[ExI] How Electricity Became a Luxury Good

[Omar Rahman]

Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2013 06:26:11 -0700
From: "spike" <spike66 at att.net>
>> 
>> ... On Behalf Of Mirco Romanato
> ...
>> Former Environment Minister J?rgen Tritten of the Green Party once 
>> claimed that switching Germany to renewable energy wasn't going to 
>> cost citizens more than one scoop of ice cream... Mirco
> 
> ...
> Green energy will be expensive, it will not be green, but we will employ it
> anyway, because we will gradually run out of alternatives, and yes we need
> energy, lots of it.
> 
> Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, can you find anything
> in the previous sentence which you would dispute?
> 
> spike

This is such a sensible statement that I am dumfounded, it's like finding an ice sculpture in the middle of a forest fire. (Or flame war!)

Energy production will be become more expensive in the short term in the only currency that matters; energy invested. Food prices will go up if the transition is not managed gracefully. People will react as they always have to food prices going up. But, in the long run, switching to renewables for our day to day living makes a lot of sense, no more drilling through thousands of meters of rock, no more fighting wars to control the ground where the fossil fuels are; the energy comes to you.

The oil industry began on land where the oil was literally seeping out of the ground and ever since then the EROEI has been going up. If we factor in the costs of the wars to maintain control of various oil patches the cost of oil is really quite high.

I've written more but I'll try to match Spike's bravery: regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, can you find anything in my previous sentences which you would dispute?

Omar
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