Hey, let the price of gasoline get up around ten bucks a
gallon, and electric bills into solid five figures, and
people will be less concerned about the view.

Funny thing, that will drive up the desirability... and thus
the price... of places that still have some unspoiled nature.

It's like a merry-go-round.


Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:
So true, but it's very curious that, to me at least, we can come up
with something like a viable alternative to take the Vineyard off the
grid and everybody and their uncle who has a "view" says nope
including the very politicians who are ****ing and moaning about
energy policy.

It just seems counter-productive to me and very much in the vein of do
as I say, not as I do.


It's an extreme case of NIMBY. But it may be that their
wallets will eventually dictate otherwise (when the island
becomes uninhabitable for anybody who can't afford a $10k
electric bill); the other option is that the island will
become even more a preserve for the ultra-wealthy than it
already is. But then, where are their servants going to live?

To some extent, I can see the logic... property there is
*very* valuable and "the view" is part of what makes it so.
Will lower energy costs (and let's not forget about higher
reliability) make up for the drop in property values?




I get along with everybody. in the neighborhood.


Obviously you don't get along as well as all that, or your
neighbors would have shrugged and said "Gonna put up a
windmill to generate electricity? Cool."


And I pretty much get along with everybody here - except for you and I
suspect that is probably becasue we have two differing views of the
world.


Actually there are a number of people you seem to have
disagreements with... mostly liberals... but I seem to
invoke your ire to larger degree (and I take it as a
compliment that the facts & logic I present are actually
shifting your world view.... very very slightly).





The nation's leaders have been looking backwards, and mostly
investing in convincing as many people as they can that
"alternative energy" is for weirdos. Until the last couple
of months, that is. Suddenly they have stolen Al Gore's
energy playbook (although they still scream that Democrats
have no ideas).


I disagree, but that's for another time.


Go ahead, I'm listening.
Do you disagree that President Bush's ideas on a progressive
energy policy came largely from Al Gore's speeches from
1999? That is not just my opinion, it has been stated by
many conservatives, neo- and otherwise... stated
vociferously in some cases!

Do you disagree that the Bush-Cheney Administration has been
driving America backwards with regard to energy policy? That
seems to be indicated not only by President Bush's
about-face speech, but also by several statements made by
Vice President Cheney at several points in his career.
Practically his first utterances as CEO of Halliburton were
on the nature of geo-political shifts due to the necessity
of adapting policy to the realities of post-peak oil supply.

In other words, they not only have been driving backwards,
they've been doing it on purpose.

Go ahead and refute that if you can, I'd like to see it. In
fact, I'd like to see more good things about the Bush-Cheney
Administration, since it makes me unhappy to think that they
are not only a disaster but a deliberate one. However,
around election time, when I asked this question, all I got
was insults & abuse. At times, I get cynical enough to think
that *nobody* actually likes Bush & Cheney, or thinks that
they are doing a good job... they just support them because
1- in the case of many columnists & commentators, because
they're paid to and 2- because it's just so much fun to hate
hate hate libby-rulls.






There are guys out there making bio-diesel. Just gotta find
one in your area...


Nope. Not a one that I don't have to travel 150 miles round trip to
get to. Kinda counter productive.

I have thought of getting into the business myself, but I'm not at all
sure I could break even just selling the fuel.


At this point, there seem to be other motives than profit
and the business model seems to include free raw materials
(and as you say, it's better for the restaurants to give it
away than to pay to dispose of it). Looks to me like selling
to the public at-large is a money loser, at this point. But
for $8/gal? And that price level is coming!

I've read a lot of stuff about people making biodiesel. most
seem to be into it for their own use or for a co-op of small
businesses that have committed to it. But it's real, it
works, there is evidence that it's better for your engine!

DSK