RE: [Link] Great read on what Republicans / conservatives should do to win elections
What would be wrong with adopting a platform to do everything that makes technological and economic sense now, while continuing to research and develop technologies that offer promise for the future?
Things to do today:
- Build nuclear power generating plants. Right now, that is the only way to generate large amounts of carbon-free electricity. Adopt the French approach of developing the safest and most implementable technology, and replicating it over and over, rather than reinventing the wheel with each new plant.
- Convert the rail system back to electricity, like Europe. That is a much easier conversion than cars and trucks, because trains can get electricity from wires/hot rails as they go rather than having to take it with themselves in batteries.
- As power supplies grow to permit it, convert as many prime movers as possible to electricity.
- Adopt the Brazilian approach of sugar-cane-based ethanol, which is far more efficient than corn-based. In conjunction, start sugar cane production in Latin America as a way to generate more ethanol and also provide economic incentives for Caribbean/Central/South Americans not to immigrate in drives to the USA.
- Incentivize/subsidize energy conservation practices across the board.
Things to research and develop in future, include scope and infrastructure required:
- Improved battery/electric storage, as a way to make both electric cars and solar/wind generation more feasible.
- Improved electric transmission and distribution systems, including hardening systems against terror and hacking strikes.
- Develop further the German WWII technologies to convert coal to liquefy and gasify coal into cleaner-burning synthetic oil and gas. The problem as been that those processes generate large amounts of CO2, but point-source CO2 is much easier to capture that from widespread sources, and captured CO2 can be used for lift in oil and gas producing formations and other possible uses such as feeding kelp fields that can then produce biomass.
Set a goal that we will meet or exceed every one of our targets for emission reduction under the Paris accords, just like we did with Kyoto, while withdrawing from the bureaucratic nightmare of Paris, again just like we did for Kyoto.
ETA: One other thing that I would strongly support that may seem antithetical is increased domestic oil and gas production. I would not go into ANWR just yet, save it for a rainy day. And I wouldn't tap the SPR under anything less than wartime, instead fill it up as full as possible and sit on it as a safety net. But otherwise I would reverse everything that Biden did, and take further steps to enhance/increase production. Why? Two reasons: 1) USA domestic production is far less damaging to the environment than most foreign, including eliminating the transportation need. 2) Environmentalism is a rich person's game. The better off you are economically, the more you can find the incentive to support environmental measures. When you don't know where your next meal is coming from, you tend not to worry about the temperature of the planet in 2123. So keeping the economy robust is a key to building support for environmental measures, and domestic energy production is good for the economy.
(This post was last modified: 01-28-2023 11:49 AM by Owl 69/70/75.)
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[Link] Great read on what Republicans / conservatives should do to win elections
