This is an interesting article from Monday’s Wall Street Journal
It discusses the pros and cons of subsidies. I mean someone had to be on this blog making the case against subsidies.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444032404578008183300454400.html?KEYWORDS=renewable+energy
2 Comments
Ali posted on October 10, 2012 at 9:34 pm
I saw this article when I was writing my essay. They make some good points on why subsidies may not be needed, but one part in particular stood out:
“The current name on the board is China. This is an economic role model? China’s per capita income ranks 92nd in the world. Yes, China’s economy has grown dramatically in recent decades, but only because they moved toward freer markets—that is, toward an economy a little more like ours. In any event, China’s total carbon-dioxide emissions are skyrocketing. Whatever they may be doing with wind and solar power pales in comparison with what they are doing with coal-fired electricity.”
China’s wind industry is one of the fastest growing – but the only reason why coal is so popular there is because they had coal power plants way before cost-effective wind power technology was introduced. Also, China has one of the largest coal reserves in the world (the US has more), so they would be more inclined to use domestic resources. However, after introducing subsidies and cost-effective wind turbines, China is expanding it’s energy production AND job market.
pmoy posted on November 28, 2012 at 5:41 pm
I would take the arguments against subsidies with a grain of salt after reading this:
” Broad agreement that man-made carbon-dioxide emissions warm the Earth doesn’t mean we are headed to environmental catastrophe. Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for instance, projects a sea-level rise of about seven to 24 inches over the next century—not 20 feet”
Saying that a global sea-level rise of even only 7 inches is not an “environmental catastrophe” is ignorant. It’s not just houses being destroyed that we need to worry about, but also climate change and destruction of ecosystems that, yes, can occur with 7 inches more of sea. For instance, from 1870 to 2004 (the end of the industrial revolution through the development of modern technology) sea levels haven’t even risen 7 inches, and yet already the United Nations reports humans are causing the greatest mass extinction in 65 million years. Studies report that only 10% of large ocean fish remain and 25% of all mammal species on the planet face extinction in just the next 30 years. And we’re talking another 7 inches? Let alone the higher end of that estimate.
While this may seem off-topic to a wind energy blog, it goes to show that we do in fact need to develop and support alternative sources of energy, seeing as carbon dioxide and CFCs released by humans are the main factors in global climate change. We actually do face a large challenge, and ignoring it, like the writer of that article does, because it doesn’t personally threaten ourselves is ridiculous.