geothermal technology -- and the creation of a unified national smart grid.
"Modernize transmission infrastructure so that clean electricity generated anywhere in America can power homes and businesses across the nation," the alliance said in a statement.
The alliance favors "national electricity 'interstates' that move power quickly and cheaply to where it needs to be (and) local smart grids that buy and sell power from households and support clean plug-in cars."
Gore and his group are in line with most U.S. environmental groups, which see the next administration as a chance to act to stem global warming, after what many see as the Bush administration's stalling on this issue.
R.K. Pachauri, head of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Gore in 2007, sounded a similar note in a statement issued after the vote.
"The U.S. now has a unique opportunity to assume leadership in meeting the threat of climate change, and it would help greatly if the new president were to announce a coherent and forward looking policy soon after he takes office," Pachauri said on his blog at blog.rkpachauri.org/.
reuters.com |
