I always like a few photos with my News, so I flipped through my personal photo archive to try to find a few photos, reminiscent of today's topic. I hope you enjoy them.
First some retrospectively good news ...
Obama has Nearly Quadrupled Renewable Energy on Public Lands
by Susan Kraemer, CeanTechnica.com -- December 31, 2011
[...]
All the renewable energy ever permitted on public lands totaled 1,800 MW by the end of 2008. In the last two years, the Department of the Interior has approved 6,600 MW of new projects.
[...]
These include 16 solar projects, 4 wind farms and 7 geothermal plants. A boost in staff capable of reviewing renewable energy permits resulted in the much faster pace of approvals, according to Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar.
The uptick in clean energy permits marks a real change in US energy on government-owned land. Public lands have traditionally been approved for oil and gas leases which generate federal revenues of between $5 billion and $6 billion a year. To get an idea of the scale of this change, the total for the two years of Obama renewable energy projects approved will generate just under $1 billion a year to the federal coffers: $786 million annually.
This is one very positive upward trend-line for renewable energy on our Public Lands, especially when you consider how long the "oil and gas industries" have been at this business, of harvesting The Commons, for their own personal profit.
Just give the "renewable energy" companies 100+ years of harvesting and imagine how much they will add to the Federal Income stream. It could be something very much worth some serious investing in especially if you consider the many hidden costs that go along with our never-ending ever-more difficult quest for fossil fuels.
-- Sunset, Alpine glow, Mt Hood, OR
As one industry "sunsets", isn't it Nature's way to provide a suitable alternative?
Afterall the resources that Nature provides, are in some ways limitless -- bound only by our lack of vision to harness them.
There's the largely untapped thermal resource of the Earth itself:
-- Fuming breach, Mt St Helens, WA
-- Breach view, Mt St Helens, WA
-- Firehole River, Geo-thermal Pool, Yellowstone, WY
There's the constantly circulating resource of rivers of the Wind:
-- Jet Stream, Mt Hood, OR
-- Racing clouds, from Mt Hood, OR
-- Windswept shore, Lookout Point, OR
And my perennial favorite, the very underutilized of Nature's power sources, the Fire of the Sun:
-- Sunset, Bandon beach, OR
-- Sunset, Cannon beach, OR
Without its unbounded energy, would any of us even be here, to debate ... just what energy resource is worth striving for, worth fighting for, and ultimately worth building a habitable world around?
Perhaps, it's long past time we take a few cues from Nature, and commit to make serious use of its many grand storehouses of renewable energy ...
-- Canyon Sunset, Sequoia National Park, CA
... before it's too late to switch. It could be time to begin to let go of our very oily past. And reach for what will ultimately replace it ... the Fates willing.
NOTE: All photos are for illustrative purposes of Earth, Wind, and Fire only. The areas shown are NOT intended targets of specific Energy Projects. I support environmental review and the appropriate approval processes, before any natural resource is tapped.
Thank you for your time and retrospective attention.
-- All Photos in this post are by jamess