Day: November 19, 2006

Renewable vs Nonrenewable Energy

The real point is that Energy Independence for the US is just not enough — we must instead have energy abundance for the entire world. We do not want to be the lone island of energy wealth in a sea of misery, and it’s a simple formula for strife unending if we take that path.

Please take a stop by Anthonares for an interesting new study from Rand, as well as some good analysis. The study is cost comparison/future projection between renewable and nonrenewable energy prices and essentially concludes that it will be a wash.

Personally, I don’t think cost comparision studies are needed anymore — the days of exploration for new technologies for energy are really over. Anyone doing cost comparisons is jockeying for government grants, not implementing a real solution.

There are many viable energy alternatives, and we will need them all. We can also build them all now. Capitalism will do the rest once the wind, hyrdo, nuclear, and geothermal farms are built.

The real point is that Energy Independence for the US is just not enough — we must instead have energy abundance for the entire world. We do not want to be the lone island of energy wealth in a sea of misery, and it’s a simple formula for strife unending if we take that path. 

Pakistan Update II

cartoon1121.jpgFor some interesting analysis of the political impact of the passage of the Women’s Protection Bill (WPB) in Pakistan please see this article.

ISLAMABAD – Whether by design or coincidence, the political undertones of the Women’s Protection Bill were never in doubt. The timing, both on occasion of introduction of the bill in September and now its adoption by the assembly, could not have been so cut out to perfectly suit the General-President to whom it has provided reprieve from extremely dicey situations. It has also set in motion the most tantalizing albeit dangerous, options for Gen. Musharraf, besides creating a framework of new political permutations and alignments.
In the immediate future it has caused a grievous vertical rupture in the body politic of the country, the politicians and political parties of all hues and colour, including the king’s party. The combined opposition is in utter disarray; the dream of a grand alliance lays completely shattered; the groupings like ARD and MMA face split down the line among components and within the component parties. In the calculus of gains and losses, Musharraf, for the time being, appears gloriously triumphant, having achieved even unintended objectives.

Passage of the bill has put the government of Pakistan into a chaotic maelstrom — what comes out the other side will be interesting to see. For now, Musharraaf and the PPP have splintered and torn assunder opposition alliances between ARD  and the fundamentalist party, MMA.

Continue reading “Pakistan Update II”