Google, outed last year by Harpers as “an energy glutton that is only growing hungrier,” wants the U.S. to invest $4.5 trillion to get off fossil fuels and onto new fuels which would ultimately lower the cost of electricity so that Google could make more money. Squirrel Boy doesn’t come right out and say that, however, because, um, I guess the idea of a wildly profitable $20 billion energy hog demanding that taxpayers solve its energy cost problems might come off as, well, evil. Instead Schmidt wraps himself in the flag and says the plan, called Clean Energy 2030, is all about solving the energy crisis and ending global warming and saving puppies and orphans. He argues that since the government seems willing to write a $700 billion check to solve the financial crisis, well, hey, let’s raise the urgency level on energy and tap the government for another big check to create new energy sources, seeing as how they’re in a spending mood and all.
Dude, look. I’m sure the cost of electricity is cutting into your profits. And I’m sure you’ve done some modeling that shows how bad that could potentially get in five or ten years. But come on. One crisis at a time, okay?
Thats one big dude!
Dan Dan Dan Dan,
.
Are you aware that US Energy policy has been dysfunctionally faith based for the last eight years? The mantra has been “keep government out, let private enterprise take care of it.” That hasn’t worked too well, has it? (See $700B of outgoing capital headed to hostiles.)
.
So, Google (a public free enterprise company) suggests a rational plan with attractive ROIs for our nation to undertake and what do you do?
.
Bitch bitch bitch. Why don’t you get off your ass and say something constructive; even something critically constructive. No one likes whiners and your whining, while funny as fakeSteve, wears thin here.
.
JMHO, but doesn’t Exxon Cheney argue only for drill drill drill? Seems like that might be something you could also be critical about.
(I have to admit I whine about that a bit myself.).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlK62rjQWLk
Don’t you all see it? Google may be a global, evil empire. But it’s for your best. Just let them handle it and you’ll be fine. Everything will be little, fluffy bunnies. With candy. And Flowers. What’s good for Google is good for you. And now shut up.
That’s the old pepper!
Seriously, Google can afford to build its own alternative energy farms. Windmills, solar cell arrays, four hundred thousand hamster wheels hooked to a dynamo – say, didn’t they actually buy a hydroelectric dam recently in Northern California or was it Oregon? Watch out folks, in fifteen years we may be buying alternative energy from these guys.
More scandalous are the tax breaks that Google wrings out of local governments to place its data centers there — breaks that generally don’t pay off in jobs and tax revenue.
I may be for alternative energy, but not for it to benefit 1 person at the expense of taxpayers. If they don’t like the cost of their electric bill, there are things they can do about it. Install some solar panels on their roof, install a few wind turbines, perhaps renovate to allow in more light, and to let out less heating and cooling. Or offset the costs of electricity by possibly saving rainwater to irrigate their lawn.
Screw Google!
- Barry
Dan, you’re falling off fast.
I mean, there’s so much news out there. Did you see for example who facebook hired as their general counsel? I mean, there’s so much fun to be had.
You’re such a hack, Dan.
Whether or not Google benefits from this hardly has an impact on whether this is a good idea or not. Is the only way not to act evil to act selflessly? Does Google actually have to be hurting itself to be good?
Of course Google is looking out for its own interest in this case. They’re not a charity organization. It just happens to be the interest of everybody else too, or so many would argue. I think that’s about as ‘good’ a company can be and still turn a profit.
I liked you better as FSJ.
- Adam
If these various boondoogles for ‘cow flatulence energy farms’, etc, made any economic sense, then the market would adopt it in a hearbeat.
What we have is opportunistic billionaires trying to push all the risk onto taxpayers, while keeping the benefit for themselves.
Eg:
T. Boone Pickens and his “natural gas initiative” that is going on the Calif ballot this Fall. Pickens _just happens_ to have large positions in natural gas development.
Al Gore trying to stop all coal electric power generation, even of the more-efficient “clean coal” technologies. Gore _just happens_ to be a major partner in Kleiner Perkins, a major investment/venture capital fund aggresively pushing into “green technologies”.
Vinod Khosla, another proselytizer managing a large investment fund, who also thinks taxpayers should subsidize his profit-making …
The entire solar-power “industry” would collapse if the Gov’t stopped giving away my tax dollars to them.
“Sir, the Watt is (solar) wafer thin.”
This is actually a good suggestion. I just look at it as a case of the blind Squirrel-boy finding a nut (as happens occasionally).
Have you checked your electricity bill lately? Delivery is more expensive than energy itself. I have not run the numbers yet, but is may be cheaper to run diesel generators in my back yard than to have energy “delivered” at the exorbitant price.
How to figure that out? Here is the idea I found through google
“Basically, you need to calculate the amount of energy contained in the fuel you use to produce a given amount of electrical energy. To calculate the amount of energy in the fuel you need to lookup the number of thermal energy units per unit volume then you can convert those thermal energy units into Joules (1 gallon [U.S.] of diesel oil = 146 520 000 joules – http://www.onlineconversion.com) The on the electrical side, just multiply the voltage by the current by the number of seconds of run time (unvarying load) to get the electrical power output in Joules. Then the efficiency is just the the output power divided by the input power (x100 for %). “
Sign that Dan is a true geek: Monty Python photo for the blog. Bokay, time for a rail off my left tit….. now where did I put that 8 ball…..
TomH says: “The entire solar-power “industry” would collapse if the Gov’t stopped giving away my tax dollars to them.”
As would the nuclear industry, the coal industry, and the oil industry, all of which receive more tax breaks, indirect and direct subsidies by an order of magnitude. To pretend to know which industry would come out on top once the magical “stop spending my tax dollars” fairy waved its wand and eliminates government support for automakers and highways, wars and defense contractors, is to miss the point. If we push the market in a direction that it is physically possible to move in, that is the direction it will eventually move. Or perhaps you think none of the things I just mentioned, which would not exist at all in the US without huge government write-offs, have any impact on which forms of energy become competitive and dominant.
What we need is a Google song:
“Google’s gonna fix it, Google’s gonna fix it, Google’s gonna make it good! Google, Google… For the change we all need!”
Come on, round up some kids, put them in Google shirts, go for it!
Thank you for high enjoyment blogging. Beautiful comeback of FSJ is a pleasurable sight.
YAWN.
very nice