Horace Heffner wrote:
Solar energy production at a public utility level is not only feasible, but available now if the government red tape preventing projects of the size proposed can be eliminated.
Government red tape may be a problem now. I wouldn't know. But the first large-scale solar thermal projects in the U.S. were built by Luz. That company was bankrupted and destroyed by the power companies, not the government. The power companies forced them to build projects on a scale too small to be profitable.
Government is not always the problem. Industry has plenty to answer for. GM destroyed its own electric car business without help or hindrance from the government, and then drove itself into bankruptcy with incompetent management. No U.S. corporation is doing cold fusion research now as far as I know. If cold fusion prevails this will be seen as the worst management decision in history. Some people blame the leadership of the DoE for this, but industry often ignores DoE initiatives and opinions. You don't see industry going along with the DoE in plasma fusion, for example. And why can't industry take its cue from the Navy rather than the DoE? All in all, the government has done more for cold fusion than any other U.S. institution.
- Jed
