Quote:
Originally Posted by gunnut
But at what cost?
|
more like at what profit. If America is the one to develop efficient and affordable carbon scrubbers for coal plants, new reactor technology, new automotive technologies etc we can sell them to other nations.
Quote:
|
I'm not saying we should have wanton pollution of our environment. I'm saying the current hysteria will make people jump into immature technology with needless government mandates that do nothing but hamper real progress.
|
Mandates are a two edged sword thats for sure. the current pressure to use corn alone as a bio fuel is a building disaster as a case in point. But the other side of the blade is when we need mandates because industry has failed to respond like lead in gasoline and paint. It seems to me the Government does not do best when saying you must use a certain technology, but when we can no longer use old technologies. lets mandate the death of new gasoline only cars in 10 years and let the market find its replacement. lets mandate that coal fired power plants must shut down in 10 years unless they reduce emissions by 90% and let the market find a solution.
Over the past 10 years the US has seen a decrease in per capita emission, all without signing the stupid Kyoto Protocol. People take it upon themselves to spend a little bit more money for a little bit extra efficiency. We see a huge adoption of hybrid vehicles. We see small cars making a come back. People started using compact florecent bulbs. All of these things people did out of their own free will with no government mandate. That's progress. Government mandates will just rush us into problems after problems. Why do we rely so much on coal fire power plants? Because nuclear was banned by environmentalists in the 1970s. I fully blame the tree huggers for the so called global warming problem right now.[/quote]