Lego Government. Let's Build Our Own

I'm not sure I even understand the concept of our nascent government "endorsing" this or that type of energy. I would advocate working to price all forms of energy such that we take into account--as accurately as possible--all negative externalities of their use; then let consumers choose their energy sources based on what they perceive to be in their own best interests.

Re: Lego Government. Let's Build Our Own


I do not want to rely on fossil fuel. I do not want the oil barrons monopolizing the energy field in attempt to extinquish the competition. I want clean, inexpensive energy. I want to support research and technology that will launch us into a new era where the phrase "energy crisis" has no meaning.

I want to support research and technology that will develop an "energy pack" that will power an automobile or personal transport vehicle for a 100 years (or more) without ever needing to be replaced.

I want all appliances, computers, etc., to come with a built-in power source that lasts the lifetime of the product so that we may permanently eliminate electrical cords and electrical outlets.

I want our homes to be completely self-sufficient for our daily energy requirements for heating, cooling, lighting, etc., and eliminate monthly utility bills.

I want a LOT.

Good place to start, Scrat. Should the government finance research and if so into what areas would you support funding? Should it be left to private industry?

Debra - That's the beuty of a fake government. It can be the best of everything we want.

Debra, Imagine how many people you want to put out of work...

McG - Imagine how many people would be placed into new, better tech, higher paying, safer jobs.

Could be, Is it ok to pursue this or will it be too distractive for this thread?

Re: Lego Government. Let's Build Our Own

What is keeping you from having it now?

I would allow the federal government to fund research only within the boundaries of its enumerated powers. Under our current constitution they could fund military research, for instance, but not medical research.

Please note that I'm not stating that the federal government shouldn't fund medical research, I'm stating that they should only have power to fund ANYTHING within the areas of their enumerated powers. If we wanted our nascent government to fund medical research, we'd better clearly lay out in our consitution what role that government will have in medicine.

Careful there hoss, someone'll call you reasonable... ;-)

I think the baby government (it needs a name) should encourage the R&D in cottage-energy... small power-plants that supply the needs of one home. It seems to me that we have lots of free energy potential -- from tides, from wind, from small streams and rivers. If people could take the costs of purchasing these small power -plants off of their taxes, there'd be a much greater interest in them.

What's the current effort of the administration in exploring the fields of 'clean' energy sources - waterpower, sunpower, windpower etc.?

You may have a point there Piffka. I have heard that wind is to inconsistent to provide electicity to masses of people, but I know some one who runs their whole house off of one medium sized wind mill. Some months the electric company actually buys excess electricity from them. Can you imagine getting a check from the electric company?

That, is one fear I don't have! at least not in these parts!

Re: Lego Government. Let's Build Our Own

Whatever energy forms happen to be available cheaply. To make the price of an energy source reflect its true cost, impose effluent taxes on pollutants, but leave it to the market to figure out the best tradeoff between cheapness and cleanness.


Whatever the universities feel like reasearching. It oughtn't be a political decision in my opinion.


Environment: Try to figure out how much people would be willing to pay to have a certain pollutant reduced, then impose it as an effluent tax. This will be a trial and error process, and I have no ready made answers for this. New technology: will take care of itself as long the patent system works, and the government stays off the researchers' back? (Did you know that the first e-mails violated the "terms of service" of the supercomputers involved?) Energy dependence: I wouldn't do anything about it. Foreign energy producers are just as dependent on American payments as American is dependant on their energy exports. Germany has hardly any oil at all; Japan has none. Both countries are doing fine.

You are welcome to pursue it as I would think it an important aspect of which forms of energy are used, developed, encouraged. Just try to keep it on topic for us. The idea is to alleviate the partisan bickering and come up with ideas we can all live with and feel good about.

We can try to develop energy that would be easy to use but how do you get it out to the regular person? When it comes to the environmentalist stand point we can't really use windmills because they would have to be put up areas where we have lots of wind and that would require cutting down trees and dotting our landscape with huge monstrosities. I have always been in full support of hydrogen fuel cell tech but it isn't that easy to put out. Fuel cells would be the perfect solution for what a few have said here. The deal is how do we make it cheap enough so that the average consumer can afford it? Sure we could provide incentives to consumers but at what cost? Private companies provide all the energy in the US, do we make our system a semi socialist economy?

Re: Lego Government. Let's Build Our Own


I want whirled peas

Fuel cells require hydrogen, hydrogen requires energy to produce...