Universal Huckleberry

Will Pickens' Scrapped Project Slow Wind Energy Momentum?

Joseph, did you know that the oil industry is responsible for generating approximately $1.5 trillion in tax revenue for governments at the Federal, State and Local levels? That's a darn good return on investment for the paltry $56 billion they receive in subsidies.

I hold several "green" investments, but I am not so delusional as to think that renewable energy companies, most of which are years if not decades away from profitibility, are even close to being capable of replacing that tax revenue. Having the technology is one thing, but's a completely different matter to be able to implement that technology from the standpoint of economics. I think that was the whole point of this article, and was certainly at the root of Pickens' decision.


On Jul 09 05:54 PM JosephN wrote:

> Lucius, Did you know Oil is one of the most heavily subsidized energy
> industries in the united states.
>
> In fact, nearly all energy industries are subsidized by the government.
> Except many of the renewable forms, like geothermal which just got
> some help this year for the first time. Or Wind, which they take
> away the subsidies and give them back every couple of years.
>
> Personally I would love to see Oil and Coal companies lose all their
> subsidies and that money go to future energy tech.

The Differences Between Chinese and U.S. Economic Recoveries

I'm just a simple man, I can't offer any fancy charts or graphs.

But from a common sense viewpoint I'd have to say that the biggest difference, with regards to stimulus spending, between the US and Chinese "economic recoveries" is that we are financing our $787 billion expenditure with DEBT while the Chinese are paying for their $600 billion with CASH- a good chunk of which is from our interest payments to them.

When you just step back and think about that for a moment, squinting at the correlation between some squiggly lines on a chart seems rather insignificant, doesn't it?