The US should sell it’s environmental technology to China and rest of world.

Amen to that. American coal-fired power plants are nearly twice as efficient as Chinese coal plants, meaning that if we sold our coal technology to China, they could get the same power from half as much coal (and emit half as much CO2), and American companies would make money and create jobs.

Even so, the simple solution would be Carbon Sequestering, such as with Bio-Char.

Carbon Sequestering is thus far unproven technology, and compression costs to reach “supercritical” pressures could add 30 to 40% to the cost of coal-generated electricity. Even a representative of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection told me that Carbon Sequestering is about 20 years from being economically viable.

One of the by-products of any gas compression process is heat, which is usually thrown away to the atmosphere or cooling water. Such heat is usually available at relatively low temperatures such as 150 to 200 F, which is too cold to make steam, but warm enough to heat water, which could eventually be used to heat houses in winter.

If the government wanted to incentivize carbon sequestration, it could allow power plants to SELL waste heat in the form of hot water piped into homes or office buildings in winter, in competition with natural-gas or heating-oil suppliers. This would require a contractual arrangement with local governments for building the hot-water pipes from power plants to inner-city buildings and private homes, to be at least partially borne by the power companies, but this could enable free-market forces to take advantage of “waste heat” to reduce overall fossil-fuel consumption. Current environmental regulations do not allow power companies to SELL hot water to communities, so the heat is now routinely thrown away.

Such schemes have been successfully implemented for decades in Scandinavian countries, which do not have much fossil-fuel resources and high home-heating requirements.

“Being confronted with the possibility of higher energy bills, wind farms down the road and new nuclear power stations encourages people to question everything about climate change,” she said.

New nuclear power stations? Bring them on!

How about some new nukes over here, Barry O?

But on the whole, Brits are so sick of the mess the left has made on their country that Labour does not stand a hope in hell and I’d put a large sum on that.

Sharke on November 15, 2009 at 12:25 PM

I wish your gamble well, but I’m not yet persuaded to join you in placing that bet.

For me, the most notable thing about the Conservative party is that, despite the depth and breadth of the unpopularity of the government, the Conservatives are still failing to impress anyone except their own cheerleaders. Throughout the past 12 years the breathtaking malice and incompetence of the Labour party government has been matched in value only by the unprincipled bungling of the official opposition party which has spectacularly failed to oppose pretty much anything.

Labour were already deeply unpopular in 2001 and 2005 yet still won those elections.

There remains plenty of time for the Conservatives to make themselves look even worse than they presently do and if, as a consequence of their impotence and sterility, the opposition vote gets split amongst several parties then I fear that Labour might yet hold enough parliamentary seats to retain power.

Maybe there’s still hope for the Brits.
beachgirlusa on November 14, 2009 at 11:38 AM

I think there is much reason for cautious hope.

As might be expected, the loudest voices in politics and the media in the UK are self-congratulatory members of the sneering classes whose acquaintance with the processes of rational thought is only by hearsay and whose incessant babbling and chanting drowns-out anything that might contradict the group-think slogans that they ignorantly mistake for evidence and reasoning.

Apathy, along with the sheer scope and momentum of the liberal and socialist onslaught in all areas of life, have caused subscribers to opposing viewpoints to become isolated and disorganised; they have not yet found any loud or coherent voice nor provided any substantial political opposition, nor has any credible person arisen to champion their many causes.

Given the lack of prominent opposition, it might superficially appear therefore that the whole of the UK has gone ‘soft in the head’ and succumbed to the liberal malaise but, while there is no justification for complacency, the truth is much more complex and slightly more comforting.

ven at this stage of the lumbering disaster that is the socialist Labour government of the UK, the Labour party still has a fighting chance of winning the next election because “David Cameron … is no better”, in all sorts of ways.

YiZhangZhe on November 15, 2009 at 12:00 PM

I wouldn’t be too sure. Brits are currently divided into three: dumbos who will vote Labour their whole lives because it’s a family tradition, those who believe that the Conservatives will always be better (by varying degrees) and those who think both Labour and the Tories are full of sh’t but hey, why not give the Tories a chance just for a change because they couldn’t possibly be worse than New Liebour. Lifelong lefty Michael Caine has just announced his allegiance to this category.

The majority fall within the last two groups. There are some die hard areas of the UK in which Labour will always win, Glasgow being one of them. But on the whole, Brits are so sick of the mess the left has made on their country that Labour does not stand a hope in hell and I’d put a large sum on that.

Sadly, David Cameron of the Tories is no better.

Alas, I must agree.

And he’s up next.
S. Weasel on November 14, 2009 at 10:59 AM

For better or worse this is not yet guaranteed. Even at this stage of the lumbering disaster that is the socialist Labour government of the UK, the Labour party still has a fighting chance of winning the next election because “David Cameron … is no better”, in all sorts of ways.

Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at the Met Office, said that growing awareness of the scale of the problem appeared to be resulting in people taking refuge in denial.

“The people are too dumb to think for themselves so we will do it for them.”

Bishop on November 14, 2009 at 11:15 AM

Dude, that is exactly what I heard. Whoa.

It’s a get rich quick scheme, and only a few are allowed to profit from it. Al (private plane) Gore leads the charge!

Knowing more about the problem creates … denial? Opposition is really therefore support, you see.

…and we have always been at war with Eastasia.

Ed, love that line!

You have to appreciate the Orwellian cant

You bet! I broke out laughing.
Ed, you have become a real believer in the last couple of years. Congratulations.

/s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v00dClFASPM

Because they’re actually going down.

Riposte on November 14, 2009 at 11:07 AM

Yeah..but they’re not going down down.
/s