longoil

Alternative Energy Storage for Global Warming Agnostics

While I sincerely hope that Obama will seriously address the issue of energy independence after Jan 19 2009, one only has to look at a few of the talking points on his official energy plan to see we are in a heap of trouble. I don't see any energy storage plans on his energy policy, just a lot of pandering.

1) Enact a Windfall Profits Tax to Provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American Families.
>>> This will cause oil companies to spend even less money on exploration & production and cause oil prices to rise even higher in the long run.

2) Swap Oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Cut Prices.
>>>All the oil in the SPR could supply the USA for 40 days at most.

3) Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.
>>> How does having heavy energy users in the USA paying carbon tax credits to other countries that have less strict carbon emission standards than the USA solve anything ? In fact, it will cause them to reduce production and aggravate the economic downturn further. Encouraging alternative energy usage via tax credits would be a much better strategy.