Too bad that charging batteries is one of the least efficient uses of energy possible. IIRC it requires about three times the energy stored to actually charge a battery. So you’d basically be left with the choice of having your residential solar array provide power to your house during the day, but leave you in the dark. Or you could go without power during the day, but have electricity at night. I suppose if you’re lucky enough to live near the CA coast then you could use your solar during the day, then have wind power at night.

“Solar power produces energy at peak use times.”

That actually depends on where you live and the time of year. In winter the sun is already setting during peak power demand.

Of course not.

Well, except for that post Oliver did a few weeks back about the oil spill in New Orleans that he claimed was a harbinger of things to come if we allowed for more drilling.

Most folks would probably hire someone to do that.

Grrr…..

Ah, you mean by putting the social safety net in the hands of private industry, like the mortgage industry?

Right, right. I’ll just inflate my tires and fill my tank up with some “hope and change.” Heard “hope and change” get 100 mpg.

And what should we do with the other oil rigs — just shut’em down?

Brilliant. You should be energy czar.

If only we had some way to store energy captured during the day.

And Mr. Tea, you forgot the irony quotes on Social Security “reform.”

Oil Rig disasters http://www.oilrigdisasters.co.uk/

Solar power produces energy at peak use times. There is a growing business model called PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) where a solar energy company places their equipment on a business building and then sells the power at discount to that business.

Point the Second: The Dems say “no to everything” on issues like “social security reform” because “social security reform” is code for “we want to destroy every last vestige from that pinko sumbitch FDR”.

This magical thinking that we can just invent the “perfect” source of energy is plain dewy-eyed optimism. Just as you, I am sure, have a balanced portfolio of investments to help spread the risk, we should also have a balanced portfolio of energy. The difference may be that as we find one source that seems to be sustainable and has all the other advantages we like, we can slowly increase our holdings in that source.

And BTW, I would leave my energy future up to the “whims” of a tropical storm over the “whims” of al gore any day. A tropical storm might accidentally ruin my life, Al Gore is trying to do it deliberately.

It’s a philosophy like that that got us the Iraq War. It’s a good personal policy, but one that doesn’t work too well in national policy making.

And JWG brought up a point I’m ashamed to admit I missed — I’d love to see how much oil has been spilled by tankers versus drilling rigs. I can recall exactly one drilling-related disaster in the last 40 years versus numerous oil tanker disasters (Exxon Valdez, anyone), but I am hardly an expert.

My position is “try everything.” The Democrats’ position seems to be “find a way to say no to everything.” It’s the same tactic they use on other issues they’d like to avoid, like Social Security reform.

J.

You can’t be this dumb. It’s just an act, right?

Yes, hurricanes wouldn’t be a problem in the west. So? Only half the off-coast rigs aren’t enough to valuable in the discussion?

Here’s another: is Oliver calling for closing down all oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico?

Not sure if he’d advocate that position, but he hasn’t said that. Not even implied it. What he has said is that we ought not put all our eggs in oil’s basket, and – I’m assuming – start using more of the alternative technologies we have now. Which is a fine point.

ed, can you confirm that solar energy isn’t very energetic at night?

Here is just one article about how this is being solved.

Here’s another: is Oliver calling for closing down all oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico?

duh nailed it. “teh stoopid,” indeed.

J.

How about the effects of hurricanes on windmills? Deleterious I hear.

And how many innocent people will have to die falling off roofs installing solar panels before we stop the insanity!

Truly, the level of teh stoopid is becoming asymptotic in Olivers writing….I mean, it almost can’t get any worse.