Hippie Energy

There’s a certain set of commenters here who love to hate my energy posts because they say I oppose everything. That’s not true at all. I don’t fall in love with technologies or think they are the answer to most questions, which makes people uncomfortable even though virtually every technology should be critiqued. And when it comes to energy production, I am a huge supporter of wind and solar. I believe we need a massive federal program to expand our production of clean, renewable energy, understanding of course that every form of energy production has some kind of environmental downside and mitigating those downsides should be high priorities.

But of course the dirty energy industry opposes any kind of responsible energy policy and so do the Koch Brothers, who are leading the fight to increase taxes on solar energy production. Some of this is rich people and established industries protecting their preexisting economic interests in coal and

oil. But that’s far from all of it, especially among the politicians who may not directly profit from these companies. This is cultural and in 2014 the politics of resentment rule the day. Solar and wind energy–that’s hippie energy. Producing energy without destroying the climate is something that makes the Commiecrats happy and we can’t have that. If the libtards are crying, then we win.

So in a very real sense, energy policy is about what it means to be an American. Wind and solar can be as profitable as oil and coal. So it’s not really about the potential to make money. It’s about our relationship to other Americans and the world. Are we to be socially and ecologically responsible global citizens leading the way to a more sustainable future? Or can we just kill ’em all? The Republican Party certainly supports the latter.