Water vs. Gold

I was at lunch a few weeks ago with someone and they said they were building wind generators in her town. I said, "that's fantastic!" And she said, "ZOMG, no, they're awful! They kill bats and make a noise all night long and I'm scared ice shards will fling off them and stab me when I go out to get in the car! Won't someone think of the children?!?" She was leading a coalition of NMBY activists.

We gave tax credits to a company in MA to make solar panels, a la Solyndra. They closed the plant and paid back the tax credits and opened up manufacturing in China because it was STILL cheaper. They get to have slave labor AND pollute the environment there, plus China controls the rare earth elements needed. As for "clean", here, read this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-grayson/eco-etiquette-how-green-a_b_554717.html

Let's see... hydrodams occasionally burst and kill everyone downstream, plus all the ones that can reasonably be sited already have been.

Burning biomass creates carbon in the atmosphere and fine particulates that are bad for lungs.

Which clean energy were you thinking of?

Funny, that last reply was BEFORE I read that link you had about the solar industry.

I was not aware that it had been polarized into a Rep/Dem thing (but that doesn't surprise me.) I think it sort of misses the point, though: the Chinese have the competititve advantage both from labor costs and access to rare earth elements. The trade balance was only in our favor when Europe was subsidizing buying them from us.

Here's an article that sums up most of what I know about Evergreen. (I do know a little bit more: we were allowed a state grant if we bought evergreen panels and it was STILL cheaper for me to buy chinese panels when I bought mine. Although in the end I bought some used panels and I don't remember where they're from.)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-15/evergreen-solar-seeks-bankruptcy-protection-with-debt-of-486-5-million.html