Solar plants are cheaper than fossil fuel plants--will conservative coal huggers please shut up now?? (via @io9.com)

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/jPaTWAyrgI/

From the io9 post, a Minnesota judge sums up his findings in why a solar-based plan for energy generation in Minnesota should move forward:

"[T]hese proposals offer competitively-priced energy generation; at firm prices; the fewest new environmental impacts; and significant protections against the imposition of project cancellation costs....[I]t bears mentioning that this procurement represents an important turning point in Minnesota's energy resource planning process. Since 1991, Minnesota has had a statutory preference in favor of renewable energy sources. Yet, that preference is overridden when the nonrenewable source has a lower total cost. Notwithstanding the statutory preference, it seemed that nonrenewable energy sources always won the head-to-head cost comparisons. Not anymore. Geronimo entered this bidding process as the sole renewable technology and beat competing offerors on total life-cycle costs."

The fact that the sun is a giant ball of never ending energy that is hurling insane amounts of said energy at us all day long yet all rich energy companies can do is keep digging in the ground (presumably where they hide their heads) tells us that these rich companies have entirely too much power and our politically leaders are entirely corrupt. The fact that we still need to have this conversation in the 21st century is absurd. The sun is a source of essentially limitless energy. Why the fuck do we still let these asshole oil companies tell us where we'll get our energy from? Wars are fought in the Middle East for oil. Terrorism is used to fight corrupt governments in Africa because of oil. So much death and pain, all for oil. All the sun has ever done is cause some skin cancer. Meanwhile, it's thes ource of all life. But no, lets keep digging for oil.

But why do we keep digging for oil? Simple. Our political leaders let it happen. They take money from corporations to keep the old ways going. Well here is proof that the old ways are the wrong ways. At least, when it comes to energy production.

Read the whole io9 post: http://io9.com/why-solar-power-is-more-cost-effective-than-natural-gas-1497305827

The way we’ll all be getting around in the future?  From discoverynews:

Poo-Fueled Motorcycle

The country’s leading toilet maker, TOTO, has created Toilet Bike Neo, a talking hybrid toilet-motorcycle that runs entirely on — you guessed it — human waste.

Read more

Is that a toilet seat flipped up?  So, you literally use it as a toilet???  Well, as long as it comes with some sort of privacy shield, I suppose it’s fine. I mean, how embarrassing that would be!  You’re zooming down the highway when suddenly you run out of fuel.  NO PROBLEM!  You had Mexican food for lunch!  So, you just pull over and start to, uh, refuel, and then you get arrested for indecent exposure!!

I sometimes wonder about these “scientists”. :|

Cheney & Energy Task Force Plotted Iraq pre911

So, as I've said recently, I'm slowly catching up on my podcasts. One podcast I don't like to miss is the audio version of "Bill Moyer's Journal" on PBS (site: http://www.pbs.org/…rs/journal podcast (audio): http://www.pbs.org/…odcast.xml podcast (video): http://feeds.feedburner.com/bmjvodcast ). I was listening to the episode from June 27, 2008 when Moyers started talking about the war in Iraq. My gut instinct was to assume he was going to go on about how it was all for the oil and run the typical blood-for-oil argument you hear from so many people. Which is pretty much what he started to do. I immediately thought to myself "Yeah, but Bill, where's your hard evidence?"

That's a question I've asked many times of anti-war folks. Usually I just get the answer "it's obvious!" or "You really think we'd be in Iraq if there wasn't oil there?"

Of course, they're right, but what really connects Cheney to a oil-motivation?

Well, for once, a person quoting the blood-for-oil argument (BOA) actually had some evidence to back it up. The above screencap is part of it. And what's really messed up about this is that the above screencap comes from a press release dated July 17, *2003* (see the original page here: http://www.judicialwatch.org/…d-pr.shtml ).

Now, maybe I missed it in the cacophony of crap the Bush Administration was puulling at the time (back in July of '03 we'd only been in Iraq for four months). Regardless, what Judicial Watch found is downright damning.

If you look at the above cap, you'll see that they say: "Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under court order as a result of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.” The documents, which are dated March 2001, are available on the Internet at: www.JudicialWatch.org."

Yeah, that's right, *before* 911, Cheney was eyeing maps of oilfields in Iraq. Why would Cheney need to know where oil was in Iraq while planning for America's energy future? Sure, we could give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was just learning as much as he could about "our energy partner in the middle east," or some such crap they might spew to excuse maps being there (and not just say charts of oil output and other less visual aids), but after all that has happened, I can't imagine that he was doing anything but looking at those maps and thinking "yeah, we gotta secure that shit."

Especially considering the growing concern in 2001 that the world's peak oil limit might be approaching. "Peak Oil" is the theory that the Earth will produce more and more oil until it begins to run out--production will peak--then, we, as a planet, will start to run out and prices will climb. That last bit sounds familiar, doesn't it?

I heard about this theory for the first time in 2003, I believe. There was a December 2000 talk given by an oil expert called CJ Campbell, a guy who worked for oil companies, helping them find oil. You'd assume he'd be aware of just how much oil was left on the planet. (You can read a blog post I wrote about it here: http://thepete.com/…o-run-out/ )

So, there Cheney was, just a few months after Campbell's talk, chatting over energy policy with maps of oil fields in Iraq--before the 911 Attacks, before invading Afghanistan, before invading Iraq.

Am I reading into things? Maybe. But I can't help but wonder why Cheney and friends would withhold these maps from Judicial Watch when they first asked for them in April of 2001. Check out something else from the above screencapped press release: "Judicial Watch has been seeking these documents under FOIA since April 19, 2001. Judicial Watch was forced to file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Department of Energy, et al., Civil Action No. 01-0981) when the government failed to comply with the provisions of the FOIA law. U.S. District Court Judge Paul J. Friedman ordered the government to produce the documents on March 5, 2002."

So, in 2002, a judge ruled that effectively Cheney had violated the law by keeping these documents from JW. I wonder why they would have done that.

Shades of things to come.

Mobile post sent by thepete using Utterz.  Replies.