John McCain Lays Out His Energy Plan

Most of it is fairly solid and includes all the obvious such as more domestic exploration for oil and gas, clean coal technology, and nuclear power. Now if we could just get him to shut up about cap and trade schemes that are bound to be riddled with bureaucratic boondoggles and the corresponding corruption that anything involving government regulation usually entails. Europe has enacted cap and trade policies and has failed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions as much as the US has since the Kyoto Accord, they are signees, we are not but somehow we are still cleaner than they are without the overly costly regulatory burden. The free market works as demand for clean technology increases, research and development expands in order to increase supply.
I have priced solar power for the barnyard since I get ample sun living in the Sacramento valley and a southern facing roofline but right now it would cost about $17,000 and that would take about 30 years to pay for itself so it is not worth it. I did put state of the art insulation in my attic, the same as used in space suits, and that has helped cut my air conditioning bill in half. The technology in solar power is advancing rapidly as demand grows and possibly in a very few years the cost vs benefit line will be crossed so that it makes fiscal sense to install a solar power system. I would love to be off the grid and not subject to the whims of politicians seeking to regulate us out of the cheap energy provided by coal burning plants. Eventhough I do not buy into the global warming scam I am all for clean and green technology that limits actual pollution, carbon dioxide is no more a pollutant than dihydrogen monoxide, oxygen or nitrogen are and all are vital natural gasses in our atmosphere that keeps us alive. In case you are wondering dihydrogen monoxide, H2O, has a far stronger warming influence than carbon dioxide as anyone that lives in a humid climate can attest to. Heck right now there are so many wildfires burning in California it has the effect of filtering out direct sunshine and is keeping the temperatures below normal for this time of year. Those fires are also putting more carbon into the air than industry or SUVs ever will but that is another subject where the environuts have also been totally wrong for the past fifty years.